NLTP Season 6 Captain Interviews - Northeastern Division

16 teams will compete for supremacy in the sixth season of National League Tagpro, formerly known as Novice League Tagpro. Two conferences, East and West. Four divisions, Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, Western, and Midwestern. We have long awaited the list of captains for the sixth season, and they have finally arrived. So, over the next four weeks, along with covering draft stuffs and possibly power rankings, I will be interviewing captains, by division, starting with Northeastern. Without further ado, let the hype roll! I try to change the interviews up a bit, but I am not the most creative person, so please, bare with me :P

Dance - Blockwork Orange [Radius]

Azhf: So, as stated when captains were announced, you have said that you are cutting corners this season and dropping the iconic word 'A' from the full name, "A Blockwork Orange", to shorten it to just "Blockwork Orange". Why did you decide to do this?



Dance: Given the exception of the abbreviation "ABO", no one used the "A" when describing us, and if anyone did, it came off very awkward. Everyone called us Blockwork Orange, so I might as well make it official.



Azhf: Last season, you focused heavily on cohesiveness. Your team was well known for brigading, your inside jokes, and FOR EASHY GETTING JUKED, GET JUKED EASHY. How do you plan to incorporate cohesiveness this season?



Dance: Truly, I'm not going to force anything. Just saying, the reason we got to that point last year was because it came naturally. Unless something terrible happens, I expect the same this year, and I'm confident me and Fly have the expertise and personality for that to happen.



Azhf: Now, this is unrelated, but, you often comment on Eashy's stick-like stature. Is this because, deep down, you wish that you had such a glorious figure?



Dance: Kinda jealous that Eashy is an inch taller than me. Eashy is 6'3" to my 6'2", so at the New York meetup I had to look slightly up to talk to him, and it was a huge chance, since I talk down to him online. Don't want to think about his body proportions anymore, next question.



Azhf: Who are your sleepers?



Dance: Eh, if by "sleepers", you mean "season 5 Blockworks who are going to other teams as sleeper agents", then nomkinz. Absolutely a god.



Azhf: Seriously now tho, who do you see getting drafted very quickly?



Dance: Seriously, there are some pretty clear cut top picks. Honeybear, 2P1S, and demman32 come to mind.



Azhf: What do you want your team environment to be like?



Dance: You bet your ass we're going to be cohesive, also, read the first letter of every sentence.



Azhf: Finally, do you have anything else you would wish to say?



Dance: Nope.



JBaayBaay - Balladega Nights [Radius]



Azhf: You have been known as like the greatest statkeeper ever for this past miniseason. Do you plan on reprising this role for season 6? If not, will the next stat keeper be even nearly as competent as you?



JbaayBaay: Aw why thank you. I don't think I'm the greatest statkeeper ever, since I got TONS of help and a lot of people laid the groundwork for me. Definite shoutout to Ash and supaspike, since I used a lot of their formulas and templates, and a huge huge shoutout to Mr. Gone - who helped me personally and made me a beautiful template sheet, which was much better than the one I made. I don't think I'll be the stat keeper for S6 NLTP. I have a lot of stuff on my plate with captaining NLTP and playing (in whatever league I go to), so I don't think stat keeping will be possible for me. It really is a time commitment. I know there are committed people in the community that will do a great job with stat keeping, and I'll be the first to show them the ropes if they're interested.



Azhf: Your team in the miniseason, blockpeoplemeet.com, didn't do very well. Since you were cocaptain, I assume you had a hand in drafting. If this is true, where do you think you went wrong?



JbaayBaay: Aw jeez, buttering me up for the tough strike. At the beginning of the draft, snack and I had a set plan: go for Intents, Nitro, and two other depth roles. We didn't quite account too hard for availability, so that may have been an issue. We went into the first week with a lineup of me, Infinite Sky, LifeofBrian, and cbtexan - which wasn't ideal. Thankfully, we brought on two HUGE pieces in frozty and rndmwhitekid, which helped our team immensely. They joined me and heisy on the starting lineup, and with our full team we competed (switching me or heisy out for Intents at times).

