Manager Spotlight: PityPart

Manager Spotlight: PityPart

By Aggerud Zoological Expedition
As of 4.3.2002.

Let's start with the basics.

Name:

Thomas

Age:

25

Occupation:

Accountant/Auditor

Nationality:

Danish

City:

Fredericia

Favorite Animal:

Cool cows. There's nothing like a cool cow.

And let's continue with some more advanced questions.

Shoe size:

42

Hair color:

The standard brownish color as everybody else - I just don't have so much of it. The males on my mothers side has always had little hair - but my father has a bald spot in the making as well :)

Average bed-time on weekdays:

It usually ends up being around midnight on weekdays. I've never been good at going to bed early (or getting up early for that matter). In weekends it could well be two or three hours later since I like to stay up late and sleep late as well.

Average bed-time before big WeBL fight:

Usually the same as above. It's not very often a big WeBL fight costs me my nights sleep - not more than usual anyway. I always seems to end up doing my fight plans the night before anyway..

Pets:

None. I haven't had a pet for like 10-15 years or so. I had a couple of birds once and I had an aquarium with fish a short while also. Pets are too much work :)

Favorite color:

Yellow with green as second choice.

Favorite number:

2. That's always been what I considered my "lucky number" or whatever you want to call it. Not really sure why. It's just always been the number I went for when I was little.

Thanks, now let's get on with the interview. When did you start playing WeBL and how did you get in contact with it?

I used to play a PbEM soccer game commissioned by Portuguese Ponys. At some point he send out an email to those playing where he told about other online games he was playing - and WeBL was one of them. I took a look and have been here since (week 10). Sadly the PbEM game is now deceased and Portuguese Ponys retired from WeBL not long after he got married.

Why have you stuck with it for such a long time?

I like the mind games involved and the possibility to pit your skills against people from around the world. Also the community surrounding the game is great and people are usually friendly and very nice to each other. And there's always someone up for discussion or a bit of fun if you need it.

Is this your one and only gym, or did you start out with another one?

This one is the only public region gym I've ever had. I've had a gym in a private region with The Magnificent Slaughterhouse and HRulez at the time they started playing but that ran pretty much on the same fight plans. I've never felt the need to start over or to go undercover to experiment or something like that. I'm doing my experiments in my main gym and stick with the record - I never engage in mega gym experiments anyway.

How was your record in the early days?

The first month or so it was pretty average. I think my early record was something like 30-30. One nigh I went to the chat room and got to talk to Boxing Fan! He gave me a new fighter that had just won his first fight by KO. He pretty much told me to get rid of those sucky fighters that I had and try making new ones instead of keeping on fighting with fighters that just kept on losing (I had grown a bit stubborn and just WANTED to win with those sad fighters). That proved to be a very good idea as that second crop of fighters proved to be quite good. I think all of the got on to win regional titles and one even turned out to become my first ever World Champion. I think that's just about the most successful batch of fighters I've made at once.

Do you remember your first fight?

Not really. After having chucked out most of my early fighters (as per above) I later went back and retrieved the fighter that was the first one to fight for PityPart: Danish Warrier. He won the fight by decision it seems, which is a bit surprising considering his 15 chin and 8 speed that was bad even then. Another early fighter that I remember is a fat ass heavyweight that can't even qualify as a flasher as he lacks pretty much anything but the weight for that.

When did you get your first regional titlefight?

I won my first regional title with Arthur Dent (another second batch fighter and a bona fide dancer) on the 4th of May 2000. So it took me about three months to get to a title fight.

Did you win it?

Yeah, Arthur Dent won the title in the first attempt. I was maybe even more ecstatic about that win than I've been at some of my later World Titles. Dent lost it the week after to one of Boxing Fan!'s fighters though. The three months around Arthur Dent's title win is what I remember to be some of the most entertaining in my entire WeBL career. Boxing Fan!, Portuguese Ponys, Pasoa and myself had a good rivalry going with our fighters taking turns at winning the titles and smacking each other. It was all done in good spirit and mutual respect and since we were on pretty even levels it was great fun. Ah yes - those were the days. I sound really old now don't I?

