Manager Spotlight: punish your machine

Spotlight is finally back! After a long break our first victim is one of the true old-timers, a gym with 73 Scandinavian titles, captain of the 2002 jr.Olympics team and a gold medallist in the same tournament, Punish Your Machine!

First tell us a little about yourself, who is the man behind Punish Your Machine?

My name is Fredrik, am 30 years old and live in Helsingborg, Skåne,
Sweden. I'm trying hard to finish my studies at the university, but it doesn't work out extremely well. Before my three years here I have moved around, studied and worked with a little bit of everything.

At the moment writing my exams takes up a lot of my time, whatever is
left I spend on my different multimedia projects that will never be more than half done and on games like WeBL, WeBL, Scrabble and WeBL. So I basically live my life in front of the screen, and I'm growing massivly tired of it. Oh, and no girlfriend at the moment or kids yet or pets please.

You have been here for a long time now, what got you into the game in the first place?

Back in 97 or 98 I stumbled upon a nice game called EKO. Really liked
it and got a bunch of friends in school to join. One of them was Jerry Springer Draftshow. A couple of years later I get a mail from him telling that Bruce had started up WeBL, that it was free and had extended rules. I checked it up but didn't get involved just yet.

However, shortly after, JSD gets his first titlefight. This was big to us, back in EKO titles had been way over our heads and him fighting for one in heavyweight now was very exciting. I met him the day of the fight and he was devastated for not having been able to log on to change FP. However, seeing that titles were reachable in
this game (heavy RT's at status 7, these were the days) motivated me to start up.

When was your first fight, and how did you create your fighters back then?

I made four fighters from start, one for each member of the band Front 242 (the origin of my gym name too by the way). Three of them were heavyweight flashers with extremely bad design. Like the average newbie I wanted heavies that knew how to KO.

Then I also got this brilliant, innovative idea to make one smaller
fighter with no strength at all. I calculated with winning against all dancers, and losing against all sluggers - hoping there were more of the former around. This was of course the basic sissy but I had no idea of that at the time. My first fight was with the sissy, Richard 23, on April 2nd 2000 (week 19). He lost by 8 round KO against Bruce "Left Jabbing" Lee IV (The Lefty Ko Artists). I learned nothing from that experience.

Did you learn the rules when you started, or did you read them later on?

Back in EKO I had printed all the rules and calculated formulas and
everything. I found out about POW = 2*AGG for optimal damage ratio and have never used anything other than advanced fightplans. The rules were different in WeBL, but the concept was the same, and as I didn't care too much at the time I didn't study them in depth. I misunderstood chin totally for example, and thought it's only use was to absorb IP's after the fight. So later when I started to mega gym with my sissies, I made one with 1 chin thinking it was a great idea trading 10 extra AP's for some IP's. It didn't work very well, but after some intensive training I managed to get him to contenders too.
I picked up the rules as I went along, but I have never known them all by heart. I know how everything works and all the basic stuff but don't ask me to quote the punches landed formula. I go by feel and learn by trial and error.

You have also being active member of the community, how do you see the community as a whole and Scandinavian region in particular?

I have a love/hate relationship with the WeBL community. I enjoy it a
lot and wouldn't be here today without it, but I can't stand the overall attitude that is happening in the forums anymore. There are lots of great people around, but they tend to stay silent and I can understand why. So I have backed away from a lot of it and try to only take part of the more light hearted things, and to contribute with what I am able to because the community is ever so important.

Scandinavia is a whole different story. Ever since SoS started up this has been a great place to be at. It is not possible to overestimate what it has meant for the Scandinavian spirit, our great quality and success at tournaments. We all owe a big thanks to Pity for that. However, I would like to see more activity. We are a big region and should be able to get more gyms involved in the community.

What was the reasoning behind your guys when you started, and how has it changed since then?

My career has had three phases. The first six months was the mentioned four guys running on autopilot, then I started to mega gym with sissies and finally I made a serious try to see if I could achieve something around here. I am still trying. So, the reasoning has basically changed from "I don't care" to "Whatever gives RT's" to "Maybe this will do it". Actually I don't reason much about fighter creation at all. My main concern is FP's and I rather try to make
fighters that works with my plans than the other way around. I lack a
lot of knowledge in creation and training, that becomes painfully obvious once they hit upper contenders. I try to scan the general opinions on what types are viable and then copy that, while making the opposite too just for the heck of it.

