ETL Interview Series: Team Dark Love

The party in honor of Dark Love was over. Before we start the preparations before the semi-finales against Zwei, Aelz, Sett, VileMuffin and myself do a retrospective of this season with a last glass of grape juice (I swear this is grape juice).

Valhanya: Hello Dark Mates ! I hope you are doing well. Can you introduce yourself to your peasants please ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: Allo, je m’appelle Valhanya. I’m also known as the Dark Queen with a very sophisticated french accent who rules the Dark Love Kingdom with the best beard in the SC Community (who is probably preaching the #BuffNM somewhere in the Kingdom right now). I’m also the Captain of the French team Lupin, full of very cute kitt… hem, full of very strong and threatening wolves. I main the best girl Xianghua and love to fufufu each time I press A+B+K.

Washed up Ace Aelz: It’s me ya boy Aelz, I’m a Tira main from France, I’m the ace of Dark Love and so I try to not be too washep up to fulfill my contract with the Dark Queen.

Stressful Sett Hawk: Hello, I am Sett. An English Tira player that lives in Scotland. Peasants? That’s what they are? We are so high on this league table it’s hard to tell.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: Hello, I’m VileMuffin and I’m a Siegfried main from Finland. But you may know me better as Vil Muffoin, the (so far) undefeated Dark Champion, Wielder of the Blade of Dark Love, the Bearer of Dark Lovegacy and He Who Cannot Lose.

Valhanya: Nine weeks of battles and Dark Love didn’t lose one of them. Hence, you are first in the leaderboard with an indecent number of points. What are your feelings about this perfect run ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: JHCEJZBFJZEBF. I knew that Dark Love was one of the best team despite the fact we picked last during the draft (Aelz and I are the strongest duo, for an unknown reason nobody picked Sett during the first round of the draft and Muffoin is a very good player) but honestly, I didn’t expect that perfect run. Each week, everyone carried each other and we proved that our Dark Love bound is stronger than everything else. I think it’s beautiful and that led us to the top of the leaderboard.

Washed up Ace Aelz: It feels pretty good to see the team doing well, just looking at the draft, our team looked really strong and i’m happy to see it is performing within expectations.

Stressful Sett Hawk: I think this tournament makes it really likely for team battles to result in draws, however we were always brave and ready to take the risk to get the wins. It was nearly truly perfect but a certain fish based team had to ruin it.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: It was clear from the start that Dark Love was one of the strongest teams in the league, but I certainly expected a couple more ties. Everyone on the team has been pulling above their weight. Except for Aelz, who’s been getting carried by the rest of the team and is on the team mainly for emotional and psychological support.

Valhanya: Everyone here have already participated to the ETL. What are your reasons behind your participation for the season 3 and what did you expect to achieve ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: When we were preparing the season, I decided to not participate because I didn’t feel the motivation despite the fact that the rules are better and less complicated than the previous season. The ETL is a tough event that needs a strong commitement so you need to be sure of it when you sign up. But I finally decided to come back with muh best boy Aelz who sticks with me since the first season. This season, I tried to be more heartlighted and not involve personnal feelings. I wanted to focus on the fun and only on my team. Also, it was the occasion for me to work on my mental and to apply what I learnt from Skyll sensei and my sister Rosa (who stabbed baguette me each time I wasn’t listening) in a competitive environnement.

Washed up Ace Aelz: Sooo, Valhanya was ready to call it quit for this season due to personal reasons but was convinced last second to still try it, she asked me, Me!! who was more than happy to get a little bit away from online for the time being. I couldn’t refuse the call of Dark Love and the courage of the Dark Queen to go into battle once again. I think we’re both glad to do it now, as we are on our way to probably win the whole thing.

Stressful Sett Hawk: I’m always down to compete and play strong opponents. I’m happy to be part of a team where every member is so strong. Honestly I thought the competition would be closer, having said that our strong league performance in reality is meaningless if we can’t see it through in these playoffs.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: I’m really bad at FT2s and tournaments turn my mental state into a mess really quickly, so I’ll take any chance I can to play competitively in a format with longer sets. I also wanted to see how people would rate me in the draft. I was hoping to be picked in round one, which didn’t quite end up happening. But I also wasn’t expecting some teams to go for what you’d call highly questionable picks at best. I’m happy, however, that the Dark Queen Valhanya saw value in me and raised me up to be her Dark Champion.

Valhanya: Thanks to the first place, you are already qualified for the semi finals. What are your feelings about these last two weeks of competition and is there a team that scares you ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: I’d like to fight Manji Carp Fish for the finals, despite the fact that they are the team that scares me the most. They are the chosen ones who managed to pull off a draw against us so I’d like my revenge. Also, they are very motivated and full of very good players I like playing against (even if you play Ivy, Carp) and watching. But first, we have to win the semi finals against Zwei4S3 and that won’t be an easy task too.

Washed up Ace Aelz: Since those teammates bastards just love to put me against all the heavy hitters from other teams, All-Stars is pretty scary since D3xus is in it.Also Yin beat my ass pretty hard last time during the team match against ZweiFS3, so it might also be a problem. Looking forward to both.

Stressful Sett Hawk: I fear the slimey fishes. Everyone on their team can cause me massive problems. They have a good range of expertise coming from behind those unblinking dead eyes, but regardless we will become that one parasite that attaches to and replaces the fish’s tongue and eat all their food. (If it comes to that.)

