Doc Status currently plays for Gaming So Hard of the 2009 Winter League (GBWL09). GSH recently defeated That’s What She Said and now find themselves in the Final Four of the Winter league playoffs. Doc is considered by most to be one of the top tanks in the league.

1. How long have you been involved with the sport of Grifball?
I first heard about grifball on Bungie.net during one of their hump day wrap ups. I downloaded the game type and played it with some friends not long thereafter. I didn’t get hooked on the sport until the first double exp weekend, though. After the weekend, I found Grifball.com and my first official season was the Spring League on Rooster Teeth. I’ve played in every season since and also participated in the H3P (Halo3Planet) league.

2. What kind of player are you?
I like to think of myself as a hybrid, but most people see me as a tank. During non league games I like to do a little of everything, but in league games I generally am just another disposable tank trying to get the ball carrier in

3. If you could change one thing about Grifball or its community, what would that be?
The one thing I dislike most about the game of grifball is the advantage that host can bring. In a perfect world, every game would be played on a neutral, fair host. The grifball community is awesome most of the time, but sometimes I believe people gang up on individuals or teams just for the sake of doing it. A few examples include when PO ended the game early or when SQ disputed the game against ZM. It seems like everyone tries to take something small and make it in to a huge deal for no reason. Situations like that should be dealt with by league officials and not by the community.

4. Is there a player/team that has inspired your style of play?
I’ve combined aspects from a lot of different player’s play styles and tried to make it my own. I picked up on the hammer bounce playing against SYLaL in a clantrocity match, and I first learned the “flowers” after watching a game film of Cannonball. I learned a lot of ball running strategies from Twizzter, as hard as that may be to believe. My tanking game is all my own though, I just tried out different things until I found something that worked.

5. Name one player who always gives you fits when you play against them. What makes them so difficult to play against?
Off host I’d have to say Scet Shin. I don’t know if it’s a connection issue or if he just plays the perfect style against me, but I often can’t find a way to kill him. Zeg on host is definitely the most difficult thing to play against, though. He is near impossible to kill in a one on one.

6. Name one player you think is underrated by most. Why?
Penguinocalypse. Penguin is a great sword tank and plays one of the most mistake free games of grifball out of anyone I have played against. He also pulls a lot of “how did he do that?” moments off in games.

7. Name one player you think is overrated by most. Why?
I hate to do this to a teammate, but I’d say nkotb4evah. He has an amazing stiffarm, but he doesn’t do much else to help out his team on the grifball court. While he is near impossible to kill in 1v1 situations, he often puts himself in bad spots and gets stopped because of it.

8. Besides Grifball, what other games/sports do you play?
I play almost any kind of sport. Basketball is my favorite, but I spend a lot of time playing football and soccer as well.

9. In your opinion, do stats matter in Grifball?
A win is the only stat that matters. Stats can often show how well a player performed, but it doesn’t always show what happened. I’ve seen players go -50 and help their team just as much as someone who went +50. So no, they don’t matter, but they often do show if a player played well.

10. If you could offer words of advice to rookie players, what would they be?
I’d tell rookies to just keep working on getting better. Try to find a good team that you get along and have fun with. Don’t think you are amazing because you beat up on rookie teams, but instead work your way up to get your shot at the legacy teams. You will earn respect much faster just by putting up good game results, not by running your mouth.