On KRAFTON Blog, we prepared interviews with 4 teams, Twisted Minds, Four Angry Men, Gen.G and Soniqs, out of 8 global partners.
※ The interview was conducted before PUBG Global Series (PGS) 2.
Q. Please introduce yourself and your team members (players & coaches) for PUBG Esports fans. Please try to describe each of your teammates using only one word (per player).
TGLTN: Hi, I’m TGLTN. I’m the fragger and I’m playing for Soniqs. In my team with me are “hwinn,” who is the brains, “Shrimzy” who’s the brawn, and “M1ME” who’s the “confidence.” And “Gunner” is the “discipline” who can make sure that we’re all doing exactly what we always need to be doing.
Q. Where are you and your team members from?
TGLTN: I’m kind of an outsider, being from Australia. The rest of the team is from the south side of the USA, Texas, and Oklahoma. And our Gunner is from New York.
Q. How would you describe your team and your team’s dynamics?
TGTLN: I’d like to think of us as “Band of Brothers.” We are very close to each other in and out of the game. We’ve been attained for so long that it does feel like we’re siblings at this point.
Q. What do you think is the biggest strength that each of your players bring to the team?
TGLTN: I think we all bring work ethic to the team, which is the most important thing above all else. They say good talent with bad work ethic is bad talent. That’s a quote that Gunner always uses. Outside of that, our individual strengths, I try to have the team confident and rally and enjoy together in my presence. Hwinn brings an intelligent approach to the team, being the in-game leader, the captain, he has a really strong sense of leadership about him. M1ME brings an element of confidence in a different way that I do. Whereas I use my words, he has his presence about him that is like he makes the confident because he’s extremely confident in himself and it’s not his words he says it’s just his actions. He plays confidently and that’s important. Shrimzy is almost like a team therapist sometimes. He’s good at making sure that we’re all keeping at level head, staying positive, and working towards the same goal.
Q. What do you think is the secret behind Soniqs maintain the same roster while achieving good results for all those years?
TGLTN: I don’t really there is a secret. It’s just more like a formula. It’s like going to the gym, sometimes you just must trust the process. We scream every day, and we just work ourselves hard to be the best that we can be. There’s no secret sauce, we just work hard.
Q. What is one surprising or interesting fact about each of your team members
TGLTN: I want to say that Shrimzy is the unluckiest poker player that I’ve ever met in my life and it’s easy to take his money. He has the worst fortune of all time (Laughs).
Q. Why should other teams be afraid of you and your team?
TGLTN: I think we’re like a train. Sometimes we’re slow to get started. But once we’re moving like a well-oiled machine. Once we have time to adapt to the lobby and learn the lobby, I think one of the best teams out there. We’re book-smart. It’s like while we were there for PUBG GLOBAL INVITATIONAL.S in 2021, because there was a two-week quarantine, we doubled up scrimmage every day, once we learned how other teams played, we could play on that. The longer we’re playing in the same lobby, the better we become.
Q. What activities or techniques do you and your teammates use to boost the team’s chemistry and to keep the motivation levels high?
TGLTN: The most important thing is to eat together and enjoy playing together, being comfortable around each other. We don’t do any specific team-booting activities, but we like to spend time with each other and be respective. Gunner always tells us that “You all have to eat at the same time with me.” He also likes to say, “build a unit,” which is a military term that I guess he used to use frequently when he was in the military.
Q. What do you think is the best part of being a PUBG Esports pro player?
TGLTN: It’s the fans’ love. Honestly the messages that I get every day, they’re really inspiring. I recently went out and had a lunch with a fan of mine. And the profound impact that I had on him, I never realized that I had such an impact on him. It’s a really fulfilling job. And it’s enjoyable to embrighten people and have people emotionally vested in your story.
Q. What has been your best moment as a PUBG Esports pro player and why?
TGLTN: I think it goes without saying that it would be winning PGI.S in 2021, especially being it was my first international event, the prize pool was so big, and that really changed my life in that moment. I was just walking around after hugging everyone, and the whole camera crew. I was just on top of the world that day.
Q. If you had to give advice to your younger self when you first started playing PUBG Esports competitively, what advice would you give and why?
