An interview with Paradox

Today our very own Jamie ‘jaMzki’ Bullen sits down with Jan "paradox" Duchon to talk through the goings-on in the new TCM camp.

Heya Jan. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me and do my first interview for Cybergamer. Even though everyone here should know you, could you please just give us a brief overview of yourself and your current situation in CoD4?

Hey there, my name is Jan Duchon, im 20 years old. Currently working as "sales agent" in one Czech company and as well scoping in TCM-Gaming .

In the past couple of months, you could say it hasn’t been the most stable for you guys at TCM. Going though numerous organisations, which is totally out of character for you as you were in Power Gaming for a long time. Can you please explain the problems you had securing a good organisation and why it went bad in the others?

Well, it was really hard time for us. I don't really like changes of organisations at all. We were in eSuba for most of a year with hope that they can manage to get some support for us, they didn't so we had to leave with hope of better home. Power offered us really stable and great home, it was really amazing time in this organisation, unfortunately Glen Elliot - investor, decided to stop funding it, which is understandable and we had to look for a new home. Like I said, it was really hard for us. With a few major events coming up and with all decent org's having their teams, we couldn't really find any organisation which would be suitable for us. However, few weeks or I think it was even few days before SAGE event in Enschede, we were contacted by Next-Evolution and they offered us pretty good deal. We joined them, but somewhere in back of our mind, we felt that this will be one-lan organisation and as you know, it became real. Investor ran away, then appeared again somehow and then again failed with his promises. So we were looking for an organisation again after one event. We managed to talk with Online-Kingdom, actually it was toxjee who was in contact with them, we agreed on the terms and joined them pretty fast. Everything looked fine, but for example Nick and Erik still didn't have their plane tickets for about 48hours before the event and also we almost missed the lan because of late payment of entry fee, fortunately for us, I'm close friends with the organisators, so they "reserved" a slot for us. After the LAN, we were contacted by TCM-Gaming managers, we did some nice conversation on Skype and everything looked more professional like back in Power Gaming days to us, then just talking with our staff in OK by emails with 3 days delay, so after few evenings we finished all about contracts and stuff like that and we joined one of the most stable organisations around here - TCM Gaming. OK might be fine, who knows, but they got private investor and after 2 "fails" before, we just felt that TCM is better choice for us. Someone can say it's backstabbing or even joining for free hardware which TCM sponsors provides, but this is just ridiculous.


Paradox lifting the first place trophy at Gamersject Winter Challenge!

Would you agree the dominant performances you had earlier this year, that took you to number one spot in Europe was down to having the backing of a top organisation like pwr?

Of course that without their support we wouldn't be able to attend most of the events, even thought we paid events in start of our career, but with international line-up, it would be even harder now. So I would say, yes!

You guys unarguably had the best performances when you were in pwr. Would you say that now you have the backing from a top organization again, you will be able to get back on track and regain your number one spot?

I think it's not a lack of performance at all, we just weren't that active due to unlucky timing on events like OOF and others. Same goes for online tournaments which we mostly played with merc's or even didn't play them at all. After a few months of inactivity, it's really hard to be back on same level as before, but we were really confident and I think that we are already back in action. I really don't want to talk about SAGE lan, because who was there, he just saw it. It was like a race of formula 1, but you had to race with solu's VW Golf versus Formula 1, our pc's weren't really best and if you got this in your head, it's really hard to think about the game and be focused on it.

To retake your number one spot, you will need to attend LANs and win. What is the next LAN or LANs you are looking to attend with TCM?

I can't really wait for that day, we meet Anexis in grand finals and re-take number one spot again. I'm hoping for ending on top of the pyramid at the end of this year, no other goal is in my mind. Our next lan will be i44, unfortunately we can't attend HCC in Helsinki. After i44 we will surely go to e-series maximus in Amsterdam and also we will have 2 lans in Czech Republic, which we will attend in full line-up.

This will be the first time you have been LAN with your new fifth germaine. Can you please tell us the reasoning behind such a valuable player like king having to leave? Also why did you guys pick up germaine?

I was playing with king basically from start of CoD4 and it was really hard to me, to say goodbye to him. But he doesn't have time for active playing anymore, due to his girlfriend and new job, so if we wanted to continue, we had to make line-up change. About germaine, I think he's one of best ak's in CoD4 history, his style is perfect and similar to king, so it wasn't really problem for us and him, to adapt to each other.

With having a Czech player leaving the line-up and adding a UK player, do you think this has affected the teams calls or communication in game?

It affected our calls of course. King's English wasn't best (so is mine), so me and lubo had to basically call some stuff for him in Czech, so it was sometimes really hard, but we still did pretty good. Also germaine knew our gamestyle as an opponent and also knew about our mistakes or "holes" in tactics from that point of view, so we really improved a lot of things because of him.


Old line up of pwr gaming winning AEF 2010. Will they return to number 1 spot with new fifth Germaine?

With your new line-up do you feel you're back on top? If not what teams do you rate above yourself?

We weren't really out of TOP for like 3 years already, but I can't surely say that we are the best around. No one is really the best in CoD4, the game is too random for it, but so are other games. I think we have a pretty decent amount of good teams around, such as Anexis, Phantasmagoria, LLL which makes together with us that TOP4 at this moment.

You have been a top scope in the scene for years, attending many LANs also! Could you please tell us what game you feel you played your best in?

I can't really think of any moment from around 30 lans I attended, but for me best lans were The-eXperience 2009, LAN79 2009, Antwerp E-Sports Festival 2010 and Gamersject 2011. I really enjoyed these events, but same goes to 25+ other events. LANs, that's why I'm playing the game!

Recently we have seen a massive announcement with the new league system released by CyberGamer. Something online that is regular and competitive! Where do you see CoD4 in the next few months?

CG is great project for CoD4 community, pug's are amazing and features which CG website has are just hilarious, shame we didn't have this website like 4 years ago, things would be much better now. The future of CoD4 is really promising. 2012 lans already announced, many online cups and ladders for prizes, lot of streams and shoutcasts, CoD4 is doing really great now.

If CoD4 doesn't grab the CG opportunity with both hands and starts to sink. What do you see yourself doing in the future? Will you hang your mouse up or find a new game?

I don't think that his will happen, but if CoD4 dies somehow. I don't think that anyone from my team will continue in active gaming in any other game. I would probably just play Battlefield 3 for fun in evenings or something else, but nothing serious.

Thank you for letting me interview you Jan! Really hope you and your team return to LAN and are as strong as you have been! Is there any shout-outs that you would like to add?

I would like to thank to everyone who is supporting us and also to those haters, because they are pretty funny sometimes. For followers, here is my facebook fanpage http://facebook.com/nevo.paradox , you can find config, demos and updates around our team and myself. I would also like to thank TCM-Gaming and our sponsors Mad Catz, CoolerMaster, Cyborg, Tritton, CM Storm, Multiplay & Enuzi for their support!


Hope everyone enjoys the read! There is more to follow!