One of my ambitions with this project is not only to cover 6s but also Highlander. This interview is with Melon of the recent HL Invite winners Witness Gaming. NEARLY 4 hours long!
UGC Nostalgia and in depth discussions about what went right and wrong in her career leading up to her first highlander championship included. Maybe you'll want to go on a long journey and put it on audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yolJjkRykoo
Timestamps
00:00 Intro (Troubles getting the recording scheduled, little bit of banter)
07:10 First season of Pyro & talking old UGC maps (UGC Season 9 - Cuties, grinding and reminiscing about UGC and the maps Haunt, CP maps like Croissant, Barnblitz, etc.)
17:00 UGC All Stars and How Big it was Back Then
21:06 Talking about the amount of team participation in UGC back then
22:44 Perception of Now vs. Then - How UGC was back THEN in terms of the community vs. Now with RGL (Community size, ambitions, developing the meta and map pools, levels of teams vs. back then, Weapon Whitelists etc.)
39:20 UGC Season 10 - 12 Gold Times with Cuties, nominated to All Stars, but failing to go farther than playoffs (Falling short, team and individual philosophies to playing TF2)
50:05 UGC Platinum Debut in Season 13 with Runaway 5 (roster discussion, pitfalls of UGC scheduling resulting in their record, the strength of UGC Platinum at the time)
52:00 Sub-topic: Cheating controversies at the time with m4risa and Axiomatic going schizo calling out cheaters, UGC vs. RGL with harassment and AC
56:00 Casting back then and the community driving out aspiring casters for not being qualified in TF2 experience
1:04:00 Discussing the VOD on screen (eBm vs. r5 Preseason scrim), Degreaser nerf, random stuff
1:07:00 Last final season of Plat UGC S17 with Ban Paals, roster discussion, Yipayapper, and taking a break between then
1:09:20 Regrets about not maining for Kids Next Door Season 14 and discussion about Kids Next Door, random mention about Blunderful
1:16:55 Random cups participated in, discussing the controversy of Team USA in the Nations Cup
1:20:05 Discussing players that defined the meta of their class (eventually evolves into random throwbacking about random UGC names)
1:32:15 The nuances of playing Pyro and the various playstyles a pyro can have
1:45:50 Integrating new maps into a constricted map pool for Highlander, the shortcomings of Eruption, discussing Proot, Borneo, Cascade other maps
1:52:20 Nostalgic map discussion
1:57:20 Owen season (Chill penguins)
2:02:20 Order of the White Lotus
2:06:33 The rise and collapse of Season 7 Cuties (In-depth discussion about how they fell apart in playoffs, how Memento Mori got incredibly good,m etc.)
2:21:30 Fat Peter, RGL Season 8 (trying to pick up the pieces of the season 7 collapse, Man Crush Monday switching up their roster in Playoffs to beat Fat Peter)
2:27:00 The Fog, RGL Season 12 (side topic: how good of a medic Toy is)
2:31:56 Phish's reputation precedes him (discussion about Phish)
2:36:00 Season 14 and Season 15 Fast Fourth (how hard it was to play against Dimento/Jacob in these Grand Finals)
2:49:05 Third Time's the Charm: Season 16 Witness Gaming and breaking the curse (pretty much talking solely grand finals, mainly Steel and Asheville)
3:35:30 Completing the pinnacle of her career: thoughts on winning Grand Finals
3:39:42 How does Melon view the rest of her career?
3:47:27 Closing Thoughts, monologues about specific players that impacted her throughout her career + closing line from Melon
2:02:20 Order of the White Lotus
2:06:33 The rise and collapse of Season 7 Cuties (In-depth discussion about how they fell apart in playoffs, how Memento Mori got incredibly good,m etc.)
2:21:30 Fat Peter, RGL Season 8 (trying to pick up the pieces of the season 7 collapse, Man Crush Monday switching up their roster in Playoffs to beat Fat Peter)
2:27:00 The Fog, RGL Season 11 (side topic: how good of a medic Toy is)
2:31:56 Phish's reputation precedes him (discussion about Phish)
2:36:00 Season 14 and Season 15 Fast Fourth (how hard it was to play against Dimento/Jacob in these Grand Finals)
2:49:05 Third Time's the Charm: Season 16 Witness Gaming and breaking the curse (pretty much talking solely grand finals, mainly Steel and Asheville)
3:35:30 Completing the pinnacle of her career: thoughts on winning Grand Finals
3:39:42 How does Melon view the rest of her career?
3:47:27 Closing Thoughts, monologues about specific players that impacted her throughout her career + closing line from Melon