What strikes me most about you is the dramatic turnaround you had during late 2001, you seem like a completely new manager since then, what happened?

RT's weren't enough for me anymore, I had grown tired of getting my
sissies killed in contenders, and I really wanted to see what would happen if I put my heart into the game. I felt I had something to prove to everyone (rightfully) mocking me for never winning a fight in less than 12 rounds.

Second half of 2001 was experiments with sluggers, and it worked better than I had expected. I always thought the game was for math people and that it demanded a huge effort to succeed with more conventional fighters, but the wins continued to roll in. So early this year I sat down and read everything written about the game, and wrote a whole set of stock FP's. Once again the pay-off was huge and I have more or less lived on those plans since.

You've won a lot of titles in Scandinavia, how was you first title fight?

It was very special to me. My four original fighters run for a long
time on set plans and lost more than they won. But suddenly something happened, the sissy started to rack up wins. It became more and more interesting to read the reports each week, and finally he was at the point where I knew he would get the title fight if he won just one more fight. Of course he lost that one and I was greatly disappointed. But as I logged on to my gym I noticed something extraordinary. He was suddenly ranked first in his region and I did not understand a thing. It turned out Bruce had split Europe that week and created the Scandinavian region, making Richard 23 the top Scand super-fly! The next week I got the title fight against a sorry fighter from Fame & Pain whom I outslapped with ease (looking back I notice I jabbed aggressively in 12th when up 8 points, shows how clueless I was) and that moment is still to be beaten as the best WeBL experience for me. Richard 23 went on to become top 10 in the world and I got hooked to the game for real. I created a hundred clones or so and started to pay attention to my gym. It's funny, had Scandinavia not been created that very week, it is a possible I had not been here today at all.

You've had many successful fighters in Scandinavia, which ones are you most fond of?

There are so many, and for so many reasons. "Why are you being so reasonable now" is my only successful heavy and the first non-slapper that won a RT for me, I was very proud of that. "Pinsamt stora problem med finmotoriken" in straw weight proved to me that I could compete at a somewhat high level. I'll stop there or I would have to name half my gym.

Recently you broke into top 10 of contenders after a two-year break with stereo karlsson-karlsson but you also have a lot of other guys closing in, who do you consider your biggest prospects and why?

Actually I only consider one fighter in my whole gym a prospect. All my other contenders are worn out or have hit their roofs. And I really don't have any rising stars in regionals either. My only hope is of course "pym namnihopblandarnamn punch". Got him from Foxxx, his design is nothing extraordinary but I have never had any fighter just like him up there before, so if anyone is going to really make an impact without me having to put everything I have into the game, it is him.

How do you reason while writing fps and how has it changed during the time?

I see it as a big challenge to write plans that can be used for as many situations as possible. My stock FP's are very long and somewhat complicated, and I rather work on and evolve them than write new plans for every fight. My first non-slapper plans were very static; I went down one road whatever happened in the fight, so that is a big change. To me it is much more rewarding to see my plan adjusting to the situation and to what my opponent does, than to successfully scout and nail the happenings in advance with a custom FP.

Still, with all variations even the multipurpose ones tend to become specialised and every once in a while I write something new for that special fight.

You won the gold medal in jr.Olympics last time beating some big names including Pasoa while captaining the team, tell us about the experience.

It was great weeks. The absolutely best part was the team thing, which is the brilliance of the Olympics as it brings a new aspect to the game. I was very proud of the team and that we could live up to the high expectations. Personally the tournament showed me that effort pays off. Feeling responsibility for the team made me spend an awful lot of time with the sim and in discussions with other managers and I learned more in those four weeks than I have in all the others together. Captaining was a breeze with a team like that, hardly had to lift a finger. The only thing I take pride in that area is that I convinced Stampy to run for a spot in the team. We all know how that ended, so I'm glad I took a chat with him at that point.

The backside of the coin was the pressure I put on myself in the week before the Pasoa fight was terrible. I really did not want to lose without bringing a single point to the team but it went to far. I realised that I could not let a game have that effect on me and decided to take a break should I lose. Seeing that allout kick in made it all worthwhile though.

