Manager Spotlight: Mixus Punchline
Manager Spotlight: Mixus Punchline
Short personal facts about Mixu:
Name: Miika Karpin
Occupation: M.Sc. teacher of mathematics, physics and computer science in senior high school
Residence: Hakunila, Vantaa
Age: 27
Family: single
Pets: none
Movie most recently seen: Scary movie 3 , rating 6/10
Book most recently read: Don't remember, I don't read much
Last album I bought: Phats & Small - This Time Around
Concert most recently attended: Michael Jackson, August 1996
Last vacation trip I made: Cologne, Germany ( 23.4-25.4.04)
Favourite place on earth: Lago di Garda, Italy
Person I admire: not any specific
When I was a kid I dreamt of being: rock band member
Short WeBL facts about Mixu:
Started playing in week: 36
Most valued WeBL accomplishment: two time junior Olympics Light-Heavy finalist, junior team gold medal 2002
Favourite fighter (own): Kallu "Boulder" Kaappila
Favourite fighter (other manager): Iddo
Favourite manager: HRulez
Most admirable non-Scandinavian manager: Prodigal/Peek
Most admirable Scandinavian manager: Rotmo (former tnt)
Most "feared" opponent: if
opponent =Rotmo then crap my pants. Ok, I don't "fear" him, but I'm concerned about the outcome :)
Most "feared" opponent (contenders, you can name more than 1 if you like): Prodigal/Peek
Best WeBL moment ever: Junior Olympics team Gold 2002
Most memorable fight: Probably my first RT victory fight Juippi "Hurricane" Mutikainen vs. Miguel Santoro (Flat Out)
Best fighter you ever fought: Possibly Triple B fighter "Grimace the Tastebud" two time world champion. I won a fight against him by foul before he went for WT J. Or "Experimental Ninja" NNN two time world champion as well. There might be some others as well that I didn't notice.
Win you're most proud of: Not any special, recent Light-Heavy RT fight against
Ehec 6'11" (Ridah) 18-2-1 was a sweet victory when allouting a sissy in the end rounds. Generally speaking it's always nice to stop major winning streaks and give first loss for someone undefeated.
Who is the man behind Mixu's Punchline? (tell us a little about yourself)
I'm quite happy with my life now. I have an own apartment and job which I enjoy so financially I'm quite ok. I'm studying as well in university of Helsinki. I have graduated already in 2001, but I'm going to study some more my submajor, computer science to get a permanent post for a place where I'm working now.
What's the story behind the gym name?
"Mixu" is nickname for "Miika" in Finland. "Punchline" is a two-meaning word which fits nicely for both joking and boxing, if you know what I mean. I like jokes.
Other interests besides WeBL?
Other languages, piano, gym, some gambling, some chess, listening to music.
What made you start WeBL:ing?
I heard about it from a friend. He played WEBL for few weeks (Sammu's Slaughterhouse), but retired pretty quickly.
What's keeping you hooked?
It was summer holiday when I started playing WEBL. I remember in the beginning it was very exciting to go look for score cards, how have my fighters been doing in their battles.
PityPart contacted me, when the region of Scandinavia started to develop. I wrote fight reviews from RT fights on different weight classes in the Scandinavian forum made by PityPart during 2001-2002. I think those events kept me hooked. Nowadays I don't know exactly. WeBL has some how sneaked into my daily routines.
Do you have any real life friends playing WeBL?
No, besides who introduced me to this game. But he retired pretty quickly as I said earlier.
Some friends played it in university as well for short time , but I haven't been able to
hook anyone to this game lately.
Do you have any specific WeBL goals?
I haven't been taking much pressure about my fights except in invitational tournaments
since the beginning. I'm bit lazy guy who enjoys this game as it is. Actually it's quite
funny that I haven't won any WT and been here 3 years. Probably because Contender
fights involve much more scouting and fp planning than regionals. I don't know from
where I would get my motivation for Contender fights. I probably should bet with
someone to get a WT in certain time :)
Did you hear that Scandinavians? Any takers on that bet? If you're up for it sign up in the Scandinavian forums
You have been here a very long time, how has WeBL changed since you begun playing?
I haven't paid much attention to simulator changes. Most of my fighters had Cuts 2 for a
long time until I noticed it's not worth it :)
How has the WeBL community changed over the years?
I haven't spend on forums so much time that I could write an overview about it. I
remember more about the early days of Scandinavian community when it parted from
Europe. PityPart made some fancy web pages and I started to write RT fight reviews.
Then we had a Finland-Sweden "Finnkampen" at some point. I think that Scandinavia has
the best web pages designed for WeBl than any other region ever has had. I recommend
that you should read the old forums to catch up what happened on those days.
Are there any specific managers you miss having around?
Hmm.. I would like to set my records with Anfield Road and tnt. I guess Anfie was the first manager who I smacked to in early days. Oh, those were the days...J
Mythology was a nice norwegian as well on the early days. What happened to those other Aggerud fellows AZE, AFC etc. ? Les Miserables and Le Grand Danois were nice chaps too. Team Svinehund had some sluggers. Saffron gym was sissy gym. Didn't have to check for fp many times :)
Do you wish it was like in the old days or are the positive changes outweighing the negative ones?
No. I'm satisfied where the game is now.
If you could change any three things about WeBL, what would they be?
Well, it would be nice to have animated fight cards someday, but I guess that might be too heavy for the server to handle smoothly. I'm quite happy with the rest.
