An Interview with MarkyB on CWL Seattle, Past Teammates and New Beginnings

While it’s not unheard of for pro players to jump from team to team, Call of Duty player Mark “MarkyB” Bryceland landed himself a sweet spot recently on Team Vitality this past week, coming off his previous team GGEA Purple. MarkyB has made a name for himself for the past several years in the COD community and Twin Galaxies sat down with him to ask a few questions.

As he adjusts to the new team currently, CWL Seattle begins tomorrow. While the event is so close to the change-up, the end-goal isn’t so short-sighted. “We're obviously not the most prepared,” he began, “having only been a team for roughly a week. We have been grinding though. Our main objective for this weekend is to requalify. If we can then go on and pull off a good result, that's a bonus. Then the preparation for S2 may begin. We still have a long way to go for the peak of this roster!”

Being a pro player, he knows his enemies and rivals well. After studying them all, he’s boiled it down. “The biggest threats,” he explained, “at the event are squads like LG, Rise, Splyce. To name a few. Honestly there's about 6 teams that can win events at the minute. It's a real toss up.”

MarkyB knows his weaknesses and understands that COD: WWII isn’t exactly his strongest game in the series, but he looks towards the future with his expertise. “I could sit here all day listing multiple reasons why I believe that I've not had the results that I believe I should be getting. Simple fact of the matter, they're just excuses and people will see them as that so all I can do is be confident and move forward that way.”

Being on Team Vitality means he gets to work alongside his old buddy Moose again. Last time they fought side-by-side, they were playing Infinite Warfare under Millenium, and before that, Ghosts under TCM Gaming. As brothers-in-arms, he sees this companionship as nothing but a positive. “I love being back with Moose. He's a player that I can rely on to turn up when it matters.”

Though the team has only been together for a week, they already have learned some of their own strengths, such as their best maps together. “The team’s strongest maps are HP London Docks, SnD London Docks and CTF Flak Tower. We've just got a good balance of slaying ability and map presence on those maps.”

But, where did MarkyB get his start? “I started in CoD around 10 years ago with Call of Duty 4. It's been my life since then. I got playing Gamebattles with my friends then somewhere down the line I got asked to go to an event called ECL3 and that's been that since then.”

Away from his own team, he has high respect for Splyce and its players. He thinks they’d have a real shot at winning during CWL Seattle. “I'd predict a Splyce victory this weekend!” when asked who he thinks would win aside from Team Vitality. Ex-Splyce and current Red Reserve player Zer0 is MarkyB’s favourite from the past; “If I could team with anyone from my previous teams it would be Zer0. The guy is incredibly talented and has only grown as a player.”

We all know Black Ops IIII is well on its way this year and MarkyB has his heart set on it. With the game having the “boots on the ground” gameplay, he much prefers it over “jet-pack style”. “It’s much more simple,” he said. “I'm just massively looking forward to a Treyarch title. They have always been the best games and let’s hope that Vonderhaar hits the ball out the park again.”

In the end, MarkyB had some advice for budding players that want to get into the scene now. “If you're a young player that's trying to enter the scene, play on Gamebattles.com with your friends from school, build your way up. Focus on improvement. Move your way up the chain and keep that same mentality all the way to the top.”

You can follow MarkyB on Twitter, and follow Team Vitality’s journey at CWL Seattle over on Call of Duty’s Twitch channel.

(Header image courtesy of Entertainment Focus.)