Interview with Burloque XIV

Interview with Burloque XIV 2008-05-28 by tummitummi

How did you for the first time find shockplay and when was it?

-That was may 2004, i was playing table tennis single-player at some game site and i saw the site shockplay.com at the back of the screen. So i decided to check it out and thats how it started.

Was tabletennis your favourite game from the beginning or have you had other favourites on shockplay?

-tt was definitely the reason why i came to this site, it was only a lot later that i started playing other games too, but tt has always been my favourite game. Other games i like are othello, courone, scribble, slotcar and shanghai.
Only backgammon and chess i really dont like

With 74 weeks in elite league and 10 golds you are clearly one of the best ever in tt. can you tell about some opponents you played "back in the days" when you first started and when you was playing in elite league.

You can roughly say that there are 2 periods that i have been in league. The first one was from autumn/winter 2004 until spring 2006 and the 2nd period was just 2 or 3 months in the beginning of 2007. The first period was defenitly the most fun. There were many good players who were active both at shockplay as at several forums and other tournaments that were organised. Ill tell shortly about some players that were active at that time and have retired now.
champ: by many seen as the best player ever, he was able to beat wickey and everyone else if he was in the mood. very good curves and strong defense too.

leahan: the smash king, also good defense but mostly known for his unstopable side to side and net smashes.

TheCommander: an allround very good player, has good defense and attack too. mrking: hes mostly very good at defense, but he uses tactic too by trying to play a lot at your weak side.

bigtymer: he was famous for his excellent curves.

yifeic: his original name was aeou and we have played a lot against each other as guest. He won 2 gm in 3 weeks while wickey was in league too. I wasnt there when he did that.

Wickey has also been active since spring 2004. Because there were so many good players and because I wasnt as good either, it was very hard for me to get goldmedal and the first one i got was only i mean that wasnt until april 2005. Here moyashi, the shockplay reporter of that time wrote something about it. i was quite lucky that week :)

http://www.freewebs.com/labrie-site/Archives4.html#Apr13

In total i got 3 goldmedals in that first period. Then there was a long break, and when i returned in begin 2007 all the players i talked about were gone. Only wickey was there and she had won almost every goldmedal since i was gone. So the objective was to beat her and if i did that, it was just a formality to win gold. Wickey and i played about 11 times and i won 8 times of that. The points lasted often longer then an hour and we did matches of 3 or even one point. I won 7 gm in the 2-3 months i was in league. I left again because of what happened in the article i showed you. If u look at labrie-site, u can see more on many other old players i didnt tell about. especialy this u must read: http://www.webbteknik.se/shockplay/thestoryofleahan/joakimrosen.htm
: dirty talk of wickey and champ there hehe

That was nice thoughs. I have also seen that you are about to play a national match for Netherlands against Sweden in couronne. Is that correct and is that something you look forward to?

That match has just took place last friday. I had to play against kliffhanger. ive never been so good at courone and the complete elit of courone is swedish so it wasnt hard to predict who was gonna win. It was fun though, first match i played pretty good but lost but the 2nd one against him, I was worse and so he won even more easily. I asked him if we could replace our match by one in tt, but strange enaugh he didnt agree with that :p

Then i havent stay updated enough, hehe. you are also back in tt league. are you gonna go for gold this time also?

Yes, thats the plan, i dont think i would've joined league if i saw myself as being chanceless for gm. it shouldnt be too much trouble, last time i won wickey too almost every time. =) And kira i worry about, i dont know her so well yet, but i played with her once and i was very impressed.

Well you have the confidence so the future will tell if you still have the skills with you also=) anything more you want to put in yourself?

Well, i hope it will stay active a little longer and not blead to silence again. im also glad theres a new admin with a fresh look at things and i wish you goodluck with your job.

Thank you very much for that and thanks a lot for taking time for the interview. Good luck in the comeback now and take care=)

After the interview we decided to play a game also which resulted in 11-8, 11-6 for burloque and I also think he has a lot more to give =) //peace tummitummi