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This interview is about Snook, a player who got ranked no 1 on Phoenix#2 weeks ago and he is still number one in the moment I write this article, he is ranked top number one also on Master Level Main rankings, Hall of Fame general rankings, Chaos Castle general rankings, and second ranked Castle Siege Tank rankings , and he is also a member of "The Council" (one of the newest Old Squad projects). Reporter: "Hello, Snook ! Welllcomeeeee to the News Paper's Hall of Fammeeeeeeeee ! Snook:"Hello, Mr. Reporter ! Thank you for having me ! 🙏 " Reporter : " Can you, please, give us a description of yourself? Name, age, occupation, hobbies, etc. ? " Snook:"My name is Florin. I am 25 years old, from Romania. I am self-employed , with 3 different income sources at the moment. My main hobbies would be sports ( with fitness and football being by far my favorite , but I also enjoy table tennis and basketball), movies , tv-shows, cars and reading and learning constantly new things " Reporter:" Three different income sources? Wow tell us a bit more about that." Snook:" Well, it's nothing special. They are all related to health. Two are strongly correlated, I am a personal trainer and a health and nutrition coach and I am also involved in my mother's business ( a medicinal leeches bio laboratory) which has been my main activity for the past months due to the covid19 situation." Reporter:" Regarding this covid 19 pandemic, how did it affect you?" Snook:" My major problem with covid19 was that they closed the gyms and they also blocked international transportation by air, which affected our sales. I also feel the need to say that this is far from a pandemic with this new virus " Reporter: "How much time do you spend/day playing mu OldSquad (average)? " Snook:" It really depends. For the past two weeks, I've spent about 2-3 hours, maybe. Today under 1 hour, so far 😂 . At the start of the server, I was on maybe 10-14 hours since my activities were closed/at a minimum level. " Reporter : "When did you start to play Mu Online? " Snook:"I first started when I was 11-12 maybe with my older brother. It was a 97d server and we had no idea what we were doing After that we played on and off, mostly together. There was a break of 5-6 years maybe where we didn't play any server, suddenly realizing how many things appeared and how much the game has evolved. This is probably the longest DB that I've played continuously. " Reporter : "How did you find OldSquad ?" Snook:" My brother found it on xtremetop100 when there was a 50rr edition. 2 years ago maybe. We loved it from the start, as we could see how much passion ADMIN put into making this server probably the best private one at this moment. I mean , not only ADMIN , the entire OS team." Reporter :"What nicknames did you have in the past?"" Snook:" I think I had Florin the first time and then Snook. In the first servers I had Sn0ok3r , the nickname I was using on CS 1.6" Reporter: "Do you have any VIP activated? What types of VIP did you use since the start of Phoenix and why?" Snook:"I have PRO vip for the past 4-6 weeks, I think. I've started with HUNTER, had VIP activated all the time. Started with HUNTER because it was better than DEALER for leveling up. " Reporter: " How did you manage to climb in top and eventually get the most desired place ? Can you reveal us "the secret"? " Snook:"If you wanna play for the top you MUST have a permanent party and try to have someone to cover the party all the time (being able to refill at nights and lvling up at top spots makes all the difference). We've tested on test-server the best spots for every level and we managed to get a nice lead versus the others. I've managed to get 1st now just because Rusuletz and Makiavelli stopped playing ( so seriously ). They've had pro vip since the release and therefore they had a big advantage at leveling. " Reporter:" But still, you were chasing the no 1 rank since server started and it came a bit late, what made the difference between you and the "stage breakers" back then?" Snook:" There were a couple of reasons. First one, the release of Grizzly spots in Elbeland right before the start of the server (which are better than ice queen in dev4). We didn't pay attention to that reply on the forum and didn't know about this. Secondly, the warp bug for dungeon 3 ( where you could walk to dungeon 3 at 53 or sth instead of 70). After that, the party kill rate made another difference (they had 2 dl's in party with OP dmg while SM was hitting 3-400 in karutan1). Another big difference was made by our party member Alex, which told mafy to move to our maps every time we were making xp better than them " Reporter :" What about HoF rankings, how did you got so many trophies? " Snook:" CC is playing a huge role in that. I've been getting first there for the past 5-6 weeks I think. Of course, PRO vip plays an important part in this, since you have an extra entry/day." Reporter :"Since you are top no one Soul Master player on the server, can you reveal us a few tips about Soul Master pvp build/ ML skill tree? Can you reveal your stats ?" Snook:"Well, I don't want to reveal them , since this makes quite a difference. I've tested several builds with each RR and now I think I've found the best one so far. It also depends on play-style/set. As with ML , on SM it's pretty basic , nothing special. " Reporter :"What advice would you give to a player playing on this server for the first time, what should he do to