Hi Shloober, for those that don’t know the name could you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?

- Hullo! I'm Oliver Payne, 20, and a student at the University of Kent doing... law. I've been a pretty active RTS gamer for the last decade or so, playing online in all kinds of games, Although I never really played TA, Starcraft was my game! :)

An obvious question first, with so many RTS games out there what made you decide on Supreme Commander as your game of choice?

- At the time Supcom was released, I wasn't really playing a lot of games, I wasn't very impressed with a lot of the new ones that were coming out and some of the old ones were getting a bit repetitive at the time. When I saw the demo for Supreme Commander I thought I'd give it a go because it brought something very new, I loved it and pre-ordered the next day I think! I'd heard that the map that was featured (finns revenge) was relatively tiny too which just amazed me!

So if you had to pick one – what would be the single point that you feel makes Supreme Commander stand out from the rest of the crowd?

- Firstly, the diverse range of strategies and plans that you can use, It's probably the most flexible RTS around in that area, there are so many different ways to play the game, especially in 1v1. In a lot of other RTS games you will generally have a sort of 'script' that dictates roughly how a 1v1 match will go depending on the matchup. Supreme Commander totally breaks that mould in my opinion. But of course that is partly to do with the similarities of the races.
Secondly I think it has a really good community, a lot of cool people around and some good competition. Even though I've only been playing it for less then a year, I already prefer this community to most other games I've played online : )

You have played Sup Com from the early stages and had access to the first BETA’s of Forged Alliance, have GPG delivered the game you hoped for and genuinely improved upon what was already a top quality game?

- I think most of the problems in Supreme Commander were addressed and fixed in Forged Alliance. It's just unfortunate that there are still some problems with the game that urgently need fixing. But from a gameplay point of view, Forged alliance improves upon Supreme commander massively!

Have the players had to make any drastic changes in game play to allow for changes to the game or will a good knowledge of the original game be enough for your average player and have there been many top players who have struggled to come to terms with the new gameplay?

- There are definitely some top players from Supcom who haven't managed to make a smooth transition from Supcom to FA, but at its roots it's still pretty much the same game, just a lot better. If you understood the gameplay mechanics of supreme commander you'll probably only need a couple of weeks to adapt to forged alliance. To be honest I never really adapted to the massive massfab spammage that was in supcom before FA came out. So it was probably easier for me then others.

Personally what is your favourite aspect of Supreme Commander Forged Alliance?

- Definitely what I stated above, the vast array of strategies you can use to employ. The strategic zoom is not all that important to me (altho it definitely helps!) and the fact that the races are essentially identical (They're not, but comparing to many other RTS' out there) is a bit disappointing. But the fact that different maps call for entirely different gameplay is really good!

Obviously you are in theSGL Attrition 2v2 league season, who in you division do you think are going to the team to watch out for?

- There are a lot of strong teams in our divison, I think the SCL team have the best 2v2 gameplay strategies so they will be very strong, but Whatever and TAG are definitely gonna be very hard to beat. Nubcom also has a good chance to do well once they play their games.

By contrast is there a team in the league that you think are underrated and could easily go on to give other teams a tough match each week?

- I think Ourselves (Q squids) and Disco are two teams that will give a good challenge to the other teams! It will be hard for either of us to win the invitational but we can definitely cause problems for the other teams!

Finally on the subject of your upcoming opposition, excluding yourself from the equation, who do you think will be the winners of the season?

- I think it will be SCL, their 2v2 strategies are very solid, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if Whatever or TAG won it!

Most Supcom is played one vs one and there has been a noted lack of activity in the GPGN 2v2 ladders, is there a reason why this is so and do you think a 2v2 league such as this could help kick start more players into action?

- I've always been a big fan of 2v2 supcom! I definitely prefer 2v2 to 1v1. The 2v2 ladder was fairly active in Vanilla but hasn't seen much use in FA, mainly because of a few problems with the 2v2 ladder (disconnections, spawns). I think these leagues are a great way to get the spark for more 2v2 matches though! Thanks SGL! :D

Is there a major difference in the way you would play a 2v2 match as opposed to a 1v1, would your build strategy differ greatly from normal?

- 2v2 is really different from 1v1. Obviously you have an ally to back you up so you can both try to specialise in different areas, rather then in 1v1 where you generally have to try and cover all your bases with one eco. Because of this one player can try much more risky starts and experimental strategies with less consequence!

Having another player watching your back while you build your armies is a good thing of course, but is there any disadvantage in having half your forces in someone elses control?