TGLTN: I used to think in high school that I had a poor work ethic. That stemmed from the fact that I didn’t enjoy what I was doing. But when it comes to PUBG Esports, and streaming I think I have one of the biggest work ethics out there. But my high school self wouldn’t have thought that. I would have thought I wouldn’t be able to work as hard as all these other people. So, I’d say that if I focus on my goals, and really put my mind on them, I can achieve anything.
Q. It’s already been 3 months since PGS 1. Are you excited to meet teams from other regions on-site? Which team or which player did you miss the most?
TGLTN: I miss all of them to be honest, I’m a very sociable person. I enjoy talking to all of them. I guess I’d go and say hi to Fludd from Luminosity Gaming. He’s my fellow Aussie. Fludd and I have been friends since we were young. He’s been playing with me when we were 16, we went to play in a tournament in a local LAN café and we won.
Q. Among the participating teams in PGS 2, which team and player(s) threaten you or your team the most and why?
TGLTN: I guess it goes without saying that 17Gaming. They root in the same spot as us. And they won PGS 1. They’re a big threat. I think Lilghost really cracked although he’s a very funny guy. Hopefully they don’t do so well this time (Laughs).
Q. What’s your goal in PGS 2?
TGLTN: Our goal in PGS 2 is to get an improved placement from PGS 1. We came into this year with a completely different strategy from previous year because we had to adapt to the way that international lobbies are playing out after two poor PUBG GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP performances. We came eighth in PGS 1 and we’re just looking to improve from that result.
Q. PUBG Esports has introduced various new features and even a new map to the official tournaments. Which one does your team anticipate the most to tap into to boost performances?
TGLTN: The most important thing going into this tournament is the trunk space on the cars. Now that Panzerfausts and Mortars are in the game, it’s very important to use the UAZs and make sure you have a full trunk with shields, Mortars, and Panzerfausts…all these extra things that would help you in the clutch situations. On my team, specifically, I’ve been using Mortars a lot. My teammates always told me that I need to get off the mortar because I just had too much fun role-playing with it. Gunner told me all these military comms related to using the mortars and stuff, and I would sit on it and role-play in the middle of the match. When my teammates say, “Hey TGLTN! Come help!” and I was sitting on a mortar while blasting others to have fun.
Q. Your team was selected as one of the eight PUBG Esports Global Partner Teams for the season. Congratulations again! How did you feel when you found out about this?
TGLTN: Honestly, it was a very relieving feeling to feel like there was going to be a system in place going forward where the game economy was going to be sustainable. It was very exciting for me, especially because I’m so close to the CEO of Soniqs. I know that he’s been digging around PUBG Esports forever. He’s been managing Team Gates in 2018, and Soniqs after that. He’s just a big fan of PUBG Esports. He loves it. It’s a passion project for him. It just feels great to finally see him get rewarded for that with the Team Edition Skins and so on. And it’s good that Soniqs has grown as a brand to a point that we could be a Global Partner Team for PUBG Esports.
Q. One of the merits of being a Global Partner Team is having Team Edition Skins made and released based on your team colors and concept. How did you feel when you saw the design?
TGLTN: Obviously I’ve always wanted skins in the game whether it is personal or my team to represent. It’s always been one of my goals. When I heard that the team is going to get skins, I was super excited because I had all those ideas for the skins since the beginning of the time. Basically, we designed the skins from scratch, working with the designer. Our whole team, our coach, with our CEO, I think we had seven or eight meetings with the designer, and we were telling him all the little bits we wanted. Honestly, every little part of the skin was designed by the team. We put into work, and we made it really “our” skin because we wanted it to represent us. We wanted it to be something we made. We didn’t just want to hand the ball to someone else. I just wanted to leverage every opportunity.
Q. Imagine yourself in the top eight situation with your team and the other Global Partner Teams. Who gets eliminated first and who wins the match?
TGLTN: Haha! I think FaZe Clan is getting eliminated first because Jeemzz is too confident (Laughs). He’s going to somehow be overconfident. I think Four Angry Men will win it all, just because they’re just like a well-oiled machine. Twisted Minds will come in the second place because they’re extremely smart.
Q. Do you have anything to say to the PUBG Esports fans around the world?
TGLTN: I hope you guys fetch our Team Edition Skins. It’s the best way for the fans to support the ecosystem of the game so that the pro players can keep doing what we love, and you guys can keep enjoying the esports you love. Thanks so much in general for watching and tuning in. We really appreciate you guys.