Winning 1st Place in PvP - A Point of View

Ever wonder what is going on in Team Battle and what it takes to win the weekly competition? Well, I got in touch with last week's winner and asked her for an interview so we could get to know her more! Clara was the first place champion for week ending September 22, 2014. Clara is a kind, good friend and a long time supporter of mine, so I will be closely moderating replies to this post. Please be courteous!

Panicbutton: Hello Clara (Siam.CRTG) and thank you very much for agreeing to my interview questions. Congratulations on your recent First Place victory in the weekly Team Battle! "Line Rangers & Friends" is very lucky to get to know you and get a closer look at the top tier of Line Rangers Team Battle through your eyes.  

P: How long have you been playing Line Rangers? 
Clara: I've been playing since the game newly started end of March, when they launched the Line Rangers stickers and I downloaded the game to get the stickers, feel in love with the game since.

P: Many long-time Line Rangers players have gotten tired of the game lately. Do you feel this way? Or do you think you will feel this way in the next few months?
C: My heavy paying Line Rangers friends and I got so disappointed by the latest event of Limited Cony Yaris. We spent so much on it because of the first launch stat, but it's been adjusted to more than half less efficient within one night. So if Line Rangers keep doing this, a lot of players will quit soon and so will I.

P: What other games do you like to play?
C: Now I'm starting to play Line Stage, but not as addicted as Line Rangers.

P: The game has a ranger who has the same name as you. Do you like the splash ranger, Clara? Who is your favorite Ranger?
C: 555 That's funny, I wish Clara ranger would be one of those Limited ones. Of course I like splash rangers but it doesn't work much in pvp.

P: Who is your favorite LINE character? Why?
C: I can't really tell which one is my favorite LINE character. I love all of them, especially the funny ones.

P: How did you first decide to try to win the weekly team battle competition? What was your inspiration?
C: Frankly speaking, I only won the battle because of my Siam. team, mostly because Siam.aa (he is the Siam team Mentor), Siam.Ark( he is my line rangers mentor), Siam.อ้น, Siam.Therd and Siam.Chong. We play as a team and help each other.

P: Did you need to do any preparation before the competition began?
C: I need to prepare at least 2000 rubies in advance. I can't waste time to recharge the rubies during the battle. And I need to have lots of rest before the battle week begins.

P: Which rangers did you like to use on your team? Any special reasons why you chose those rangers?
C: I use Erica, Cony Kinnara, Dumpy, Mully , Brown MuayThai. In pvp the attack rangers (Dumpy & Mully) are the most effective rangers. They help me finish the game fast. I also need a splasher to hit the tower so I choose Erica, a long-range splasher and Cony Kinnara melee splasher. Of all the rangers I think Brown MuayThai is one of the best ranger (for now) because of his fast cd, speed type, almost 4 million HP and good attack, too, for only 640 minerals.

P: It seems like each week, the number of points required to get first place is gets higher and higher. How many points did you need to get to win first place last week?
C: The number of points required to get first place is gets higher and higher think it's a nature of competition. My last week points for 1st rank was 31,939.

P: How does it feel to win first place? Do you think you will try to win first place again? 
C: To win the first place takes a lot of time, energy, strategy, and rubies. I couldn't do it without my Siam friends. Last two weeks, I got 3rd place with my Siam friends' help, too. I'm not sure if I can have that much energy and time again.

P: From the point of view of everyone else, it looks like as soon as the weekly points reset, the competition rockets away nonstop. Is is true that nonstop playing is required to win? How much did last week's competition impact your daily life? 
C: It's not really non-stop playing but you need to know when to play and how long you need to play at a time. It could be 18 hours straight or it could be only 1 hour at a time. It is up to many things like your rank, other's score, score gap, etc.

P: Was it exciting and cutthroat for 7 days straight or did you feel like you have time to do some other things?
C: Yes it was fun and exciting. If you are playing for top 5, time is the thing you need to sacrifice. Also the rubies.

P: You did not get to the first place position at the beginning. Was this a strategy, to save some time and rubies in the first couple of days until the ranking settle down? 
C: I just didn't have time to play at the beginning of the week. But it's easier to get a lot of points from below.

P: Can you reveal to us approximately how many rubies you needed to keep at the top of the game? 
C: Well! It's different on each week, depend on lots of things. If you over-prepare special feathers then you will spend a lot more rubies. Last week I spent around 2500 rubies.

