Adam 'AdamsKi' Packer is one of the popular faces among the Halo scene. Having played for teams like fnatic, apeX and now he can look back up on a successful career. In this interview he is talking about his current team, its aims and his former career from 'fun gamer' to 'pro player'.

Hi Adam. It's nice you have found some minutes to do a short interview. Could you introduce yourself to the readers first, please.

"Hi, I'm Adam Packer, also known as AdamsKi. I'm 22 years old from Manchester, England, and I play Halo: Reach for SK Gaming."

You've been playing competitively for several years now. How did it all began and how does one make his way to SK Gaming, one of the world's leading organisations in e-Sports?

"I've always played games on PC and console for many years but when the Xbox 360 came out I quickly got in to the online scene for Call of Duty 2. I played in lots of online tournaments and won many with my team 'No Mercy'. From there I gradually found out more about the MLG scene from some friends. I started to watch the Halo 2 games and then really wanted to attend an event. I got to know the European scene and went to my first LAN at Matchbox 360's XL1 (Birmgingham NEC). I continued attending events in Halo 3 and then finally in Halo Reach I had climbed my way up to play on team Fnatic with some of Europe's best players. This is when I finally got my 1st event succes at ECL Blackpool. I think over the course of playing for the past 4-5 years I've become a much better player and with some good placements it seems the hard work has paid off to get me on to such prestigious teams as fnatic and now SK Gaming!"

Was it only MLG that made you play Halo or what do you think is so special about this game?

"At the begining, I've just played with friends. I didn't have an Xbox for Halo 2 as I preferred games like Metal Gear Solid. But in high school some of my friends played games like Splinter Cell and Halo 2 on Xbox Live so I went to their houses and played for fun. We'd play against one another and have tournaments but with nooby settings. I think MLG kept me playing Halo for sure. I love the competition and the whole LAN event side of things so without MLG I'm not sure if I had carried on playing CoD or maybe no competitive game at all."

Understandable, for sure. MLG grew very big over the last years and Halo definately needs more skill in terms of team work and aiming than CoD does.
You and your recently formed team are aiming on attending MLG events in 2012 as well. We saw Ramirez at MLG Providence reaching a very good 13th place. What do you think would your team be able to reach at MLG, as the US teams seem to be insuperable?

"This team is very willing to learn. We are all putting in a lot of effort to improve every day as individuals and as a team, so the sky is the limit. I think we have great ability and potential through a diverse group of players. Ramirez's placement was very good for a makeshift team at MLG Providence and shows that European Halo players have what it takes as they only lost 3-2 to the 2nd placing team. We're going to be aiming to do our best but I couldn't predict what we're capable of as I've never attended an MLG yet."

You've never attended MLG, but events such as EGL. iSeries stopped supporting Halo, last EGL event wasn't much participated by Halo teams and Reflex is currently thinking about an Halo lan again, after the community asked for it. It looks like the Halo scene is losing priority at European events. What change is needed to bring it back to all major events in Europe with the necesarry attendance?


"Well there are a lot of Halo teams who can attend European events and I think with the new changes to Reach it should inspire more players to attend. Removing bloom and sprint from the game makes it much more competitive and in my eyes a lot more fun to play. Also it seems recently there's a good amount of effort in the US and EU to get the most out of this game so I can see a huge revival ahead. It's all down to the community really. If we want to bad enough we can make Reach huge. The problem is we're comparing it to games like SC2, which is insane as SC2 has blown up to such a huge level. Halo isn't dead though - just in intensive care, waiting for it's time to shine."

We hope so. Maybe 2012 is going to be a Halo year!
We've been talking a lot about the scene itself and some events now. Let's turn to the team a bit. You've already mentioned that you are putting a lot of effort in practicing. So how is it going in general with the new team? Do you feel comfortable?

"It's going really well to be honest. We're having fun when playing and playing some great games. The main thing I'm enjoying is how we adapt and change after we practice so we don't make mistakes twice. As players we mould very well together as we all take up different roles but have similar ideas how to play the game. We've been teaming for a short while but already I feel we have cemented together solidly. I also really like my role in the team. I can play exactly like I want to in game, whether that be the aggressor or playing passively. As long as it helps to win we will all do what is necessary."

You are having plans on laning Infused.Tt eSPORTS for practice in January. What do you expect from it and the upcoming lans (Reflex, EGL....) ?

"It will be a tough LAN but we will learn a lot from it. As a very strong team, infused will give us a huge amount of practice with the new settings and hopefully both teams can benefit from playing one another on LAN. It will help us get tighter for future events such as EGL and Reflex which is the aim. We want to go in to the tournaments as ready as possible to go for the gold. I expect the scores to be close but hopefully we can show we are a stronger team at the bootcamp LAN."

Sounds good. Thanks for taking the time to answer me so detailed! Any last words?

"Just want to say thanks to SK-Gaming, all its supporting partners and my team mates :)"