Welcome back to another Player Spotlight! It is with pleasure that I introduce our featured player for this edition: Abroxas.
Introduction
Abroxas is a 22 year-old student who was born and is currently living in Germany. He is now studying History and Slavistic Philology (for those wondering, Wikipedia describes this as the study of Slavic languages in written historical sources - you learn new things every day!). One of his main interests is history in general, which is one of the driving reasons he's studying it, and he enjoys reading historical books. He also reads belletristic books (back to Wikipedia, belletristic is "a term that is used to describe a category of writing which involves all literary works valued for their aesthetic qualities and originality of style and tone"; e.g.: poetry). Abroxas also enjoys playing older video games occasionally such as Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Donkey Kong Country, or Earthworm Jim, and additionally enjoys extreme or experimental music.
Although he originally joined the site in 2005, Abroxas was only interested in FEBW at the time. Understandably, he abandoned it quickly and left the site until early 2010 when he discovered AWBW. He's been around pretty consistently over the last two years, and has developed into a solid mid-level player. Abroxas has done moderately well in the Global League so far, holding 48th place out of 130 players with his 7-3-0 record as of this morning. He has also participated in the Colosseum consistently over the past few seasons, from Season 3 to Season 6, and has been in Division 4 since Season 4. He is currently 0-1-0 this season, having lost a high funds game to tale in Month 1. Along with those two competitions, Abroxas has been a regular participant in AWBW Cup tournaments, and is 2-1-0 in those tournaments, with a loss to julberndt in the November Cup and wins over Oopth and Roswell the Black Rose (by boot) in the December Cup.
Games and Recent Results
Abroxas has been doing well overall recently. His last loss in competitive play was on 12/31 against grandline (currently ranked #62) in the Global League. Since then he has taken down two consecutive opponents in the league, triumphing over Janusmarine (#46) on 1/03, and then winning again against black-kaito (#76) on 1/08.
Currently Abroxas has 5 Colosseum games running against a variety of opponents, as well as 2 AWBW Cup games and 4 Global League games. Notably, he is playing interesting games against:
walkerboh01 in the semifinals of the December Cup (and doing quite well if I may so myself)
hetchel in the Colosseum
Sheryl Nome in the Colosseum
Interview
Walker: How did you choose the name "Abroxas"? Is there any significance/meaning behind it?
Abroxas: I picked that name as a general nickname many years ago. I didn’t know from where I had got it, but it sounded really cool and unique and so I have been using it until today. Later I discovered from where I must have got it: In “Yoshi’s Island – Super Mario World 2” there have been these black, wingless creatures which have been walking around patched drapery moons. Well, they are meant to resemble ravens, so I read. Their boss, seized up by Koopa magician Kamek and originally known as Rafael the Raven, has been known as Abroxas in the German version. In later games of the Yoshi series the whole raven-species has been called ‘Abroxas’.
Walker: How did you get interested in AW / AWBW?
Abroxas: I do know Advance Wars 1, but never played it excessively. I was discovering the AW series via Fire Emblem when I was enjoying ‘Path of Radiance’ a lot shortly after it came out in late 2005 (both series share the same developer: Intelligent Systems). I’ve started playing AW2: Black Hole Rising then. The same goes for AWBW: I was checking how FEBW was doing after I left it roundabout five years before. I noticed that AWBW worked quite well and so I gave it a try since playing AW online sounds much more interesting than playing FE online.
Walker: Which AW cartridge game did you enjoy the most?
Abroxas: Hard to say. I think it is AW2: Black Hole Rising because I was enjoying the campaign so much. Nowadays I’m playing the AW:DS war room frequently for the sake of the CO repertory.
Walker: What is your favorite map on the site? Do you have a favorite CO to use or country to play as?
Abroxas: I didn’t play on many maps and most of them only once. But I do remember el rio acelguate loco! being very enjoyable. I usually prefer multi-fronted maps and I just happen to like the unorthodox design of this map.
My favorite CO is Sensei, because I loved copter spamming back on AW2. In AW:DS he has been considerably crippled in terms of copters, but I still like his powers because mech spamming can be so much (fund increasing) fun with the old geezer. But since he’s broken I rarely use him in AWBW. From the non-broken COs I like Sami the most, but my profile doesn’t resemble this clearly since she is often banned and when she’s available she often is a semi-optimal choice.
I’m not sure about favorite countries. I love green colors so I use Green Earth and Teal Galaxy often.
Walker: Did you think or do something as a newbie on the site that you look back on now and laugh at?
Abroxas: My very first game was against fdkanns in the old league. Of course he crushed me. I was not sure if it was polite to give up and to deny the opponent of the fun of beating up the remaining troops. So I asked him if I would be allowed give up. Retrospectively, that seems rather awkward to me. He replied positively, though. He was also so kind to give me some basic advices on my play. That helped a lot because I rarely played against other human players before.
Walker: What's the most memorable moment or game you've had on AWBW?
Abroxas: Well, the answer is mostly what I’ve written above. I’ve never lost so badly (though Black Mont-Blanc comes close to it) since then.
Walker: Do you have any goals for yourself on the site? What accomplishment would you be most proud of if you could achieve it?
Abroxas: I’d be very proud if I could manage to compete with the current top players of AWBW. My goal is to improve my game step by step.
Walker: Is there a part of your game that you think you need to improve on most? How do you try to improve and what do you think is most useful for your improvement?
Abroxas: I think I need to improve my capture phase because sometimes I end up slightly disadvantaged against routine players on maps on which it is not clear when exactly you skip nearby cities for contested properties and when not. I try to observe more ongoing games of competitive games (such as the ones of the League) to learn from others. The AWBW blog is also a promising source of inspiration.
Walker: Have you ever thought about designing maps for AWBW?
Abroxas: Yes, but I abandoned it soon. I was always lacking creativity and most time I spend on AWBW I invest in my ongoing games. I might give it a try, but most likely in remote future.
Walker: If there was one thing you'd add or change about AWBW, what would it be?
Abroxas: Since I like FoW, I wish for a bug-free FoW mode.
Thanks to Abroxas for participating! As always, if you'd be interested in being featured for the next Player Spotlight, please send me a PM.
Until next time,
Walker
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