get to the top places? How should he build stats on Soul Master ?" Snook:"Sneaky question . He should try to get into all bc/ds / day. They matter a lot actually. In my opinion, at the start he could try and have higher vitality/agility to survive in better maps. After he gets a decent gear, he can decrease those and add to energy. SM is very gear dependent, without a nice staff and wings, his dmg is very poor. And, of course, try and get a permanent party with shared teamviewer/anydesk." Reporter :"What characters do you think are the best for PvP ? Snook:"It depends on the stage of the game. At this moment, close to end game , I believe SM/SUM to be the best. BK is probably the best PVP as long as he one shots sm/sum with combo , if he doesn't then he'd die from the DPS. " Reporter: "Speaking of permanent party... Can you tell us a few words about the importance of a perma party on OldSquad, and a short story about how you and your perma mates got together?" Snook:"Permanent party , with shared TV/anydesk is the most important aspect on the server. Being able to refill the chars when the user is AFK or bring back from safe-zone if he dies will make all the difference in experience. Without one you might die in the first 2 minutes after you go AFK and realize that you've wasted 5-6 hours. Every minute is important for experience, especially at the start. Often you notice multiple differences in levels in a party between members that go to events (ex. invasions) and the ones that just afk on spot. We've actually replaced our perma a lot this DB. Started with Venom (who is a real-life good friend of mine) and Alex (we met on forum for Inception last db and we became friends, what were the odds that we were living so close to each other? ). Searching for 2 more players for our perma we found Mindpower and Rain, but their objective with the game was different than ours, they wanted a more chill approach so after a few weeks we changed members and kept changing since 1 member after another stopped playing. Right now the party consists of me , Venom , Waste and Duke. " Reporter: " Why Squadron disbanded? " Snook:"Most of the players stopped playing after the first 2-4 weeks , so there was no point in keeping the guild anymore. At a moment only Zutto, Waste and Chukundah were still playing, while all the others were afk , busy with work or other stuff. " Reporter : "What happened with BedeJutro's items during the most controversial Castle Siege on Phoenix#2 ?" Snook:" Well, obviously, someone with access on the account logged on him and took his items during CS time. It was pretty nice for him to give them back though." Reporter:" So, it wasn't you?" Snook:" Pretty hard to be me when I was facing 20-25 players trying to kill me on stamp during that time. I know I'm tough, but I still have to press Q Also, I never had the details to that account as I had no business with that party members." Reporter:" Last week Hardcore created 3 guilds to kick Sapphire from Castle Siege and then they farmed points to get free Lord Boxes, how do you comment their action? " Snook:"I don't really care. For me the competition on the server is dead for several weeks now. Maybe now that random guild may realize how inexperienced they really are. " Reporter: " Do you think that your guild can win the Castle Siege? " Snook:"In a close number of members fight , yeah. If there is a guild with double the number of players , probably not. Anyway , we are pretty busy and had no time for CS. " Reporter:" At the beginning of this data base you were a Hardcore member, what happened? Why did you left the guild and then moved to the "enemy guild" ?" Snook:" Most of the players did not want me there , they made it pretty clear , so there was no point for me to stay. I also did not want to play with them, but I entered because of Alex and Rus." Reporter:"Since you are a council member, can you give us some details about what this council means, why you applied, how you were elected and what your expectations are from this council? " Snook:"It's everything at the start, so I know as much as it was presented to everyone. I was invited by Gion to take part in this project , which I'm honored and happy to. I hope that together we can make OS projects more fun, balanced and enjoyable for all types of players , from serious to casual. " Reporter : " Do you read the News Paper ? " Snook:"ALWAYS!! " Reporter : " Do you believe in superstitions? Do you think that the Castle is Cursed? " Snook:"Somehow , maybe. I think it brings a lot of greed at surface, but it all depends on the people that make the guild. We never had issues in Squadron with this because everyone has equal chances for the items " Reporter : " Did you see what happened to the guilds that held the castle? If it is not the "curse" (which can be defined by greed, selfishness and pride), what could it be to destroy the most of the guilds in that way?" Snook:" In my most sincere opinion , the core members of the guild. If they see themselves above the rest of the players , as the only party/players that matter , then of course the others will not accept this." Reporter :"What do you suggest to improve on NewsPaper ?" Snook:"Well, I truly enjoy it, but maybe sometimes it can be made more fact-based, rather than dramatize. But maybe it's just my preference." Reporter: "On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you like Phoenix#2 ?" Snook:"I'd go with a 7." Reporter: " What would you change to this server? What do