- As long as you have very good communication between yourselves I don't think there is any disadvantage, obviously if you can't communicate well then you will have very slow response times from the other player when you could do so much faster, but generally it's much easier to focus on half your team's units on the map, and try to focus on one area.

theSGL has been hosting cups for SupCom for some time now and there is very much a core player base we expect to see in our events. Since we have got used to seeing the same players fighting it out on a regular basis do you think the number of new maps will have any effect on things?

- I'm always eager to see new maps being used in high profile matches! I think new maps are important to stop the game going stale and repetitive, the ranked ladders doesn't swap around enough to keep my interest for too long, new maps definitely make the games feel fresher!

What is the most intresting map in you opinion for this weeks maps, the maps consisting of Haven Reef, Dark Heart and Emerald Crater?

- I think Haven reef is a great 2v2 map, it allows for many different strategies and ideas, I'm looking forward to playing on it! Emerald crater is a solid 2v2 map in my opinion, but from what I've played of Dark Heart, I don't think it's a great map for 1v1 or 2v2 really, but it could be worse!

And how do you this weeks game against Saint Clare Lageplan is going to go and is there any one of the maps you are most looking forward to?

- I think the game on Haven Reef will be really entertaining! I reckon everyone will expect SCL to win the match but I'm confident that we have the ability to cause an upset! But we will need to play really well to beat them!

And is there any games in the league that you Thought your team Could have done better and is there any reason behind this?

- I think we could have done better in all of our losses! I've watched the replays and you always see things afterwards where you think 'ohh if we'd just done that it would have been different', but it's totally different when you're in the game! Most of our lost games have been really close, so we don't feel too bad about it.

What your favourite map for 2on2’s and what’s the reason for this being your favourite map? And what is the map you don’t like in the map list? and the reason you don’t like this map?

- I think Haven reef is one of the best 2v2 maps in the game, for the reasons stated above. For this week of course I don't think like Dark heart, but I definitely don't like Blasted rock either, that map is horrible to me!

Finally – Which race is your favourite to play as and of course which single unit is the one you enjoy using and why?

- I don't really have a favourite race at the moment, I play random race in ranked games and usually pick a race that I think I can use to the best advantage on the map I'm playing in custom. But if I had to choose a race to be it would probably be Seraphim, they have a lot of qualities that I like!. I think Ilshavohs are a great t2 unit, and their t2 bomber is awesome too. But my favourite unit has to be the UEF t3 transport Continental!

Thanks for your time and may we wish you the best of luck in your upcoming matches.

- Why thank you! Hope to see many more leagues like this one! : )

You can count on it!

Hi TheBigOne, for those that don’t know the name could you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?

An obvious question first, with so many RTS games out there what made you decide on Supreme Commander as your game of choice?

So if you had to pick one – what would be the single point that you feel makes Supreme Commander stand out from the rest of the crowd?

You have played Sup Com from the early stages and had access to the first BETA’s of Forged Alliance, have GPG delivered the game you hoped for and genuinely improved upon what was already a top quality game?

Have the players had to make any drastic changes in game play to allow for changes to the game or will a good knowledge of the original game be enough for your average player and have there been many top players who have struggled to come to terms with the new gameplay?

Personally what is your favourite aspect of Supreme Commander Forged Alliance?

Obviously you are in theSGL Attrition 2v2 league season, who in your division do you think are going to the team to watch out for?

By contrast is there a team in the league that you think are underrated and could easily go on to give other teams a tough match each week?

Finally on the subject of your upcoming opposition, excluding yourself from the equation, who do you think will be the winners of the season?

Most Supcom is played one vs one and there has been a noted lack of activity in the GPGN 2v2 ladders, is there a reason why this is so and do you think a 2v2 league such as this could help kick start more players into action?

Is there a major difference in the way you would play a 2v2 match as opposed to a 1v1, would your build strategy differ greatly from normal?

Having another player watching your back while you build your armies is a good thing of course, but is there any disadvantage in having half your forces in someone elses control?

theSGL has been hosting cups for SupCom for some time now and there is very much a core player base we expect to see in our events. Since we have got used to seeing the same players fighting it out on a regular basis do you think the number of new maps will have any effect on things?

What is the most intresting map in your opinion for the Second week, the maps consisting of Salt Rock Colony, blasted Rock and Fields of Isis?

And how do you this weeks game against GPGnet Admins is going to go and is there any one of the maps you are most looking forward to?

What your favourite map for 2on2’s and what’s the reason for this being your favourite map? And what is the map you don’t like in the map list? and the reason you don’t like this map?

Finally – Which race is your favourite to play as and of course which single unit is the one you enjoy using and why?

Thanks for your time and may we wish you the best of luck in your upcoming matches.