With the CEVO in the off-season and players having a bit of time on their hands (the North American teams, anyways), I decided to mail off a series of broad-ranged questions to some of the top players in our beloved game and get a little gaming history as well as their opinions the scene and current events. Since he got back to me the quickest, Dion gets the glory of being first to be flamed! Hurrah!

Player Info:
Mike "Dion" Powell plays Medic for the American Team Pandemic, CEVO-P Season 1 Champs and TGL Roughneck Challenge Finalists. The Medic spot is a much more of a mental, decision-making playstyle rather then aim-required skill class (or spam-feet talents), and Dion is generally regarded as one of the best medics out there and has been a big part of Pandemic's rise to stardom.

Interview:

GotFrag: Lets start with the past - what competitive game did you start out in, and with what teams?

Pandemic-Dion: My first competitive eSport was Team Fortress Classic, and my first and only major team was Clan Cannibal. Anyone who played TFC will know who we were. There was some great matches during the TFC years; my favorite match was probably CNBL vs PF for the OGL title. At that time we were a no name clan who took the title from one of the top 3 teams in TFC at the time. I played in a few teams after CNBL broke up but it wasn't anything big. I think I quit a few months later to play an MMO.

GotFrag: How did you end up with the team around you?

Pandemic-Dion: Well I knew Reptile from TFC and when the TF2 beta launched he was going to join our team we were making called Team Dynasty. Anyways that clan broke up and I joined up with The Experiment and have been with them ever since.

GotFrag: What drew you to competitive TF2 (beyond just the uniqueness of the game)?

Pandemic-Dion: I was just a huge TFC fan so it didn't take much for me to get into the second game.

GotFrag: Do you like the way TF2 is evolving? Are you for or against the constant tweaking Valve's implementing?

Pandemic-Dion: Valve doesn't understand competition for TF2 at all. They butcher maps like granary and remove the ammo count? This game is designed for pubs and that's how Valve makes it. They really need to do something for the game to show the competition side that they care.

GotFrag: What do you think of the tactical differences between the North American and European scenes? (ie. more Heavy-usage) Any opinion about which one works best?

Pandemic-Dion: A Heavy can work good but it's very dependent on the situation.

GotFrag: What about the local scene - what two clans are the most fearsome in your mind?

Pandemic-Dion: There has been a lot of roster changes since CEVO-P, but the new upcoming strong teams imo are FragD and Eximius.

GotFrag: What other players of your own class do you have the most respect for? Who do you think is the most dominating/fearsome in your class (aside from you, har har).

Pandemic-Dion: Well I play medic so I don't get to do much fighting :) But there is some solid medics out there. glue and brute were strong medics. I think brute quit tho :(

GotFrag: What do you think of the upcoming medic changes? Do you think they're balanced enough to be in matchplay?

Pandemic-Dion: Its nice to see Valve stepping up with some decent changes. But again these changes were built for a pub server. Uber will still be the better gun cause it can counter the crit gun. But the new needle gun is a nice buff.

GotFrag: Excited for Goldrush?

Pandemic-Dion: Yes it looks exciting. New type of map is always welcome.

Big thanks go out to Dion, even if he was in CNBL :P Stay tuned for future volumes of rk's i'views with all your favourite players!