How many active fighters do you have right now?

I have 14 active fighters as of now.

Is that more or less than usual?

That's pretty much average I think. I tried running a smaller number to put more effort in to each fight, but I didn't do very well really. After that I tried running 25+ fighters instead and did surprisingly well using mostly stock fight plans with next to no editing. I'm not really sure what kind of conclusion I should make based on that. Maybe I'm doing the best when I don't think? :)

Do you have any favourite weight classes?

It has changed a bit over time actually. In my early career I favoured the higher weight classes as in cruiser and light-heavy. I've never really been into heavyweights much, though I got a fighter (from Boxing Fan! Who else?) who I got to #5 in the World. Other than him I've only had fighters in heavyweight for shorter periods of time. I usually get bored fighting there since it seems to me that the opponents are flashers, sissies or midgets and a lot of the fights are determined even before you enter a fight plan. Then later I turned more towards the lower weight classes from straw to fly and at the moment I'm more into the weights from light to welterweight. But I won't really say that I have a favourite weight class. I favour the ones with the lowest percentage of slappers and flashers :)

What, would you say, is your style of fighting?

Hmm. Probably something in between slugging and dancing. I've never been really good at doing either but I seem to be decent at mixing it a bit. I've always had a steady base of balanced fighters and a group of fighters of various build on the side for fun and testing. All my World Champs has been balanced to some extend though I've had some success with a bit more extreme designs as well. But the balanced fighters seem to be the ones I'm doing consistently best with.

Are you a numbercruncher or do play by feel?

I play largely by feel. I do have a spreadsheet lying around (that is actually up to date with the current rules as of now) but I'm usually one round of changes to the simulator behind in the update of that. By the time I get it updated new rules are put into place. Usually I only uses it if I wants to test the effect of different fight styles in a given match up of calculate the chance of a flash attempt to be successful. Other than that I rarely use it to build full fight plans. I have a decent understanding of how the math behind it all works but I am just too lazy to really take advantage of it. Most of the times I've tried to really use the spreadsheet to make the fight plan I haven't done very well so I think I'm often better off just relying on my experience and feel for the game. The time where I find the spreadsheet the most useful is when I try to reverse-engineer a fight based on a fight with him.

What are your strengths and weaknesses as a manager?

That's kind of a hard question to answer myself. My biggest weakness is probably that I'm rather lazy and tends to be doing my fight plans the day before the fight. It would probably be better to do them the day they got scheduled (like I once did) and then fine tune the fight plans during the week. My strengths? Hmm. Experience? I've been playing for so long now that I've seen a lot of different fighters and approaches to fights as well as different variations of the rules making it a little easier for me to get a rough idea of how my opponents are build and how they are likely to fight.

Do you always scout your opponents to exact stats?

I rarely try to scout my opponents exact stats. I've reverse engineered the stats of a fighter I've fought recently from time to time if I had to fight him again (or I just figured he had an interesting build). But usually I just take a (more or less) brief look at my opponents previous fights and try to get a bit of an idea of roughly how he is build. I don't kid myself into thinking I could actually scout the exact stats even if I wanted to. I'm too lazy to do so anyway.

How much time do you spend on each fight in total both on regional level and in contenders?

That depends heavily on whom I'm fighting and how much I care about the fighter. In regional I just throw a standard fight plan at a lot of the fights so that doesn't take more than a minute or two depending on how many of my opponents previous fights I take a look at. Against harder opposition I probably use about 10 minutes to scout/edit a fight plan. I only very rarely write a brand new fight plan - especially not in regional unless I really like the fighter. In contenders it take a bit longer though I still uses the standards a good deal but I usually edits them a bit more. I probably edit/recycle a fight plan enough for it to qualify for a new fight plan every two weeks or so. For the really big fights I might spend up to an hour scouting, writing/editing and using my spreadsheet. Though often I get annoyed if the test run in the simulator doesn't look too promising and I just throw in a standard of sorts and call it a night.

