On September 15th, Zero Logic played Irish Mafia for the AGLA Amateur League Championship. Irish Mafia won the first game of the series 6 – 3 in a 23 minute match. Zero Logic rallied in game two with a 5 – 4 win in a 19 minute match. The final game of the series ent to Zero Logic 6 – 3 in a 17 minute match. Goosechecka sat down with JudasFEKE II, NHALING2XHALE, Otakusamrai2, MSSR MaRtiN, and Blue Collar Kid to talk about the team.

Where did the name come from?

JudasFEKE II – NHALING and I first started talking about a team, and I had a crazy name that wasn’t going to fly. My idea was “WTC Ground Zero”. Just not a good name. Nhaling was in favor of the name “Flawed Logic”. We combined the two names. Zero logic just came really easy for us, rolled off the tongue really well.

How long has your team been in the league?

JudasFEKE II – NHALING and I have been in the league 3 seasons, this is Otaku and Martin’s 2nd, and Blue Collar? Like 4 or 5. As a team, we’ve been together 2 seasons.

How did your team form?

Otakusamrai2 – We all knew each other from double XP weekends. I was recruited by MrLoots but wasn’t a good fit with the team. I e-mailed Judas to start a team and bugged him and NHALING so much that they gave it a shot.

JudasFEKE II – NHALE and I met each other over double XP and met Martin in rocket race. Martin was definitely our MVP this season. He goes positive in most games, is constantly improving, and basically took over the spot of one of the original members.

Going in to this season, did you expect to find your team in the finals?

Otakusamrai2 – Definitely! We set out at the beginning of the season ready to win.

JudasFEKE II – For sure. We had high hopes, expectations. Last season our team had a lot of talent, but we lost in the elite 8.

NHALING2XHALE – We weren’t taking no for an answer.

Did you do anything special to prepare for the playoff series?

Otakusamrai2 – Lots of practice and trash talk. That’s how we get pumped up, let each other know that we’re worthless to anyone else.

JudasFEKE II – I try to make sure everyone’s on board every game. Tell people to be ready and watch for stuff.

According to the carnage report, Phil went massively positive. How did you overcome it?

Blue Collar Kid – We made a strategy.

NHALING2XHALE – We never stop talking, we’re always calling out and paying attention where he was at all times. We’d take him out and the push forward, take him out and push forward.

Blue Collar Kid – We’d have to use 2 people to take him out. Sacrifice and then kill.

Otakusamrai2 – If he got behind us when we had the bomb, we let him stay there so he couldn’t stop our progress toward the goal.

JudasFEKE II – Our whole thing is not to give up ground.

NHALING2XHALE – I want this quoted: “it was like a kick in the balls after the first game”

What was your thought process after losing the first game? How did you adjust your mental state and play style to be able to win the second?

Blue Collar Kid – The first game, we just played it. The second and third we used our strategy against Wolfe.

NHALING2XHALE – We kept telling each other “we’re better than this, we can do this”, Judas took himself out [of game two] because he didn’t have any range.

JudasFEKE II – In the first game, you know when I’m out there, I’m not the best tank, but what I do bring to the team is leadership. I call everything out on the field.

Blue Collar Kid – When I joined this team, I didn’t talk.

Otakusamrai2 – Now you won’t shut up

JudasFEKE II – I went pretty negative, so I decided on the tried to true line up that could take care of business, which meant me not being in the line up.

Otakusamrai2 – I got home from work and the first words out of my mouth were “did we play and did we win?” I was beyond… I wasn’t really too concerned with someone sitting out. As soon as I got on I said, ‘We’re taking it, they’re not beating us again.’

What was the toughest game you played? (Regular season or playoffs)

Blue Collar Kid –The 2nd or 3rd in the game in the championship series.

NHALING2XHALE – The second game in the series because of the added pressure of we have to get this or we’re done.

Otakusamrai2 – It’s a tie between the 1st game against Taste the Rainbow and the 2nd game against Feel Good Inc.

JudasFEKE II – It was dumb luck that we found good scrimmage buddy team (Irish Mafia) and them ended up being the team we played against in the final.

Sound like you had a good relationship with the Irish Mafia before the finals. How is that relationship now?

NHALING2XHALE – That’s a tad awkward.

Blue Collar Kid – It’s hard to play with them. Playing with Phil, and you don’t know what to say about his dominant host even though you beat him on that host. It makes it a little weird. We’re not as friendly as we were before the championship.

Otakusamrai2 – a lot of it had to do with the scheduling difficulties and neutral host was the biggest thing. That’s where a lot of irritation came from. After this, we’re still good with them, we still talk to them, but it was better before.

What do you feel you’ve accomplished this season?

Blue Collar Kid – Martin was the golden boy of Grifball for us this past season.

JudasFEKE II – When i started playing, before we were in the league, we’d play league people and get super upset because we got destroyed sometimes. We joined the league to beat those kids, so to join the league and win the championship feels really good. For Blue Collar especially since he’s been there and lost before. We were a bunch of matchmaking misfits before and now we’re champions.

MSSR Martin – Getting to be able to come back. I didn’t even have a place to live for a month. To get back up to speed with everybody and to see how they’ve evolved as players and people was big to me, to come back and win was the best for me .

What is one thing that your team will work on for next season?

Blue Collar Kid – Getting used to Pro players and how they play. Maybe get better. Pro league is another story because good teams don’t have to pull host.

JudasFEKE II –We look forward to the challenge. We’ve got the talent to do it, we know what to do. We need to play smart.

Did you ever feel like underdogs during your playoff run?

JudasFEKE II – Always. Everyone counted us out last season and this season, too.

Thoughts about GrifCave being the offical map for next season?

Blue Collar Kid – Disappointed.

NHALING2XHALE – The wall hop is easier in GrifCave.

JudasFEKE II – As long as we never have to play where the floor is built, I’m fine with it.

Otakusamrai2 – I don’t care for many of the sandbox variants, Grifball High is the only one I like. I don’t care for the Grifcave, it feels like, it seems like a laggier game. As far as launching and that good stuff, it’s about the same. It’s a pretty decent map.

Who would you nominate from Irish Mafia as the game’s MVP?

NHALING2XHALE – Pat Skelly

Blue Collar Kid – Wolfe

JudasFEKE II– Wolfe

Otakusamrai2 – Pat Skelly

MSSR Martin – Pat Skelly

Win or wind stick?

NHALING2XHALE – Wind

Otakusamrai2 – Wind

MSSR Martin, JudasFEKE II, Blue Collar Kid – What are you talking about?