you expect from the following servers?" Snook:"I would want to see a slower pace for the server and fewer bugs/ more balance for top events. Compared to my experience on Inception, it feels that ADMIN didn't have that much time for this edition, which is understandable, many things may appear in someone's daily life. " Reporter: "There are rumors that the last base date you were banned,are they true? What happened? Snook:"Yes , although I'm not sure why it's a rumor , since it was never a secret. I tried to sell my account. Wanted to quit forever, heard from someone that he did , so I figured why not make some money if I invested so much time in the end. Wasn't aware at that time of the rule. " Reporter: "What do you think about this rule related to the sale of items / accounts for real money? The buyer receives free of charge what the seller offers if he reports to Admin."" ? Snook:"I believe many ABUSE this rule, forcing this kind of trades. I presented my opinion to ADMIN at that time also. People should be encourage to report this for the community , and just get them banned, but not get the items or especially the account. Maybe a small reward like toca,ob,creds." Reporter: "There are some rumors on the server that say VIP affects the concept of "play-to-win gameplay", what do you think of these rumors? Is a player who is active able reach the top without donating? " Snook:" Definitely , maybe they'd have to donate the first 2 weeks , or at least the first one. You can make a lot of credits by selling items/jwls. I made around 25-30K this edition so far I think. The game would be harder and more enjoyable without blacksmith upgrades (+12/ add luck) and therefore the credit trades will be lower , jwls will be more important and less scams, but this server is not for free , so I understand it perfectly that it needs to generate revenue for it to self sustain.Although probably PRO vip is a little OP" Reporter:"I have 4 challenges for you, do you accept them? Now it's a fixed number 😂" Snook:" Bring it on " Reporter :"Challenge no 1: I need the names of the 3 players you respect the most from Sapphire, the names of the 3 players you hate from this guild, the names of the 3 players you respect the most on OldSquad and the names of the 3 you dislike the most on OldSquad" Snook:" I respect no one from Sapphire , I've barely saw a couple of them on server, I don't hate anyone either. Hating someone over a game seems really problematic for me. I'm really indifferent with all of them. The 3 players I respect the most on OS, that's hard. I'd have to go with Voyager (very nice guy with great leadership skills), Exilia ( always minded his business and never trash talked, also had the pleasure to play in party with him for a couple of weeks and had some really, really interesting talks with him) and Diablo ( he truly understands the concept of fair play and game competition). Reporter: " Challenge no 2: Tell me 3 things you like most about our staff team, and 3 things you don't like about them!" Snook:" Well , let's see. I like how they try and come up with different events ideas , such as soccer , or OSGM. I like how seriously they take into consideration racism speech ( I believe this to be one of the problems that shouldn't exist in our time) I also like how they leave a freedom to free speach and room for fights on the server , adds some spice to the game sometimes I think they should take into consideration better actions against repetitive toxic players. I don't like how uncarelessly Admin sometimes responds to forum posts.." Reporter:" Challenge no 3: Tell us 3 things you would improve on our server and top 3 things you like the most" Snook :" Things I would improve: 1. Better balance for top events, especially IT. 2. Slower pace of game-play 3. Lower rewards from stages. " "Three things I like the most: 1. Stages 2. CS game-play 3.The server configuration and how the information is presented" Reporter: " Challenge no 4 : Tell us the council members names and your opinion about each one" Snook:" Council members at this moment are: ADMIN, Alex, Archie, Cerberus, Legion, mafy, Nephilim, snake, snook, Waste, Zutto. Admin- don't know him that well , seems like a decent guy that puts passion into this server Alex - friend of mine , biggest noob , hard to carry him for the second time, lucky for me I'm quite strong ( lots of love Alex) ; he sometimes comes up with awesome ideas for this server (ex: pvpquest) Archie - I don't know him at all Cerberus - played with him a little on Inception , seemed like a serious guy Legion - haven't seen him once so far mafy - he cares only about his own interest Nephilim - pretty decent , funny guy snake - I don't know him Snook - hopefully you'll make an idea from this interview Waste - pretty smart and funny guy , it's a pleasure to play with him Zutto - he seems to mind his own business" Reporter:" Do you strongly believe that this group of players will bring servers that will be appreciated by all players who will join?" Snook :" I truly believe each and everyone has their strengths and weakness and together I think we will complete each other and we will manage to improve the server's quality, even if it's only with a little." Reporter:" Thank you very much for time and patience, I wish you GL on all plans!" Snook:" Thank you very much also , it was a pleasure " This was Snook's Interview, a top player, council member and "behind the keyboard" seems to be a honest guy who enjoys to be a part of our community !