Do you write a new fight plan for each fight or do you just choose from already made ones?

In most fights I pick a stock fight plan. Depending on how good a fit it is on the match up and how much I feel like doing I might edit it more or less. Often the editing consists of adding a few lines that could be useful in that given fight or blacking out lines that fits bad. For me to write a brand new fight plan I'd have to actually like the fighter and be in the right mood. So that usually doesn't happen more than a couple of times a month.

How many fight plans do you have?

I have about 250 fight plans stored. Even the very first fight plan I ever made. Many of them have been edited several times since they were made though. I rarely make entirely new fight plans anymore. I usually find one that fits the match up enough for me to recycle a good deal of it. I probably have about 10 fight plans or so that I use regularly. There's always going to be slappers and extreme sluggers around that are fighting pretty much the same way so there's really no need to write a new fight plan for them every time. I rarely delete fight plans. The only ones I can remember to have deleted is the standard ones.

Tell us a bit about your World Champions and their careers?

Hmm. The careers of my world champs...

First there was Slartibartfast. He was something of a dancer/balanced fighter. He was the first of my fighters to win two regional title fights in a row. Going back to look at some of the fights are a quite scary experience. I can't believe how stupidly I fought some of the fights. I wasn't really too surprised when he won his first title. JunkYard Adolph was a pure sissy so it was a pretty easy fight. The loss to Pneumonic the week after was a bit of bad luck. I guess I just didn't have the guts to keep headpunching for more than three rounds. After beating JunkYard Adolph for the title again (after Pneumonic once again jumped to another weightclass) two draws followed - and lucky ones of those I admit. Then the loss came and the attempt to return to the top afterwards was futile. Slartibartfast lost his second ap and had the wrong build to keep in the game.

Then there was Fender Bender. I honestly don't remember much about his career before he entered the fight for the titles. He stumbled a bit in contenders at first after going through regionals undefeated at the time the split of Europe and Scandinavia was made. Then following a month or so on a winning streak he broke into the top ten and all of a sudden he got the titlefight. He won being down by three points on all cards going into round 10 I pretty much assumed that I had lost that fight (I was down on aps as well IIRC) - but then Cash Money Millionaire #33 got stopped on cuts and Fender Bender was World Champion! And boy was I exited - I accidently canned Fender Bender (twice actually before I noticed what I had just done) as I was franticly clicking around.. Thankfully Bruce was nice enough to give him his name back (and added a confirm button to the Tomato Can option as another World Champ accidently got canned the next day as well). Then followed three months at the top fighting some of the best managers in WeBL with variating success. In the end Fender Bender ended up with 5 World Titles and is probably the fighter whose career I'm most happy with and the World Champ I've had with the best build.

Last but not least there was Cesky Dub. He is named after a small village in Czechoslovakia close to where I went on vacation one summer and I figured it sounded kind of cool. I had a pretty good feeling about him from the start and is one of the few fighters that I've actually made an effort in managing from the first fight on. He got through regionals undefeated and kept going in contenders till the judges cheated him in a fight where the commentator had him up by four points. More close fights followed but Cesky kept climbing the ladder steadily. Eventually he got to fight for the title but didn't have the luck against Frampton in super-feather. A month later he got another shot at the title, this time in lightweight, and this time he was successful. Then followed three defences, two with draws against his arch enemy Punto Moretti. Cesky fought Punto four times in the span of little over a month before Punto Moretti finally managed to squeeze out a win and a well deserved second World Title. Cesky ended his career three weeks later with a loss in a titlefight with Taylor "No, Boss" Tiberon. Cesky Dub is still my all time favourite by a long shot.

