Dennis "Mennace" Fick, SA's own export

We caught up with Dennis "Mennace" Fick, a South African gamer who played in teams such as 1st, UBS and ATF. Fick has since moved to the UK where he has continued to play CoD4 and has joined clan Rive. Rive is a British gaming organisation who has teams for CSS and CoD4 on PC as well as Fifa and MW2 on Xbox360.

Check below for Chris "Evax" Noble's chat with South Africa's very own gaming export.

Hi Dennis, Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Hello everyone:) born in Cape Town, then after 9 years or so moved to Pretoria, finally got reasonable bit of internet and started playing cod2. Was in a private school for the first 2 years of education (Then we moved to Pretoria) where I went to two public school, Irene primary school (was headboy there oddly enough..) and Sutherland High School (Probably the most awesome school ever:D)

Dennis "Mennace" Fick competing at rAge '08s Dreamhack Qualifier

Can you tell us a bit about your gaming background in SA?

Well as I said, it started with CoD2, on a telephone line to a 24/7 mp_Pavlov server, I know it sounds like a horrid combination but I would lie if I said I actually won a few of those games.Then we kinda got a internet upgrade, my Dad bought a ISDN line (128Kb line if I remember correctly?) which was only for business, but I cant deny turning it on for a quick 20 mins on the Pavlov server with only 400 ping....

Wow, and then I googled CoD2 SA servers and found games.saix.net. What a day it was. Played for two days before 1st Squad Rabbit asked me to join 1st Squad to which I happily said yes. Played with them till the days of CoD4 Demo which I geeked out, playing 4/5 times a day, I apsolutely loved the game. I was then kicked out of 1st Squad (Due to me not being able to play any practises. My parents didnt like me playing so much pc games, so I didnt even bother asking if I could play PC games over having supper around the dinner table). For a while thereafter I was clanless, then I approached UbS and joined them, playing for their 8th team twice removed on the CoD2 side, you know, the crappiest team there was.

I them met Curz3D. Who basically became my online brother. We formed a team which later went on to come 3rd/4th or something at rAge 08. Besides that, Curz3D and I played about every competition together online (even the iGame FFA comps) We attended about every lan we could and our combination just worked.

After winning at the Dreamhack event at rAge08, it pretty much died down from there, join ATF and just playing relaxed, not too worried about the competitive scene knowing I was gonna leave(Although, I did try and join BFB before I left, and if I could, I would post the reply I got from Zobol, I look back and laugh at it now because it was pretty true, but I’ve luckily changed since then)

Mennace, Curz3D, Rora and Quik_shot at rAge

What has been your best moment in gaming so far?

Oooh... It would be touch to order them, but...

Top 3

- Winning a 8400GS in the iGame FFA comp (My first thing I ever won online, up till then it was all offline)

- Dive-tackling Quik_Shot after we heard who the number 7 was for the Dreamhack comp (Confirming we were top 6)

- A combination of all the small LAN wins I had to the point before I left SA.

How did you end up in the UK?

My Dad had a company running in South Africa that wanted to expand to the UK, with my Dad on the fore-front travelling to the UK every 2 weeks (Which you can imagine starts to annoy a family after 2 years) we decided to pack our bags and go with Jan 09.

Early LANning days for Fick

How did you get into the UK gaming scene, and get to join teams such as H2K and Rive?

I did what any sensible CoD4 gamer would do...... I played public. I was then picked up by the Advanced Tactical Squad (ATS) and played aside Azazel from former nBk. From there I basically played the connection game (everyone here has a connection to another team; it’s just about which one you decide to take). Although, for 4 months or so, Quik_shot and I played side-by-side, if I wasn’t calling the McDonalds he was working at to tell him to get home for practice, I was giving him heart attacks with smoke grenades. Good team bonding. Oh, and the inevitable 1vs1 (Seeing as he beat me in the Dreamhack competition)
After our 4 months of playing together, Quik_Shot moved back to SA and I moved on.

I met some awesome people in the form of Cookiez, Ramboner, Feardot and Chimpeaz. Crack Clan was formed. We went to i36 together, and I think in lay-mans terms, even the water boy beat us. We weren’t all that good, but we had an awesome time. I departed them, seeing my skills elsewhere, a few more team changes, new names and what not, and Element was formed, with probably the world’s best manager, Kevlar. Kevlar drove us, supported us and was always willing to help. We went to i37 together, Myself, ptERR, PezzR, youthinkzR and Raivz. Went in seeded top 15, which we were happy about, we then beat the number 4 seeds, our seeding instantly changed and we were 4th. Unfortunately, youthinkzR, our player on fire with SMG, his pc broke, and with that so did our chances. Our next two games saw us going from upper elimination, to lower elimination and then finally out. You can imagine we were shattered.