I would simply boil it down to a series of investments that didn't quite pan out - but looked good on paper. I definitely learned a lot from the miniseason that I will take into drafting my NLTP team.



Azhf: For this upcoming season, how do you think your practice schedule will be? Lots of practice? Little? So much that you want the Future Offensive Ball and Defensive Ball and MVB?



JbaayBaay: I want to hedge the difference. First step is drafting a team that enjoys practicing with each other. I think that was the best part of S4 Balladega Nights. The whole team - we all enjoyed chilling in the channel. We always had four on. And often times we would scrim without Supersans, because of the team environment. I think that shows a lot about what Supersans brought to the team as a captain, that he fostered a place where his team built chemistry and map knowledge not only on their own but also during his communication drills/created maps(lol)/+other drills. So my priorities will be building a strong practice schedule (at least once a week), but also some dick around time. You can only scrim for so long in one day before you burn out, so frequent scrims with buddy system/plug.dj equivalent/minigames help to build the team up. TL;DR: I'm looking to draft committed, skilled players that mesh - it's almost always the recipe for success in NLTP. I'll be holding practices at least once a week to make sure the "mesh" part happens.



Azhf: If there was one week in the season where you could play any map ever made, which map would it be?



JbaayBaay: This is a tough one for me. I love Monarch - I always have. It's got condensed boosts which aren't OP, but allow defenders to take a trip to snipe city. and offenders have to think one step ahead of that, since all the fast routes lead through the boosts. But also there's safe spots at the sides - which allow defenders to contain and swallow up the offense. That's why I think monarch shows who the most balanced defenders are, because you have to have both of those abilities. Also there's a few boosts into base which I love as an offender - it really allows you to pound home a cap and feel good about it.



Azhf: Who do you see getting drafted quickly?



JbaayBaay: Nice try azhf, no draft strats here bby.



Azhf: Any last words?



JbaayBaay: Shake and Bake baby



ASS CANNON - Balls On Parade [Radius]



Azhf: Your name is very memorable - ASS CANNON. What inspired you to think of this name?



ASS CANNON: I actually did not come up with the name. I was once in a pub once with some friends and a guy named "ass cannon" was playing. I was laughing hard as hell because what kind of name is that? So I was on the "ass cannon" train for the whole pub (I believe it was on CFB). So, me being a stealing whore, I decided to take the name "ASS CANNON" and admire the glory. After the game on CFB, I never saw the name again. I kept the name just in case I ran into him again. I never did. If you're out there, hit me up!



Azhf: When did you start playing tagpro?



ASS CANNON: I started playing Tagpro around the World Cup event in 2014, since I'm a World Cup pusher. I played for about 3 days and didnt know I could sign up and get a name for myself. I was "Roll So Hard" until about 22 degrees I think. Then I decided to go by "Maurice" cuz I'm fucking amazing.



Azhf: Where did you get your start in competitive Tagpro?



ASS CANNON: I started playing competitively the first day for minors tryouts for s6. I saw the ad for the tryouts on the homepage and decided "Fuck it." I played in JJpoole's tryout for awhile and I think I did fairly well for a 28 degree player at the time. And JJ made me sign up for the season and it went from there.



Azhf: Why did you decide to be a captain this season?



ASS CANNON: Because I love the development of growing players and teaching the fundamentals that most players should know about tagpro. No one likes to lose. There's no fun in losing all of your games. You would want to win some of the game right? There's have to be some hope for a learning experience and the competitive nature of the new players coming from the pushes from the offseason. I look forward to yelling at you guys! jk i love u all!



Azhf: What is your favorite tagpro minigame?



ASS CANNON: WITHOUT A FUCKING DOUBT IN MY MIND. HOCKEY IS THE BEST MINIGAME EVER. I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF IT'S A MINIGAME BUT FUCK IT, I LOVE IT.



Azhf: Who do you see going early in the draft?



ASS CANNON: Papa John I think. I lot of people called him overrated but I think he hasn't prove himself yet.



Azhf: What will your team environment be like?