P: In the last several weeks, I have noticed that the Siam team and other Line Rangers teams have "stacked" the top ranks together. It created point gaps where the team players all have a much higher score than the next individual rank below them. This strategy is used to block others from gaining enough points to get to the top ranks, is this correct? Can you explain the point gap strategy, and how it began? 
C: We did not intended to block others from gaining the point (there's no such a thing as blocking others to gain enough points to get to the top rank, they can get to that amount of points in time), but to create a gap is just to give us some time to rest.
But you can only make that gap when you get to top rank. But to get to top rank is the most important thing. It takes time energy and a lot of strategies.

P: Is it harder to fight up to first place, or is it harder to remain in first place? How tough is the competition when you are at the top on the last day before reset?
C: The last day wasn't so difficult, only monitoring needed, but the 6 days before that we hardly sleep and eat, we spent almost all of our time on pvp (4 days and 4 nights continuously if I'm not mistaken).

P: Did you have much assistance and support from the Siam team during last week's competition? Can you describe what it is like to be on a Line Rangers team?
C: As I've mentioned before, I will not be able to be 1st rank if I not in Siam team. We are always supporting each other. Siam.aa (our team mentor) always shares video clip of how to win the battle. Siam.อ้น Siam.Chong also share the video clips on Endless Mode, too.
My line rangers mentor Siam.Ark always teaches me how to play and how to use all items. All of us 21 members in Siam team are so nice Siam.aa ,Siam.Ark Badshit ,Siam.#^.^#ครุคริ , Siam.Ball, Siam.THErd , Siam.Chong, Siam.palmyXFreak, Siam.Kurt of BKK, Siam.joEcnx, Siam.อ้น, we always support each other (even though some of us did not use "Siam" in front of their name but they are one of us like Cindy , Totoro ,Naratah , Wachara , Maggy , P'Nhong , DDดีดี , Oat and  หมอชนบท ) .

P: Do you have team strategies that you cannot reveal to the public? If yes, you can just say yes, you don't have to tell me what it is :)
C: Yes we have some strategy that we would like to keep it between us, and also some rules, too, like no cheats. I think every team has it.

P: If you could have one new feature or change to the game, what would it be? 
C: If I could wish for the new feature, exchange rangers from one players to another may be, to reduce our expense in  Gacha, don't you agree? Or maybe Line Rangers can make new extra power feature like Brown combo team or Cony combo team would put a lot more challenge in the game.

P: Is there anything else you would like to share with the Line Rangers & Friends blog audience?
C: Line Rangers is a great game, nice community though, but things are changing. Too many new rangers players had to spend more rubies to mastered new rangers. But things are getting better when the Erica's set comes, a lot easier to get new rangers mastered.
The turning points would be Cony Yaris, it is limited line ranger should think it through before releasing it, not release it and then adjust it after one whole night ( just like you release a ranger that so much like a dragon but when you get hold of it , it's just a simple dog with a dragon skin).  I felt like I've been cheated.

C: Thank you so much Panic, for this interview. It's an honor to be interview by the very famous blogger Panic. Thank you so much again for interviewing me. It's always been my dreams to be in one of your articles.
P: Thanks very much for doing the interview, Clara. I really appreciate that you took the time to share your experience with the Line Rangers community. 

So there you have it! I got some insight on some things about the weekly competition and how intense it can get at various points in the week. In addition, it is quite obvious to those heading into battle with their eyes on the top prize that it is not "worth it" in rubies, because they know they will have to spend at least 2000 rubies on special feathers alone and they will only get a maximum of 1000 rubies as a prize. I get the feeling that the experience of the competitive arena of Team Battle is worth more than the reward. When was the last time you played a game and didn't eat or sleep for 4 days in the heat of it? :)

I am also reminded that even though this game hasn't turned into all we hoped it to be, it has brought a lot of people together in ways that no one ever imagined. The team/clan companionship that has developed is remarkable. Below is a roster list of 2 other famously popular teams in the Line Rangers community. No doubt you have seen some of these players' work on YouTube and elsewhere.

The feeling of gamer burnout is not just for semi-casual players who have grown disappointed at the game. It apparently goes all the way up to the hard core top tiers of competitors as well. Nevertheless, there are still fun aspects to the game -- if you are willing to overlook some of the more frustrating aspects in order to trudge on and save Sally. Many, many people still play Line Rangers with varying degrees of passion. I have stopped spending cash on the game, but I still pick it up and play every now and then. I still look forward to the challenge of new stages. In fact, I was just looking at the calendar... it has been over a month since the Ravine of Death was released. Granted, I've decided since its release to take the slow, casual route through it and I am still working on stage 144, but, I do wonder why it is taking so long to release new stages. Is LINE brewing up something else in the background or are they just taking their sweet time because of the number of new rangers they scheduled to release this month?

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed reading the interview as much as I enjoyed doing it. Stay fresh, friends.