With our results we decided to try our luck as H2k had just dropped their cod4 team, and to our surprise, they said yes. On the same note, we were dropped after quite a few months after youthinkzR and Raivz had a clash or something (I’m not sure what happened on the day) and management said we were out.
From there, it was a few months of playing around, random mixes, doing whatever and out of nowhere, our team-reformed. Slight change though, no Raivz, instead we had neatis, and that’s where we are today.

Fick with the rest of the Qualifier winners in Jonkoping, Sweden

When you moved to the UK did you change anything about your game play? I can't recall you sniping for your team that often in SA?

As I said earlier, I used to spend my time on a 24/7 Pavlov server, I forgot to mention it was a rifles only server. I started playing online on knowing a rifle/scope. So yes, when I got to the UK I actually had the chance to do what I wanted to play all this time. Of course, everyone knows the big names in scoping in the UK, it’s not like other guns make it that big. Also, in SA, all my teams didn’t think I could scope so they never even gave me the chance to show them I could.

Other than my gun, I had to learn about pace and confidence. You got to take the chances here in the UK, it’s the difference between winning and losing. If someone throws down a smoke, 75% of the time, I will push through it. Who expects someone to push through smoke?

What EU LANs have you attended and where did you place? How were the EU lans compared to the likes of Rage etc.?

On the EU side, not as much as I had hoped. Finding teams that can fund themselves for things like OOF, TEX, The Reality and so on in few and far between. Usually only 3/5 players would be able to do it. Its really annoying, but something you sit through on the long run. Besides that, I have gone to i36,i37 (Skipped i38 as it was the time our team broke up) and attending i39. IM hopeful to attend LAN’s as a merc across EU, but we shall see what my team does.

Compared to a LAN like i-series, my money would go towards i-series rather than rAge. You get a amazing experience at both, one offers free food and drink and place to sleep (I’m not sure if rAge offers the same now or similar?) and at i-series you get internet, for the odd spur of wanting to go on facebook or something.

CrackClan at Multiplay's i36, Fick's first major Euro LAN

Was it difficult to adjust to the gaming style in the UK after playing against SA gamers for so long?

Not as much as I thought. The difference isnt that great, the thing that took the longest was adjusting. Adjusting took long as it was changing what I knew from years of experience to something different. It took my a good 2/3 months to adjust.

How big of a skill gap do you think there is between EU and SA teams, and what is the main difference in gameplay?

To be honest, I cant say, I have learned so much playing here I have half forgotten what SA’s skill is like. Although, personal view, I would say if a team like Pantheon, BFB or Bravado would go to a event like CIC7, they MAY make eliminations, and if they do, I would expect them to be knocked out first round. Im not saying they are bad, I’m just saying theyre not good enough. You must remember, like my team, we practise 3 to 4 hours a day, EVERYDAY. We know nades to every part of the map from every part of the map. This weekend coming up were actually having our bootcamp before i39. Thats another 3 days of solid non-stop gaming.

Quik_shot and Mennace in Sweden

Do you think teams such as Pantheon, bvd and BFB can challenge the top teams in EU, and do they stand a chance against the mighty R!ve?

Honestly, I think they could challenge them, I don’t think any top team would play you guys lounging in their chairs. It would be a game where both teams would try their best no doubt, but in my head I’m pretty sure teams like [R] or d.intel or even corgz would come out on top. As for our team, well, you ask it and you would honestly think I’m going to say my team wont win? Personal Opinion, I think r!ve would win, even then I would call it at 13 – 10 or 13 – 11. SA teams have the potential, they just cant reach it on such a limited community.

Thanks for your time Dennis, do you have any last comments or shootouts?

Shoutouts to MY PARENTS, ptER, PezzR, neatis, youthinkzR, My manager, Lawson(My sicko movie maker), Kevlar, Quik_Shot, Curz3D, Rora, Pantheon, Bravado, UbS(If they still running?), CrackClan, H2k, BFB,Fluff_E, Shaney, eclipzz,Redbot, xYZZZ,LUKIE POOKIE PIE, Lulu,The Dreamhack guys and just about everyone on my xfire, the guys at Starring, Dreamstyle, Sublime and anyone I forgot<3

Check out Fick's new team at www.rive-gaming.co.uk