Did you have any mentors when you first started playing? Who was your inspiration?
No, I haven't had any mentors ever. I have always admired Peek and Prodigal and
how they have dominated this game. For starters I got my inspiration from writing reviews
about RT fights. On that time I made some improvement in my game. After that I haven't
got any major inspiration boost, so I guess I'm to that level which I reached long time ago.
Do you remember your first fighter? Who was he and how did he do?
Week 36, Jeppe "Beatle" Mietula (STR 21 KP 7 SPD 15 AGL 10 CHN 6 CND 9, 5'). His career 0-4-0 0/2. He faced on his first fight "Rat Tamer" from Flat Out and lost all judges 111-117. Same Week another flasher Mixu " The Giant" Kaippari (20,5,6,3,4,8, 7') won his first fight by KO in round 1 against Immaculate Concussion fighter . (CHIN 4 ! :) )
Do you remember your first RT fight? How did it go?
Week 48, Juippi "Hurricane" Mutikainen (Junior Fly) faced Miguel Santoro from Flat Out gym. Juippi was a sissy (STR 3, 5'7"). Juippi won by decision. I got my first RT in 12 weeks after started playing. WT's seem to be little harder to get... ;).
Are there any sharp turns, bumps or jumps in your WeBL? If so, what caused them?
Nothing drastic, I think I got a bit bored in the middle of 2002 and stopped playing for a
half year. But I started to realize that something was missing in my life after half a year.
What was it ? WEBL !
Have you ever re-started your gym?
No, I just kept a pause from june 2002 to february 2003.
You said earlier that Kallu "Boulder" Kaappila was your favourite fighter. How is that? What made him special?
He's been the only flasher in my gym, who I tried to take as far as possible. Sadly the
fighter design of Kallu wasn't exactly well optimized, so his top was status 23.
Kallu is a tribute for the first great flasher WT holder "!!! Slick customer !!!" from ELF gym.
What does it take to become a great manager? What are the most important traits?
Hey, tell me about it ;). Well if I'm ever going to get a WT I should pay a lot more
attention to contender fights. From my point of view a great WEBL manager has this kind
of characteristics: deep understanding on fighter types and fp's, patience, consistency -
simming battles before hand and scouting for how does certain manager handle
fights against certain kind of fighters. And of course lots of fight experience.
Do you see any up'n'commers with those necessary traits?
Well, "Thunder Bros", "Caramba" and I have to say "Lost for Life" for some reason, if you know what I mean :) Ogrus seems to catch up h2h, so I guess he'll have a bright Webl future as well. I think I might even be on the same situation with Ogrus now: Regionals are quite easy, Contenders not. But I explain on next question why.
Do you feel there is room for improvement with regards to your own skills and abilities? Any specific areas?
I should work for the game more if I want a WT some day. I would need some
improvement for my lines in standard fp's and I should scout/sim more for Contender
fights. Probably I should change some of my fighter designing as well.
How much time do you spend on WeBL on an average day?
5-10 minutes. Sometimes few hours to check forums, press releases and so on.
What's your approach to scouting?
First thing what I look is height. For second I check fighter type. Third thing what I do is to search an opponent from fight history to check for most probable fp, which matches to my fighter if possible. Not much more because I usually don't do any simming. Sometimes even a name/gym of opponent decides the fp in 0.2 seconds (or if I'm lazy).
What is your favorite fp line ?
If endurance_percent < 100 - ((round-1)*5) then 1/1/8 (clinch)
What are the three things NOT to write in a fp ?
Hard to say, it depends a lot on what kind of matchup we are heading for. For example
it's little bit risky to rest with 1/1/8 (clinch) if you're fighting against unpredictable KP
fighter. Funny thing to think, but all kind of lines are possible to put in fp. Timing
of certain line must be correct though.
The most important thing is that you understand what your fp is doing! If you copy and
paste some lines from fp's written by someone else, make sure you know where to put
them and what they are doing.
What is your favorite design ?
Balanced or KP Dancer.
How many stock fps do you use frequently and around what "size"(antal rader typ) are they?
I use stock fp's 98 %. Sometimes I fix a line or too for certain fights. Usually my plans
have about 40-70 lines. But they now and then leak from somewhere :)
Have you set any rules / set any principles etc. for yourself regarding WeBL?
I think I won't create flashers anymore. Too much guessing involved.
Are there any WeBL "phenomenon" that irritates you?
When "winning" a fight by two points marging according to commentator it really sucks
to draw or LOSE! I have a fade memory picture of a fight ending in draw, when I had four
point winning margin. Not a very common event fortunately.
Some managers who have played a while can feel that they at some point reach a plateau and that improving gets difficult. Being here as long as you have you can surely recognize the feeling. What's your best advice for getting past those plateaus?
Getting some new inspiration for the game. Setting goals for the future. No one is
whipping you to better performances except you.
What's your best advice for newbies?
First you should think about what you want from this game. If it's just for pleasure, you're
not going to get any WT's. You have to do some homework to raise above the horizon.
Check question how to become a great manager.
Are you currently working on any specific WeBL projects?
I'm going to write a best seller "How to become a great manager in WEBL" . Well
seriously I should found a project called "WT for Mixu before 2006" starting now.
Final words?
Thanks for the interview, I'm honoured. I've never achieved so much publicity as now.
Cheers from Mixu "still going strong" Punchline
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