Declan Elcocks of TCM.COD4 speaks!

Just two months ago we announced the signing of the former Online-Kingdom Call of Duty 4 team, who are now representing the TCM-Gaming brand.

The Content Manager of TCM-Gaming, Mart ’M2R’ Valdin sat down with the newest member and yet the oldest member of the team Declan ’germaine’ Elcocks.

In the interview Declan talks about returning to TCM-Gaming, which once was his home back in 2009, aswell as his expectations for the rest of the year.

Hello Declan, could you please give us a short introduction?

Hey Mart, I’m currently playing for TCM-Gaming having just stepped in for king as the team’s AK player having come over from the LowLandLions.CoD4 team. 

Whereabouts in the United-Kingdom do you live? How is the weather there currently?

I’ve actually just moved back to Leicester where I’m at university studying Computer Science which is good, I finally have good internet. And as for the weather, being the UK, it’s grey and miserable of course!

Moving on to gaming now. You have now returned to TCM-Gaming, which was your home back in 2009. Can you give us your thoughts on returning?

It came as a good surprise to be playing with these guys, and then a few days into playing with the team it was sprung upon me that we were in talks with TCM. Having been in TCM myself in the past I was of course thrilled about this, since I was in the organisation it’s definitely come a long way through the hard work of the management. While the support was still good back in the day, I think TCM is in a much more stable and wealthier place right now which can only be good for our team. I’ve always kept on good terms with the management, and I could tell from speaking to them briefly when in ’talks’ with TCM that I would enjoy working with Jim and Craig once more, I don’t know if it’s just UK organisations, but I can only vouch for TCM and dignitas being the only organsations with managers that are so hands on and great to work with.

You have now been playing with your new team for a few weeks. How is the team chemistry withing the team at the moment?

The chemistry is good, we’ve only been playing together a little while so each day we’re trying to incorporate some new tactics here and there, I know how their team works and what wins them rounds and what loses them rounds from playing against them all for a good 2/3 years, so I already feel like I know how each player plays. It’s just a case of getting used to all the small things we do in-game and of course getting to know each other out of game!

What sort of expectations and objectives have you personally set for yourself for the rest of 2011?

Let me think about what there is in 2011, well there is a smaller Czech LAN that we should aim to win, and regarding European events, I know the team will be aiming for top 3 and preferably a 1st place. Myself, I’ve not played any officials with the team yet so I find it hard to judge, of course realistically we should do really well and I think we can do once we’ve given ourselves a few weeks to settle in and prepare well tactics wise.

Talking about the expectations for the team. Will you be looking to regain the number one spot in Europe? What else have you set for the team?

Definitely, I know the guys are eager to take back the number 1 spot and so am I.

Talking a bit about the Call of Duty series now. How do you see the Call of Duty 4 scene move foward in the next months?

It can only get better, there are a few LANs coming up, and a few huuuuuge online tournaments, I hope this will continue to next year, and with the signups going strong I think it can. And there always the rumours of the bigger LANs coming back once again in 2012.

What do you think will Modern Warfare 3 be the next competitive game in the Call of Duty series or will the community stay true to their roots and continue on Call of Duty 4?

Well I don’t think it will be great, every CoD game that comes out now is worse and worse, I’ve seen the trailers and gameplay videos and to me it looks just like Black Ops or Modern Warfare 2. I’m referring to the maps when I say this, the maps are terrible for competitive play in my eyes, you look at the well known maps of CoD4, your mp_strike...your mp_crash etc. You can jump into the middle fo the map and take a quick glance around you, and know where someone would peak from, and if they are peaking you can see them clear as day. But with these new games, you take once glance around you and you’ve got endless amounts of rubbish around the map which just distracts you. You could probably have 10 or so people camping around the map and you would never even spot them, to me this is the problem with most of the new games.

Okey well, we are now almost at the end of this interview, lets do a couple of quick fire question.

• Favourite food? - Steak
• Favourite drink? - Whiskey
• Favourite player? - Carl 'vasquez' Finch
• Favourite lan event you have attended? - The eXperience 2009 for the atmosphere the venue creates!
• Favourite gadget? - My mouse? :D I don’t own any gadgets
• Favourite organization? - TCM-Gaming...duh
• Favourite teammate? - All?!

Thank you for your time Declan, do you have any shoutouts you’d like to send out?

Thanks to Jim and Craig for taking us on board, and taking me on board once more, thanks to all the sponsors Mad Catz, Cooler Master, Cyborg, Tritton, CM Storm, Multiplay and Enuzi! And hello to Jeff Kim from the outer rim!