You've had tons of fights in contenders, what do you think are the biggest differences between regional and contender fights?

Leaving out lower contenders which often is a vacation compared to top Scandinavian fights, the big difference to me is that every opponent cares at least as much as I do about the fight. I know I will get punished if I think "ah, well that FP will probably do it", an attitude that usually works great in regionals.

Also, it is rare that I get outclassed in every aspect in regionals, but when I face the best managers in 20+ status fights it happens that I lose every round while taking huge amounts of IP's in the process. One wise man once said to me something like: "You can have great success in regionals by unorthodox fighting, but when you are at the top you have to know the basic fighting or you will be killed". It is that last step I have to take to make a serious run for the WT.

You haven't been very active in the variables regions, what do you think of them?

They are not for me. My goal is to get one WT before I die and they are only offered in contenders. Also, they generally seem pretty boring to me. I mean, amateurs - a region filled with flashers and slappers, isn't that the pure definition of hell? Pro is the exception; I plan to be active there.

You have been here long enough to see most of the rule changes. What do you think about the current fight engine, and which one has been your favourite.

Well. When endurance was the name of the game I run 100% slappers. When everybody else discovered the praises of KP-dancers I studied the rife-files and became a slugger manager. And this last change seem so small to me that I can't see how I can use it to my advantage a lot. However, it seems like people have discovered that counter and ropes are seriously hurt by it, which is good for me even if I don't understand half of why it has this effect. So I guess the current one is my favourite since I can't judge the old slugger friendly engine, as I was too ignorant at the time. I think it is important to realise that the engine in this game is extremely good as more or less every type of fighter is viable to some extent. That kind of balance is very unusual in computer games, where there often is one golden strategy that unlocks the door to success. With that said, things can still improve. But I leave it to the experts to decide how.

You've also seen most of the top managers in their prime. Who have impressed you the most both in Scandinavia and Contenders?

If we talk about overall achievement there are four managers in
Scandinavia that I would use the word impressive on: Flat Out for being on top of the game all the time I have been paying attention to it. DRoA and tnt, it's almost provocative how fast they became dominant. Umeå West Side. Had he not retired so quickly I am sure he had been mentioned together with Prodigal and Peekaboo all the time now.

Considering all the time I spend on this game I should really know everything that goes on in the international scene too, but I don't. So my list of impressive world managers would only be boring and predictable.

What do you think of the state of our region at the moment. Who do you think will be the dominating gyms in the future?

I was pessimistic a few months ago, managers dropped like flies and everyone seemed to have lost their motivation, but now the state is better than in a long time. We have the elite, gyms are filling up from behind and no end to the newbies that pop up with great starts.
The people dominating now will continue to do so as long as they want to. SMH should be checked for Hemohes or something, he has shot through the roof and will definitely dominate in the near future. I also expect Martin to take the last step to stardom. About the rookies, I can't say I see someone around capable of doing what tnt did, right now, but I'm hope I'm wrong. Still there is a yet another load of newer managers that soon will pass me in every ranking available though but they are too many and too unpleasant to mention.

How do you like our chances in upcoming olympics, and your own chances of qualifying for the team?

The top seven that got voted to the team are rock solid. There will be a small jump in quality whoever takes the last two spots. Still, I can't see what other regions could field better managers at spot 8 and 9. Overall it looks very, very good. This depth simply has to pay off and despite the hazardous format I will be disappointed if we do not win. My chances of making the team are slim. I have Stockholm in my first fight and he owns every piece of me, and should I survive that I still can't expect to win every fight against that good opposition. I will do my best, though, competing in the O's would be a fun and unexpected experience.

Your Web-pages for jr.Olympics were awesome, any hope of getting them back for future tournaments?

Thank you. Hmmm, I got very disappointed at myself for stopping updating that site halfway through. Doing something only partly seems kind of pointless, but it is not impossible that I give it another try.

Any final words?

Props to the staff at Newsflash, You do a lot to enhance the gaming experience for many. Merry Christmas and all that...
...I think I am done now, thank you for giving me my well-deserved 15 minutes in the spotlight.

Thank you very much for your time, see you in the ring and best of luck for the Olympic qualifications!