Enemy Down

A Console Clans Evolution - Part 1

RT Dekko sits down and chats with Phattpantz from Betamaxx

Posted by SmellyMoss on Dec 18th 2008 17:57

By RT Dekko

We have a chat with Wayne Morgan, 28 year old family man and life long gamer, aka Phattpantz from the renowned, community minded Xbox 360 clan Betamaxx. This interview is the first part of a two part article about how a console clan competes, how they find out about the clan gaming scene and their evolution from amateur to semi-pro.

Read on for a look into Betamaxx’s ways of thinking, plans, their history and what they think of XLEAGUE.TV

Firstly, I have to ask, how did you choose that Gamertag of yours? Is it an actual, physical description?

No, it was a name given to me by my mates about 12 years ago, I used to muck about skating with some mates and as the fashion was back then the bigger your jeans were the better you skated (if only that was true), one day I got a pair of jeans that were far too big and everyone was laughing and the name just came about in conversation and to this day it sticks be it the full name or just PHATTY as is now becoming more and more popular (laughs).

Ha, nice one. So, when did you first get into gaming? Was the skate scene what attracted you to it or were you into games before then?

I’ve always been into gaming, from sitting spending 400 hours programming a clock on the screen on a 48k spectrum to obviously now smashing away as many hours as possible on my 360. I’ve more recently started to build my console collection again and have managed to convert some space in my garage to a Duck Hunt shooting range on the NES, I’ve got the most popular ones but I am now starting to collect anything and everything and building up quite a worthy collection. Yes, you could say I have a good knowledge of games and really have been playing since I could move something on a screen.

As for skating influencing gaming, Tony Hawks is about as far as that goes but to be honest it kind of did have an influence on me as one thing we loved to do was all hook up at someone’s house and set up the most basic of LAN’s with mixed sized TV’s and hub’s that were gaffer taped together and all we would do was play Halo CE for days and days 1v1, 2v2, 4v4 it didn’t matter we just had great times and still do to this day.

Was forming a competitive clan a plan of yours for a while or something that happened by chance?

I suppose it’s something that happened, I wanted something more than just logging on and playing loads of random people in matchmaking, there was a little structure with friends lists and party invites but 9/10 times I was out on my own with games like Halo 2, not as many of my friends that play now were playing back then so you kind of relied on your friends list, the problem with this was a good percentage of this was Americans. You would end up playing till 4/5 am in the morning and the amount of times I would be tired at work was insane just from what was intended to be a quick few games ended up being a full 8 hour session.

I had heard a few things about something called MLG a few years back but didn’t fully understand it and when I started looking I was under the impression you had to live in the states to be able to play. I started looking around for something to see if there was anything in Europe and by chance went channel flicking one night and found XLEAGUE.TV on SKY when it was XLEAGUE, I competed first in the Halo 2 1v1 league and took a few kickings but got hooked into the whole competitive game style.

I started to talk to some friends from work about this and formed a team the same time as the Halo 3 BETA test was out so this based the first part of the name, I really don’t have any idea at all where the MAXX part came from but it just happened and from then on we have just grown and grown and have some great teams and a fantastic community as well.

So you had a site first? What was the initial intention behind the site?

I knew if we were going to do anything we had to have somewhere the team could talk and leave messages so I set up a basic forum to see how it went then when people started joining and more posts came and it got busier. I asked a good friend I'd been playing LIVE with to help out and PDH started to get more involved with the day to day running of the site and what was just a basic forum had turned into a community of gamers have a good laugh.

It would seem that the community aspect of clan gaming is more important to you than the winning, is that a fair assessment?

Yeah, if I’m honest I get a lot of buzz out of having a community, don’t get me wrong I know what that winning feeling is like and we always want to win but we realize we need to practice to get better. We have had a lot of help from some other clans to help us improve, not all clans are just about wanting to win there are some good clans out there and if you talk to them they will offer a lot of good solid advice, if your prepared to listen. One thing I do feel passionate about though is trying to get on with other teams and players, if we are going to have a successful competitive community in the UK/Europe we need to get on with each other. Yeah you run into some idiots, but you do everywhere in life so just mute them and move on!

What is your proudest clan moment so far?

We have a few to be honest some that speak for themselves and others that are not so obvious, our first being some coverage in 360 Gamer magazine with a article about us a few months ago. The fact that the team members are very close considering were all complete random people we have met on the internet, a few of us have managed to attend 3 of the Matchbox 360 XL events, also we have had a few of us at the XLEAGUE.TV studio and all on the same day for different matches and had a good time in London. Also some social nights where a few of us have met up away from gaming and had a great night as well and just proving we have a solid community behind the teams as well.

Nicely done, what are your goals and aims for your clan and community?

We want to grow to be one of the best teams and communities in the UK; we know we have a long way to go but its something that we want. Overall we hope to gain respect from the top teams and players in the UK and also to put up a good challenge to anyone else that comes in new to the scene but also we want a reputation that says everyone is welcome to come and talk to us as well.

Do you think that XLEAGUE.TV represented the UK gaming scene well and are you looking to remain a part of it on the long term or will Enemy Down become your main home?

Xleague.TV started something but it lost momentum, personally I’m not going to get into the “What’s going on with Xleague?” argument. If it wasn’t for XLEAGUE I would not have had the drive and ambition to create the home I have for BETAMAXX that I have now. As far as Enemy Down goes it’s bringing a breath of fresh air and I’m constantly monitoring the movement of the UKeSa. I think it’s a fantastic idea to bring something with more structure, but and there is always a but, I just want to see it up and running at full speed. We could be looking at the new home for our gaming.

Well we hope you do.

Thanks to Phattpantz for his time. Keep an eye out for part two of this article.

If you’d like to know more about Betamaxx, their community events or to apply to join, then e-mail their beloved leader Wayne at: phattpantz@betamaxx.co.uk and check out their website at: http://www.betamaxx.co.uk/