ASS CANNON: FUCKING BOMBS OVER BAGHDAD WITH 10 WEEKS OF TOXIC POISON FROM THE SNAKE MASTER HIMSELF. I WILL WHIP EVERY SINGLE LAST NOOB INTO A FUCKING DINO AND FATAL HYBRID BY THE END OF THIS SEASON. nah. I will make the environment friendly and fun. I will try to not crack the whip.



Azhf: Any last words?



ASS CANNON: THE ASS CANNON IS ABOUT TO BLOW!!

Your name is very memorable - ASS CANNON. What inspired you to think of this name?I actually did not come up with the name. I was once in a pub once with some friends and a guy named "ass cannon" was playing. I was laughing hard as hell because what kind of name is that? So I was on the "ass cannon" train for the whole pub (I believe it was on CFB). So, me being a stealing whore, I decided to take the name "ASS CANNON" and admire the glory. After the game on CFB, I never saw the name again. I kept the name just in case I ran into him again. I never did. If you're out there, hit me up!When did you start playing tagpro?I started playing Tagpro around the World Cup event in 2014, since I'm a World Cup pusher. I played for about 3 days and didnt know I could sign up and get a name for myself. I was "Roll So Hard" until about 22 degrees I think. Then I decided to go by "Maurice" cuz I'm fucking amazing.Where did you get your start in competitive Tagpro?I started playing competitively the first day for minors tryouts for s6. I saw the ad for the tryouts on the homepage and decided "Fuck it." I played in JJpoole's tryout for awhile and I think I did fairly well for a 28 degree player at the time. And JJ made me sign up for the season and it went from there.Why did you decide to be a captain this season?Because I love the development of growing players and teaching the fundamentals that most players should know about tagpro. No one likes to lose. There's no fun in losing all of your games. You would want to win some of the game right? There's have to be some hope for a learning experience and the competitive nature of the new players coming from the pushes from the offseason. I look forward to yelling at you guys! jk i love u all!What is your favorite tagpro minigame?WITHOUT A FUCKING DOUBT IN MY MIND. HOCKEY IS THE BEST MINIGAME EVER. I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF IT'S A MINIGAME BUT FUCK IT, I LOVE IT.Who do you see going early in the draft?Papa John I think. I lot of people called him overrated but I think he hasn't prove himself yet.What will your team environment be like?FUCKING BOMBS OVER BAGHDAD WITH 10 WEEKS OF TOXIC POISON FROM THE SNAKE MASTER HIMSELF. I WILL WHIP EVERY SINGLE LAST NOOB INTO A FUCKING DINO AND FATAL HYBRID BY THE END OF THIS SEASON. nah. I will make the environment friendly and fun. I will try to not crack the whip.Any last words?THE ASS CANNON IS ABOUT TO BLOW!! About to blow, indeed.



Bigbadball - Whitecaps [Radius]



Azhf: This will be your first captaining experience. What are you expecting?



bigbadball: I really can't wait for this season. I've been looking forward to captaining this season since about halfway through the last. Ess had a little hiatus in the middle of the season and I kinda took over for him in the meantime. I'm expecting this season to be a lot of fun, but certainly more competitive than nltp has been before. With a new lower league, I expect the level of play to be higher than it has ever been for both A and B team.



Azhf: Why did you decide to be a captain this season?



bigbadball: Like I mentioned I was faux-captain for several weeks last season, and I really enjoyed it. So when Ess approached me about taking over the whitecaps officially this season, I was all for it.



Azhf: What is your favorite tagpro meme, and why?



bigbadball: Wonderball. He's basically a walking meme machine. If you haven't met him you should.



Azhf: Who do you see going early in the draft?



bigbadball: You know I wish I could tell you, but there are a lot of "snubs" from mLTP that I couldn't tell who is going where.



Azhf: What will your team environment be like?



bigbadball: I really want to foster an environment like the whitecaps had last season. We felt like we were underrated at the start of the season, and that we had something to prove; while at the same time we all joked around with each other and just generally had a fun time.



Azhf: Any last words?



bigbadball: Dance if I'm still back up shortstop what does this make you now, reserve benchwarmer?



Thank you all for reading my first article here on Tagproleague! Expect the Mid-Atlantic Interviews sometime next week! Or possibly sooner! :)