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: Allstars, having acquired D3xus through dastardly methods, is the only team in the league that I think stands a real chance of beating us. We managed to take a hard fought win last time, but it could’ve easily gone the other way. Manji Carp Fish was the only team that managed to pull off a draw against us, but I think this was solely because they had the first pick and were able to sacrifice Branstar to Aelz, leading to some very awkward picks on our side. In a hypothetical grand finals between Dark Love and the fish people, they wouldn’t have the luxury of first pick and would surely perish when faced with the full power of Dark Love.

Valhanya: You spent nine weeks as a team and shared a lot of emotions together. What kind of experience did you have this season ? Did the event meet your expectations ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: I spent the entire round robin with an awful backache that prevented me to stream the event like I wanted. I’m glad that Momotekh accepted to stream and animated the event for us and I thank him with all my Dark heart for that. He is part of the team now, as the 5th Dark Mate. Also I died of stress during ALL Sett’s matches and fufufu very hard each time Muffoin added a poor lad to his hunting board. When my back wasn’t killing me to death, I spent time preparing my matches and studying the MU and I’m very happy of my performances and I feel that I improved. I’d like to thank Aelz for his wise advices during and after my matches but also Rosa who took a lot time to explain me the differents MU’s. This season was full of a lot of variety of emotions: stress, joy, pride and hardwork. I couldn’t expect better on these points.

Washed up Ace Aelz: I’ve experienced Sett being the absolute sandbag master with his Tira, casually losing 0-4 then winning with the most random counterpick available, which has been a rollercoaster of emotion for me. Also Valhanya matches are all very interesting to watch as you can see her getting better and beat opponents that she wouldnt have killed during previous seasons.

Stressful Sett Hawk: I can happily sleep through Aelz matches and VileMuffin is consistently strong. I’ve been most invested in Captain Valhanya matches when she performed some of her legend kills, truly the Dark Queen.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: I’ve learned to set my expectations low so I cannot be disappointed. But I’ve enjoyed this season a lot more than the previous one, as I didn’t have a Calibur burnout at the very start of the league.

Valhanya: This season was a pretty tough one due of the number of teams and matches each week. Can you share your opinion about this season 3 ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: I think the season is a bit too long and there were too much teams. It was very hard to follow the differents streams and matches despite the fact we managed to not overlap most of the time. Also, not every teams and every players shared the same vision of the event, a lot of them burnt out and didn’t care about it near the end. This global environment and the fact that not everyone was in the same wave lenght hit me at some point but honestly, I had a lot of fun with my Dark Mates. They were very invested in the matchmaking and their own matches, we shared a lot of emotions together on stream so I couldn’t expect a better team for this third season.

Washed up Ace Aelz: The rhythm of match can be fast, and my will to play Soulcalibur 6 has been quite weak those past few weeks, but it’s always good to have a reason to sink your teeth into the game again to play for your team. I feel this S3 is pretty good, probably better than the S2, so it’s all good to me.

Stressful Sett Hawk: The only problem is that its long and one must wait a while to become ETL3 champion. I have enjoyed watching the other teams though, making predictions and hoping they will collect draws and lose out on points. heheh

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: It’s been a tough season, and I’ve personally been a little burned out for the last couple weeks. Thankfully we have a week off so I can rest, recover and get ready for the semi-finals.

Valhanya: Dark Love made top 2 during the season 2. Do you think this season is when the team raises the trophy ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: Oui. *lasers*

Washed up Ace Aelz: ez fucking game m8

Stressful Sett Hawk: It’s destiny to win, but it’s important to not underestimate as well.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: It’s going to be a tough finals, but I like our odds.

Valhanya: What is your favorite highlight ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: Eeeeeuh…. Actually I liked every Dark Love stream and every Dark Mates matches (yes, even when I was dying of stress because of Sett). But if I have to pick one personnal performance, I’d say my match against Aarpia which was totally unexpected and I’m pretty proud of that one (sorry bro, #BuffX). If I have to pick one team highlight I’d say our match against Tou Ze Moune because it was our first 4-0 and we recorded an ETL highlight with that one (Dark Love was the first team to 4-0 since S1).

Washed up Ace Aelz: Valhanya match against Aarpia swiftly followed by Aarpia uninstalling the game. (I’m with you Buddy dont worry, #BuffZasForS3)

Stressful Sett Hawk: My anticlimatic win against Dommito was fun (and was offstream) https://streamable.com/mfxgnn

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: Nothing specific, but Sett’s matches are always exciting, and most likely bad for my (black) heart.

Valhanya: Any last thoughts you would like to share to your fans and peasants ?

Champions Slayer Valhanya: Don’t forget to pay you taxes or you’ll be lasered. Fufufu.

Washed up Ace Aelz: ELDEN RING EXISTS OOOOOOOOOH

Stressful Sett Hawk: I’ll try to start winning without dying first.

The Undefeated Virile Muffoin: Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza. Once the Dark Queen is victorious, this vile combination will be made illegal in all of Europe. Anyone found guilty of this crime will be lasered.

Valhanya: Thank you for the interview ! Let’s spread Dark Love all over Europe fufufu.

Champions Slayer Valhanya: Much love to my Dark Mates, my kitties and my peasants. I laser you all. Fufufu. <3

Washed up Ace Aelz: ‘Emote de Valhanya laser’

Stressful Sett Hawk: Dark Love is in need of spines right now, please donate.