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In this first article in our "Get to know the team" series, we ask Peter 'ptER' Mather where he started in the Call of Duty Scene, and how he got to where he is today.

A little known fact about my gaming progression to where I am today is where I started off. It was the place that got me into true competitive gaming, that sparked my interest in LAN events and more importantly, the place that got me from public servers and into the mainstream community. The type of place that I originated from is quite often mocked, as some lesser position to be in, for those that have no other choice, but I will tell you this, I miss my times in that mini-community, I had more fun and enjoyment there than in any other place since I left. Anyway, enough of this little introduction, time to tell the story of how i got to where I am today.

My introduction to Call of Duty is probably similar to everyone else who plays the game, through a friend. I saw the game, in all its beauty and splendor on my friends computer. Previously to this all I had really seen in terms of games was the Sega Mega drive that my Dad brought home every Christmas from base, and my friends Nintendo 64, so you can probably imaging the effect that it had on me. I was enthralled, gripped and addicted, the amount of hours that I clocked up was actually quite shocking, so much so that a few months after the start of my new addiction my parents took it upon themselves to try and distance me from my PC, setting up curfews and time limitations. Throughout this period I had joined many clans including most notably [P*A*G] and eventually extended teams, which kept me interested in the game.

A few years on a new version of the game that I loved so dearly was released, this is a game that, on the surface was going to revolutionize everything I knew and loved, so I was apprehensive about embracing it openly at first. I started off, like undoubtably all of you did playing in public servers. I must say, that at first I wasn’t too impressed, everything was so different from what I had become accustomed too and I must admit that for a short period, I did strafe into the murky waters of World of Warcraft.

Now, after a short time away from the franchise that I had become so accustomed too, I decided that I wanted to return, to try and give the game another go. It was at this stage that I bumped into quite a well known community within Call of Duty 4, Deadly Forces. Now, I know for a fact that the competitive community looks down upon groups like these, and for the life of me I don’t know why. These people were truly amazing to me, they took me in into there little tight knit fold, taught me all that they knew and never really asked for anything in return. Over time I integrated more, helping out with the admining of over 10 different public servers, spread out among different patched versions of the game, from 1.0 to 1.5 i think at the time, to war arranger and to what I would like to think of as a more senior role in the community. The whole time I was with them I was always happy, I always had fun, the only time that I can recall being sad or disgruntled in relation to this community is when I left it, and I still regret it to this day.

Deadly forces did more things for me in gaming that you could ever imagine, the most important of these that I can think of is the introduction of my first LAN event, I35. Now, I can tell you that this was no easy task getting to the event. At the time, I was I think 15, and as many young gamers who want to advance have probably found out, your parents are probably not too keen (well I had to fit the word in somewhere) in you going too a massive wear house with 3 older men, which is unfortunately the social stigma that we competitive gamers have to fight against on a daily basis. Much to my embarrassment my parents met with my future lan team mates at i34 to establish whether they could be trusted around me. Fortunately, I obtained permission to attend lan events, and from that period I have managed to attend 3 I-series events, each with greater success.

It was this first I-series event however that sparked my creative interest, I saw teams like Dignitas and DOK perform amazingly, at levels that I could never even dream of, all of which truly inspired me. Shortly after the event I left Deadly Forces to pursue this desire of mine, to reach the same competitive and social level as these teams, and to one day inspire other young players to grasp hold of the same desire that drove me.

From here I joined quite a few teams, all of which with no to very little success, all of which being reasonably stable, most lasting around a month before somebody decided it wasn't for them. My first team of notable success I would like to say would have been Team Element, at I37. The lineup consisted of Myself, Youthink, Pezzr, Raivs (who is now in team Infused) and Mennace and we truly were a force to be reckoned with. Prior to the lan, around 3 weeks in advance we held a small bootcamp in Welwyn Garden City where we all got to know one another, and I would recommend this for any new team as it really does help you to get to know one another. We managed to place overall a 9-12th position, with Tom’s PC breaking in the Playoff stages. I would just like to quickly thank Kevlar for supporting us at this event briefly, as he really was a good manager to us.

After the event I left due to internal conflicts with one of the members of the team, which couldn't really be helped, and from here again I joined the team searching roller coaster. During this 2 month period I must have joined at least five different teams, two of which contained hackers which I quickly left, others having lan problems and others just disbanded as they do. It was at this stage that I joined a mix team for i38, under the backing of Infinitus Esports, a relatively newly rebranded organization with the backing of a solid company to support us in future endeavors. Hats of Jonesy at this stage by the way, he basically formed the team, found an organization to back us and all the other little details. We found immense support from Tek9 news writers at i38, mainly from Wizinium and Wargasm, who picked up on our admirable sportsmanship against Reason Gaming (for more details see link: http://www.tek-9.org/news/i38_recap_-_reason_gaming_vs_infinitus-2156.html ).

After the event unfortunately one player had to leave, as he had only joined for the lan event, and one player was removed due to a sub-par performance at lan. Fortunately for us, Rework was standing by to join the team after Team Empathy folded, and we added Greg from the hungarian cod scene soon after. From here we became a stable team, who progressed through the ranks of the COD scene. Soon after the event we joined Pre-Invite, mainly getting accepted due to our sportsmanship, rather than our shown skill level as we were originally a mix team. As time developed our team work and organization began to rise which maximized our potential as a team. A few months later we were selected amongst a few other teams to be added to the infamous Invite channel on IRC, which really did fulfill an ambition of mine set out after my first I-Series.

What made my climb to where I am today comes not from configs, hardware advantages or any external help, but from friendship, loyalty, persistance and team stability. These things, above all else is what will help you rise in the COD scene, just like it did myself.

Lastly, I would like to apologize for the huge chunks of the my COD ‘career’ that I have missed out, there was simply too much to write up. Shout-outs to Mennace, Kevlar, Ebola, Killingbean, Cuppa and the rest of the Deadly Forces crew who got me to where I am today.

Peter 'ptER' Mather