Ad420 won the first tournament on the new version of Orion’s Belt. You can follow all the coverage of this event on AD420 Road to Victory on Tournament the First.

Here’s an interview with the champion.

OB: Can you introduce yourself? Who are you, what do you do, how long are you playing and how did you find Orion’s Belt…

AD420: My in-game name is AD420, my real name is Alan, I program phone systems in Atlanta Georgia USA.

OB: You are the winner of the first tournament of Orion’s Belt 2.0. But you also played OB 1.0. How was your performance back then?

AD420: OB 1.0 was so very different from this game; the only thing that has stayed the same is the battle system. So while I was not the best I did learn alot and it carried over to now.

OB: It looks like the groups phase was easy to overcome. You were the first of the group only with victories. Can you talk a little about that?

AD420: While there were some great players in my group, namely SylikDivad Syriin  and Fodazed, we all had quite a bit of mistakes. It was good to have that time to get ready for the playoffs.

OB: On the playoffs you went against fodaze, JBarata, tsousa, nunos and you had the grand final with Morf. What was the hardest battle? Were there battles where you almost thought you had lost?

AD420: An interesting note here before fighting JBarata he gave me only losses, two, and I had not been him once. The same for Nunos I fought him twice and twice I lost to him. I looked over old games I knew what I had to do and pulled it out in the end. I think the battle with Tsousa, Nuno, and Morf could have gone either way.

OB: How does it feel to eliminate tsousa and nunos, two game administrators that had top ELO on the previous version (and on this version also)?

AD420: Oh were they playing I didn’t notice… No really They are both amazing player, I really can’t say enough about them and their level of play. It feels great to be at the same level as these players.

OB: On the final you went against Morf. Morf is playing Orion’s Belt for a long time, but he has always been somewhat discrete. Did you know him? Had you battled with him before? What can you say about the match?

AD420: I have seen him before and knew he was a good player but have not fought him much. Before our battle I looked over his other games. He was on fire each battle he seemed to make fewer mistakes, and was more focused. I Attacked early and thought I had a nice advantage but he found some weakness in my attacks and capitalized on them. I had to stop and regroup; he was in control now and deiced to trade his spiders for my eagles. I took it and it worked out for me, this time.

OB: What were your favorite combat units on this tournament? The ones that were a complete life saver and helped you to win the tournament?

AD420: Spiders for sure were the MVP of the Tournament. More than once they were the only strong unit I had left and they came through for me.

OB: Now that you have won a tournament, everyone will take extra caution when fighting against you.. Do you feel any pressure?

AD420: People should take extra caution when fighting me. If you make a mistake I will make sure you pay. I love this battle system and take it seriously.  People could be gunning for me… I don’t know, I do know one mistake could cost me the game no matter who I am fighting.

OB: Well, thank you for your time. On a last note, do you have any tips for players entering tournaments?

AD420: Join every tournament you can!! It cost nothing and there is not better teacher than fighting 8-10 people at once. Once you get though one or two you will be loving it. Take your time, play it slow and easy.

A couple of weeks ago we had the first player to reach level 10. Ashis did it and the following is an interview with him.

OB: What’s it like to be the first player to reach level 10?

Ashis: I feel very proud! It was a personal goal of mine, and I was playing with that objective. Every day I played Orion’s Belt for a couple of hours.

OB: Can you introduce yourself? Who are you, what do you do, and how did you find Orion’s Belt?

Ashis: My name is Alexandre, I’m from Cascavel - Brasil. I’m a web developer and I found the game while traveling on the web. At that time I played another game from Brasil and I found Orion’s Belt on its first version.

OB: What was your strategy to reach level 10?

Ashis: Well, I always use premium services to get cost reduction and  and production speed increased. I had two management strategies: one week I’d focus on combat unit creation, and on the other week I’d focus on facility upgrades. And I always pillaged to get rare resources, that’s the best way to get rare resources.

OB: So you main rare resource income was from pillage?

Ashis: Yes. The planet income is very low, on one planet pillage I’d get as much resources as a full day’s income!

OB: But you need  a huge quantity of rare resources… can pillage achieve that?

Ashis: If you’re lucky… but it took a long time to reach level 10. I had to store resources for a full week for each main facility.

OB: And what about the orions you needed for the premium services. How did you get them?

Ashis: I sold resources and combat units at the Auction House. There are several resources that my race doesn’t use much, so I sold all the extra income on the auction house. I never bought orions, I don’t even know if I can do that from Brasil.

OB: Now that you’ve reached level 10, what are your goals?

Ashis: Now I want to focus on military and build a lot of combat units. I’ll also play on my two other accounts. And I’ll rule the universe! Hehehe

OB: What about your alliance? You left System Lords to form your own alliance. Do you have any plans at the alliance level? Maybe regarding relics or war against other alliances?

Ashis: Yes. I’ll help my alliance members to grow stronger. When we’re ready, we’ll go after the relics.

OB: Thank you for your time! Any last words for the new players of the game?

Ashis: Yes, you should be objective and don’t be afraid to attack other planets! Heheheh