How did your team come to be?
Well, the original Separate Intelligence played in the original Winter league ’08. Adam Pisani and Danka Arrow were some of the first people to play the game when Kroze GG introduced them to it right after it was decided Hammers should be used instead of shotguns. They immediately became addicted to it, and set up a team made up of people that were active on one of their IRC channels, #SI. They ended up in the same division as Kroze’s team, and lost a close 5-4 game. They lost another game that season and barely missed out on a wildcard spot for the playoffs.

How did you decide on your team name?
Back when Bungie started their Alternate Reality Game (ARG) viral marketing campaign for Halo 3 during the summer of ’07, there was a group set up on Bungie.net named “CompoundIntelligence” (CI), where members of the Bungie community worked together to solve the difficult riddles that were a part of the game. Some of the more computer literate members of CI realized they could communicate much more effectively via Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and set up a channel, named #CompoundIntelligence. There was also another channel set-up for off-topic discussion, and after some problem arose with it (I don’t recall exactly what), another off-topic channel was made, named #SeparateIntelligence. At some point it was shortened to #SI, and the original members of the team were the active users of the #SI channel. The team name is not allowed to be changed, no matter how much I beg and plead. Especially now that we’re getting our Machinima up and running.

There’s probably lots of errors in my retelling of the story, but LB and Roman were “too busy” to help me with it. So fuck ‘em.

Interestingly enough, Lord Stanley2 and I were also active members in CI, although we did the majority of our work on the forums and not the IRC channel. I do remember LB and Roman posting on there though.

A history of the team (who you picked up, when and why).
SI’s always believed in playing with people we like, as that adds to overall chemistry. We always “revamp” our roster between seasons with our friends from the community.

WL08 and SL08: I’m not that familiar with all of the original roster from WL08 and SL08, but I know that Adam Pisani and Danka Arrow have been on the team since the beginning. Other players on the roster during the first 2 seasons include Gambs the Gorilla, MisterBigRules, AngryMonkey42, and Reubachi.

SML08: My legendary “crouch on the goal and wait for the runner to be stupid and run by in front of you for the quick steal and score” play on Zeg during Spring League ’08 made Danka think I was good (at that time I was pretty bad), and he told Adam to recruit me. Since some key members and IRL friends on my team were “retiring” at the end of the season (Skin Cancer and Mrs Poopie), I decided to join up with SI. However, I refused to join without my IRL friend Lord Stanley2. We went 9-1 during SML08, and made it to the second round of the playoffs before being beaten by Cuban Raft Riders, a team made up of mine and LS2′s former teammates Spud H3ad and Doerstopper. Adam also got Superstar x35 and Kansankilla to join up, before everyone (including them) decided they’d be better off on another team. I was put in charge of recruiting, and got x Jacen Solo x to sign on. He left the team at the end of the season to play with Grifball Noobs. Crowing00 was also on the team for a short while, but didn’t mesh well with our play style and he decided to leave.

WL09: Madklowndisease and x360xShockwave joined the team for a short time before eventually leaving to start their own team. To replace them, I recruited Spud and Doerstopper to the team, because they were good friends that I missed playing with. Danka and myself also recruited Zeg and he signed on right before WL09 started. We also added I MajorSilva I because he was active on the IRC and needed a team. He and Doerstopper left the team after the season to join Galloping Seagulls.

GBSL09: Before the SL09 season, we added Andrew Panton, who needed a team following the dissolution of Marathon Runners. TnT Bioshocker also joined up after leaving Blood Oath/Crayola Magic, in favor of a team more aligned with his own time zone.

Current Roster
Adam Pisani, Andrew Panton, Danka Arrow, I CITI I, Leggo My Zeggo, Lord Stanley2, Spud H3ad and TnT Bioshocker

Which team do you have the most epic matches/fun with?
We’ve had quite a few “epic” 40+ minute matches recently. All of our Pro League matches have been very hard fought and close though, as well as very fun to play. If I had to pick one, I’d say we have the most epic matches with any team that Shadow is on, and the most fun matches with Crayola Magic.

Which team do you look up to the most?
Being one of the best teams in the league, I really don’t think there’s anyone that we “look up” to. There are several teams we consider good friends and we respect their skill out on the court.

Which team do you feel is your rival?
Gaming So Hard/Qu09, without a doubt.

What is the first thing to come to mind when you compare your team currently to when you first started playing together?
Not a whole lot has changed, actually. We’ve maintained a very similar play style throughout our careers. We do launch a little bit more now than we used to though.

Do you have any shenanigans you do as a team?
We’re constantly ripping on each other while we play our warmup gametype, and that can get pretty entertaining. We also like to pray to the grifball deity (as per one lulzy occurrence with CAG) during network tests. And there’s usually a long running joke of some sort in our team thread.

We’re also known to “SI” the first round of the network test, where we’ll only go for bonks.

Is there anything special you do in the offseason to prepare for Week 1?
As the “host team” for the H3P league, we always participate in that to help us learn and get used to each other’s play styles.

Is there anything special you do before each game? (shenanigans or otherwise)
We load up the “GB” gametype that ProjectSnake created way back in the day and play that for 20 minutes or so. We’ll also practice our bonk and stiffarm betrayals.

What sort of strategies do you use? (ie, tank heavy, host dependence, launch happy, etc)
We’re a team that doesn’t do a whole lot of flashy moves. We generally try to tank the opposition into the ground, and we usually do. Our tanks are #1, 4, 32, 33, and 38 all-time on the K/D list. We do occasionally launch though, and we’re phenomenal at stopping the launch.

Many people say we’re host-dependent, but we’re much less so now than we used to be. In fact, we’re the only team to have beaten Cheap Ass Gamer this season, and we did it on their host. We also have a win on Who’s the Noob Now?’s host, and 2 5-4 losses on +1 Beer and Strictly Business’s host. I’d say we’re one of the better off-host teams in the game at this time.

How do you go about deciding who to put in during each game?
Since we have confidence in all of our lineups (Yes, even a lineup with LB in it), we’ll usually go with whoever’s available.