You're the Regional Moderator of Scandinavia. How, when and why did you become that?

I remember talking to foxxx (a long time ago) about having a Scandinavian moderator to clean up some of the fighter names that were around and he suggested that I should write Bruce about it and suggested that I could be the one (since he was about to take a break from the game himself - yes, even back then foxxx was taking a break :) Anyway, I sent an email to Bruce about it and said I'd help out if needed. Some time later I (and some others) got an email from Bruce saying that he was about to change the way the moderation was set up and that he'd like to know if we were interested in helping. I think it was around that time that Volunteers got assigned to specific regions but I'm not entirely sure.

What do Moderators do?

We censor fighter names, descriptions, press releases and posts that we come across that violate the rules in some way. After Duck entered as Chairman of the Volunteers we were pretty much handed the responsibility of the day-to-day management of the community allowing Bruce to focus on the work with the actual simulator and not worry about the community management. He occasionally voices his opinion on different matters but pretty much leaves it up to us and Duck to decide what to do. So we spend some of our time discussing how to apply various rules, what policies to follow when canning a name and stuff like that.

How does one go about to become a moderator?

That varies a bit. Sometimes Duck announces the need for a new moderator and people are free to apply. The current moderators then discuss the applications (and other managers that has been suggested) and voice their opinions for and against the various choices and in the end Ducks makes the decision. The applicants are usually asked to supply a bit of info about themselves so that we get a bit of an idea of who's behind the name. Other times a new moderator is just appointed without it being announced before it's decided who it's going to be.

I know a lot of people, including myself, want to know this: What can you, as a moderator, see that we mere mortals cannot when you look at a gym?

Not much more actually. We can always see the email address, also if the player has it hidden from other players. Then there's the links to change the gym name, censor description, the invitational links and a gag status link to see if the gym is gagged or not. And then there's the ip-number. That's about it I think. If you want to see for yourself, the creators of a private region get the same options there so they can do pretty much what we do on WeBL in general. Then we have access to a forum that is only accessible to Volunteers where we can discuss whatever is going on and ask for input from other Volunteers and we also has access to some advanced search options when looking up gyms. Contrary to what many thinks we CANNOT see the stats of any fighters in other gyms - though it could have been handy from time to time :)

The Site of Scandinavia is probably the best and most active regional WeBL site there is. When did you start it and why?

I started it a couple of weeks or so after Scandinavia got a region of it's own. Before then I had been writing on Boxing Fan!'s European page (there he was again). To be honest I wasn't very happy about the split to say the least. Scandinavia looked to be horribly weak region and the only decent manager I could think of at the time that would be in Scandinavia was foxxx and he was about to take a break (sound familiar?). Everybody else who I had been fighting/smacking/talking to would still be fighting in Europe and I'd be left alone I Scandinavia (or so it felt). So I figured I might as well try to do something to liven things up a bit around here. I posted loads of smack back then as well (that's quite easy to do when you know you'll win easy isn't it?). I don't remember exactly when SoS started and what was on it apart from some reviews. There wasn't much going on in the beginning partly because the number of visitors was limited, as not many in Scandinavia knew the page even existed. As the page started to gain momentum more were added along the way and various managers has volunteered their time to write something and add to the good spirit in the region and hopefully help to build a strong community feel of those in the region.

What is the future of SoS?

Time will tell. I don't know really. As long as people will still be reading it and I still think it's fun doing it I'll keep it running. To really make it interesting I need help from others since it's too much work to do alone and the more writers we have the more fun it'll be for everyone to read. A better forum than the current one wouldn't hurt either. If it was a bit more reliable then maybe we could get a bit more action in it than it has now. Not necessarily with strictly WeBL stuff. We'll see :)

How do you feel about Scandinavia as a region, is it as strong as we like to think?

