Timed Out talks about the Gold League

Our Brazilian World of Tanks community is full of supportive players who are proud to be represented by an all-Brazilian team in Season 5 of the WGLNA.

Wargaming had the pleasure of conducting an interview with  GANDORFO, MattNight, SESD95, nipp100 and RaoulKinch from Timed Out Gaming, the famous Brazilian Gold League team, and chatting about the team, the League, the new 7/54 format, and also the loyal Brazilian community!

How did you form the team Timed Out?

SESD95: Basically, it was the joining of two teams, Game Over (-GO-) and Namenlos.

GANDORFO: We brought together the best Brazilian teams to create one even stronger one.

MattNight: The objective of joining the teams was to become the best Brazilian team, and we also intend on becoming the best South American team.

So, they were two teams that became one. What happened to those teams?

GANDORFO: They retired, or at least their names. 

MattNight: Basically. Some of those prior members of those teams formed another team called Packet Loss.

GANDORFO:  The people left over from those teams are now in the Bronze League. 

How did you decide on the name Timed Out?

MattNight: We wanted a name that could represent everyone. Something we all had in common was the quality of the Brazilian connection, one of the worst in the world, so we came up with a bunch of names and decided that Timed Out would be the most interesting.

SESD95: When you're logged into Team Speak and someone loses connection, the programmed voice says "user on your channel has timed out". One of the ideas came from that.

So, connection is one of the challenges that you face as a South American team in the Gold League. Is there something you do to help with the connection?

SESD95: Every time we're going to play World of Tanks, we restart the internet to be sure that there won't be any packet loss... but in general, we can only wait and hope that nothing goes wrong during the tournament. 

MattNight: What we can also do is fight with our internet providers to have the best possible connection. For example, I recently asked to change out all the wiring inside and outside my home. I have a pretty good interent plan (50Mb download / 5Mb upload), but there are times that I have problems.

How do you think your team is different from other teams? How is a Brazilian team different than an American or Russian team?

MattNight: The Russians are extremely aggressive and tactical. The Americans are more defensive and seem to favor playing with traps. We are more technical, for example, using positions that other teams wouldn't use as an advantage.

SESD95: But an important factor that makes us different is the ping and respond time in our game, compared to theirs. 

MattNight: Another thing is that Brazilians are creative on the battlefield, so never think that we will follow the standard way of playing. We can do crazy things that no one else would do, and pull it off. This is part of our daily routine, and we have to get better and create new ways of getting out of sticky situations. 

How do you prepare and train for your matches?

MattNight: We study the competition. Each one of them has their own style of play, and in this new format, it's difficult to get detailed information, so everything is new to everyone. So, we have to train, do what we can to adapt to whatever situation that comes up. 

GANDORFO:  This isn't exactly part of our team. For this season, we have trained very little.

MattNight: In response to what Gandorfo said: we didn't have a pre-season. And that is making the beginning of this season tough on us. We don't have the timing of the new format 7/54.

SESD95: Timing being the reaction time, knowing what to do and when to do it, with no one needing to give the order.

We don't have that timing because we're not used to this format yet. The old one was familiar, and we already knew what we needed to do in any situation.

What do you think of the new mode? Better or worse?

GANDORFO:  For us, it's worse.

MattNight: Personally, it's better. But for Brazilians in general, it's worse. Mostly because we are fighting with American teams that don't have the same problems with ping and packet loss. We have that disadvantage.

We were aggressive and like I said before, Americans are defensive and play with traps. What happens now is that everyone is aggressive and it's difficult to determine how aggressive the competition is going to be.

Do you think that's why you suffered those first defeats?

MattNight: Yes. We didn't have a pre-season necessary for us to adapt. In a championship where points are earned it's not good to lose. In the end, you have to go after the results and, maybe, it gets complicated. I'm not saying we're out of the playoffs, but it's not going to be easy to get there. 

How can you overcome this?

MattNight: Training, reviewing tactics, tanks and learning not only from our mistakes but from other teams from all regions.

We have good players, good leadership and good ideas. We just need to understand and have that timing of the new format to get our first victory.

SESD95: Learning from our mistakes from the beginning of the season, and understanding how the new format works. 

Only four teams will compete in the finals live in San Francisco, what are the odds that Timed Out is one of those teams?

nipp100: In my opinion, almost nothing, looking back at the beginning of the season.

MattNight: Anything can happen. A good example is that #RU (aka RUlette in the current season) was the worst team during the regular season and then ended up winning in the season 4 finals.

But I'm with Nipp. If nothing changes in the next 10 rounds, the chances are low, close to zero.

SESD95: I also think there is a low probability, but we're not giving up that easily. 

Which other teams do you think can make it to the finals?

MattNight:  It's still too early to tell.

nipp100: I'd say SIMP and -RU- can. The rest, who knows. 

MattNight: I'd prefer not to say any team at the moment. Starting at the 7th round, we could have an idea, but right now it's still a lottery. I know that there are strong teams and structure like in SIMP and Hammer Time, but I won't make any predictions just yet.

I saw your website and social media channels, and I liked them a lot! How do you plan on utilizing social media to promote your team and also Brazil?

SESD95: Everyone in Timed Out wants to promote our team, posting on our Facebook page and videos on our Youtube channel.

Before the start of the League, we were always streaming, platooning with MattNight or RaoulKinch. We already had our own Community Coordinator from the Portuguese forums, Capitão_Desastre_ participate as well.

MattNight:  In December, we stopped streaming a little to focus on other things, but in January we'll be back.

SESD95: All the Brazilian players support our team a lot, that I can be sure of.

MattNight: We also have the support of GiggMaster who has recently started his own Twitch channel and already has a good Brazilian audience. Then, there's also Taberna dos Bárbaros who is important to the World of Tanks scene in Brazil, with tips, tutorials and guides for beginners and more advanced players. All in all, Brazilians are helping each other out.

The Brazilian community isn't the largest on the server. We have our rivalries like all others (sometimes it seems bigger than it actually is), but in the end, we all have the same objective.

What objective is that?

MattNight:  We are fighting for a cluster that would offer better connection and quality of the game. We manage to compete in the Gold League with all these challenges, but I know that if we didn't have these problems, we would perform better.

I can also confirm that all the Brazilians active today in World of Tanks would appreciate it a lot, because sometimes it just gets impractical. 

What advice would you give a novice player who wants to improve their performance in game?

MattNight:  Pacience. Take it easy. The one who wins is not the one that shoots first. 

Good advice! You've already mentioned a cluster to better the game connection, what else could WGLNA do be more inclusive with South American players that want to play more competitively?

MattNight:  A South American League would be fantastic. eSports is on the rise in Brazil and in South America. The main reason that many South Americans decide not to compete in WGLNA is the matter of schedule and connection problems.

I know that you, MattNight, said that you'd like to invest in a career in eSports. Does anyone else wish to be an eSports professional? 

RaoulKinch: I would also like to invest in this career and at the moment, and I'm working on World of Tanks. 

MattNight: SESD95 is working with me on the same career.

Does anyone have anything else they'd like to say to the fans?

MattNight: Sorry about the bad matches, but it happens when all the teams are fighting for the win. No one is immune to defeat. We'll reverse this situation, any way we can. 

SESD95: Sorry about the bad matches that we've had until now. We're working on improving the most we can. We have a lot of strength and dedication!

Follow Timed Out on Twitter!