A_E: Congratulations on your comeback to CoH2 competitive, how was the journey from complete ring rust to battle ready - were there moments of doubt?



Aimstrong: Definitely. While practicing it didn't take long for me to realise that I wouldn't be able to utilize my preferred playstyles of old. That is why I decided to go for a very aggressive style, so that I could take out my opponents before they managed to use their experience in the game against me. Everyone that I played has many more hours in the game than I have; even Hooligan has many more hundreds of hours in CoH2 than I do.



With this in mind, I went for the most stupidly aggresively playstyle. It was a great success I feel. Ironically, part of it is beacuse I absolutely cannot stand how the AT guns work in CoH2 compared to CoH1. So I had to develop a play that worked really well with rushing a tank - and this resulted in the birth of the aggressive g43 to T3 that I used.



A_E: Against GB Hooligan in the first round you had a historic best of five series, what were your surprises coming up against the Dutchman in his first tournament?



Aimstrong: I had honestly expected a quick and easy 3-0. I had mistaken the time zones, so I thought the match was supposed to be played one hour earlier. With this in mind, I had made arrangements for the evening. So as I played him and realised this wasn't going to be a stomp, the time pressure added to the already hectic situation.



When playing at a high level it's not only about strategies. There's also the personal element involved, and some high tier players may have trouble with other high tier players that others might not. It didn't help that Hooligan seems to have a nice counter to my playstyle built into his. He played really well and I got traumatic flashbacks to playing against Symbiosis in CoH1. Symbiosis also had a playstyle that was very efficieny against me personally.



A_E: After that you resoundingly crushed fan favourite Jesulin in the following round, was this the Aimstrong of old starting to emerge, how were you feeling during that?



Aimstrong: The Aimstrong of old would never have played as reckless as I eventually did in this tourney. I would have preferred to play in a more cautious way. But it was very fun to utilize an ultra aggressive playstyle, and it seemed to catch Jesulin off guard.



The better you do and the more you win, the harder you get to stop. And I felt very much omniscient when playing against Jes. Unfortunately for him, he played right into my hands. I wonder if he wanted to save energy when we played or if he tilted. He told me that he didn't play much in preparation for the tourney, and I think it is very possible he didn't participate with the goal of getting the #1 spot. Regardless, it was very interesting to play against such a renowned CoH2 player.



My matches against Jesulin were the zenith of the strategy. At that point, it felt like it was invincible. While it wasn't the Aimstrong of old at all, it was a reinvention of him. Unfortunately, as I learned in my next series, the strategy had a fatal flaw.



A_E: Luvnest then beat you 3-0 in the quarter finals, what wrong in this series, what could you have done differently?



Aimstrong: Luvnest is very deserving of winning the tournament. He has very good micro and decision making. Most importantly, he had realised how to tame the beast. While my allied matches against him were a great fluke, I felt confident that my WM would do him in. He managed to one up my before the battles were even played, though.



The thing about my strategy was that you neglected teching to get an advantage over your opponent. You would completely forego t2 as WM and use a big T1 to gain the map advantage. It will give you more tools to handle them, but they will also be at a disadvantage when they have to tech themselves. Luvnest must have realised this and went for a no tech strategy as the soviets. The thing is, you eventually have to tech for the panzer 4 as WM, whereas you don't have to tech to gain tanks as the soviets. So he turned my strategy around on me and used that resource advantage he gained that way. Very impressive play.



I had been told to expect mines and demos against him, and I admit that I died a little inside when playing those matches. I can still remember actually seeing my minesweeper pios walk over the demolition and die before I ordered them to retreat... It was a difficult series not to tilt in.



A_E: Have we seen the last of Aimstrong in a large scale tournament, or does the old war horse have one last hurrah left in him?



Aimstrong: It's fun to play in a tournament. People come with different playstyles and strategies and all get to see who has the better product. It's also interesting to see if there are new dark horses arising. It's definitely more intense than automatch. And it's very nostalgic to feel a sliver of the ambition of old, where you absolutely wanted to win the tournament. Where you could almost feel the killing intent ooze out of the screen.



Whether I will play or not depends on the timing. There's nothing to prove for me in the series anymore, and it is all just for fun. A lot of my performance depends on whether I have a good day or not, since I don't play the game anymore. So if the tournament has a good timing and fits my schedule, I might participate. Will I do well? Depends on whether or not the few weeks a year I actually play the game are close to the event.