I think Scandinavia has grown to become quite a strong region. Sure we have our share of scapegoats that serves largely as punching bags for the more serious manager, but we also has our share of talented managers that is also active in the community. There seems to be a steady influx of new gyms that has the talent and will to make it big and push or replace some of the older more established gyms if they start slacking. The time when I could get a fighter to contenders with < 10 ips without much effort at all is over - which I think is a good thing. The jump from regional to contender isn't as huge as it once was which makes it easier to keep going when you start consistently facing opponents that puts a bit of thought into their fighters so you don't end up fighting opponents that actually do something that makes sense. That was the biggest problem for me just as Scandinavia got to be a region on its own - I could win pretty much all my regional fights with both eyes closed and that doesn't really help you improve - rather the opposite.

In your opinion which are the Top 5 regional mangers in Scandinavia and why?

Well, rankings are always going to be subjective in some way so the following is in random order and might be different in 10 minutes.

Foxxx - A great manager who could/should have multiple world titles if he wanted. He just seems to be going in and out of the game too much to ever take a fighter all the way.

Flat Out - I've always thought of him as kind of a dancer manager. I used to beat up on him a good deal early in my career but then the simulator got tweaked more towards dancers and he started doing better (he says he read the rules too but I'm not sure of that :) Anyway, he seems to be able to keep a steady flow of fighters challenging for world titles.

P.u.n.c.h - Another dancer manager that got serious. I remember his early incarnation as a sissy manager and while he did ok at that in regional it just wasn't what was needed in contenders. He keeps a small gym so he doesn't make much noise in contenders.

Anfield Road - Showing great skills with David Ellis so far. Maybe lacks a big scary champ to really carve a place for him in history but David Ellis might do it on his own anyway..

Last but certainly not least:

Umea West Side - No Scandinavian ranking without Umea. Holds highly impressive records in both regional and contenders. Could likely have equalled The Prodigal and Peekaboo in greatness if he had stayed around.

Could you comment a bit on the Olympics and also on your own performance in it?

Uh oh. Well, with regard to my own performance one could say that I did worse than last year since I only lasted 10 rounds this time as opposed to 12 rounds last year. The Olympics is always going to be based a bit on luck especially in the first round but it's the same for everyone. And that's also part of the charm since it allows for surprises. It's a great way to help bring the gyms within a region closer together and get some of that team spirit going.

Any predictions or feelings about the Junior Olympics?

It'll be fun seeing how some of the gyms that didn't make it into their respective Olympic teams will do in the Junior Olympics. It's also a test of regional depth in a way, as many of the participants haven't really made a name for themselves yet. Some has been around for ages while others are up'n'coming. I'm looking forward to seeing what the second tier managers have to show. And Scandinavia looks to have a strong team but so do some of the other regions so it might not be as easy as it looked to begin with. I believe that a lot of the managers in the Junior Olympics will be challenging in the Olympics next time around - or at least be very close to make the teams. The only thing holding them back at the moment is that they have yet to make a name for themselves.

You have tendency to know everything, who do you think will be the big upsets in Scandinavia this year?

I'm very good at SOUNDING like I know everything :) And predictions are most definitely not my thing. Things always end up the totally opposite of what I predict. I see some newish gyms that show promise but it's too early to really tell and I don't think it would be fair to "out" them just yet as it probably wouldn't hurt with a bit more time in the shadows - and it wouldn't be an upset if I told you, would it? Also some of the not-so-new gyms are just lacking a bit of experience to get the last bit of consistency before they really start to make a mark and move up and out into the world. Scandinavia has great potential that has yet to be exposed to the world.

Which are the managers you look forward to fighting, both on regional level and in Contenders?

I look forward to fighting punish your machine. One of these days he's going to get his first win against me. It's just a matter of him putting his head to it. I'm actually a bit surprised that he hasn't been able to pull it off yet. HRulez is usually also good fun to fight with the smack involved. But in general I look forward to fights where the outcome isn't more or less certain in advance because of the fighter builds.

And which managers do you fear in every matchup?

I don't know if I _fear_ anyone. Sure that Prodigal guy is annoying, I got off to a good start against him but then it went bad. African Monk tends to hurt my fighters a bit also so that's no fun either. On regional level Flat Outs sluggers seems to be doing bad things to my fighters from time to time. But I don't think there's anyone I fear in every match up.

How do you think people feel when they see that they are matched-up against PityPart?

"Ha! I'm going to kick his ass again". I think it depends on who I'm fighting really. There are some managers that I match up to quite favourably and others that are more even. Hopefully it's something along the same feeling I've got when fighting other managers that I know will actually be adjusting to the fight in question and I'll have to do my share of thinking to have a shot at the win.

You have been playing this game for a very long time, how do you keep your motivation up?

The level of motivation fluctuates quite a lot. For periods of time I run pretty much exclusively on stock fight plans and doesn't spend much time on the fights while at other times I put a bit more time into the fights. What really keeps me around WeBL is the community. I've been playing for more than two years now and have won several World Titles so it's not so much for the titles and the record anymore. Earlier I could remember my record by heart and knew how my day had gone by looking at it, but I can't do that anymore. Sure, it's nice winning World Titles but that's not what keeps me here.

Do you know anyone in real-life that plays WeBL?

I know HRulez and The Magnificent Slaughterhouse. After having played for three month or so I got HRulez to play as well and a month or so later TMS followed. That's the only ones I've seen in real-life - yet. I've been emailing with others but haven't met them in real life. It could be great fun to make a WeBL Rally at some point.

What do you think about the community here in the Web Boxing League?

The community is excellent and is really the thing that makes me keep coming back. I find the variety of managers quite amazing and it's fun getting in touch with people you probably wouldn't have been talking to (much) if you had just met them in real life. Also it's a nice place to go if you need a break or pass some time.

And how do you like the community as a moderator, is Scandinavia a good or a bad region?

Scandinavia is actually quite a well-behaved region. There haven't been any real troublemakers (apart from HRulez when he is bored and know I'm away) so my job moderating the region is quite peaceful. Sure there is the occasional post or fighter name that gets deleted/censored but nothing major.

And let's finish of with the mandatory questions.

Who do you think are the best Up'n'Commers in Scandinavia at the moment?

K.J. Boxing Gym recently got relocated and looks to be on his way to greatness. [tnt]-the newbie troop and Martins Average Fighters are other great prospects that are about to hit contenders before long. Regionals are one thing, contenders another. What's an up'n'commer anyway? There are several gyms that are doing well and will soon be entering contenders for the big test. But they all appears to have the skills to make it and if they can make it in Scandinavia they can make it anywhere :).

Favorite WeBL manager, both Scandinavian and Worldwide?

Ah yes, another one of those questions that are quite hard to answer since it depends on what you choose to use as criteria. The one I've interacted the most with (apart from HRulez and The Magnificent Slaughterhouse that I know IRL) is without a doubt Boxing Fan! Pretty much ever since I wrote on his European Page I've been emailing with him about WeBL and life in general. He was/is also the manager of PityPart the fighter. Sadly "I" didn't win a world title but only got close. In Scandinavia? Well, I like anybody that isn't kp-slapper or flasher happy :)

Any advice for newbies?

Read the help pages! Try printing out the gory rules and have them laying beside your computer for quick reference on fight styles and other rules. You don't really need to understand all of it. Just get a decent grasp of the basics and what each style does to your fighter. Also keep an eye on the forum and read discussions about game design and fighter types. Again, you don't need to understand all the math behind it to get a few helpful hints and ideas by watching the established managers discuss. And always remember to check the credibility of those giving advice. Some (rather bad) managers are quite helpful but not always right. And others think they are right but aren't. Take a look at the records and take the sceptical approach to help. There is always someone around who thinks it could be fun to fool a newbie into doing something stupid.

Final Words.

Wake up! I'm done rambling now!

Thank you.

You're welcome