Creator Spotlight: Frontline MCOC!

Kabam Thel · January 2020

Summoners! New year, new creator spotlight's! This month the spotlight is on a relatively new member of the CCP Frontline MCOC!

Frontline MCOC brings you all of the latest news from the Battlerealm so you can keep up to date with whats happening in the game and in the community!

If you’re like to check out some of Frontline MCOC's content, follow him on Twitter or head over to the Frontline MCOC Blog!.

I caught up with the man himself to ask him a few questions!

What's your Origin story as a content creator?
As a kid, I became a Marvel fan through the Marvel trading cards, X-Men comics, and the original X-Men animated series. I fell out of touch with Marvel for a long time, but the MCU brought me back into that world when Iron Man came out, and eventually I started reading the comics again. I downloaded MCOC on February 14, 2015 (clearly an incredibly romantic gesture on my part, I know) and the addiction was born.

How did you choose to make the type of content that you do?
It really grew out of my responsibilities as an officer in my alliance, Shield Family. I had built an MCOC calendar to keep track of arenas, events, AQ, etc., so I would always get questions about what was happening when. It finally clicked that people outside of my alliance would also think all this information was helpful, and Frontline: MCOC was born.

The role I try to fill in the community is to get helpful information out to players, particularly regarding the game schedule and current events. The schedule plays a huge role in the day-to-day of every Summoner, and I’m all about getting that information out so people can focus on what they want to achieve on a daily or weekly basis. That’s the intent behind my “Around The Battlerealm” and “The Week Ahead” posts. A little planning goes a long way in MCOC!

You just started a podcast with RichTheMan right? Tell me about that!
I was fortunate to meet RichTheMan at NYCC this past October. A few weeks later, he messaged me saying he wanted to retool his weekend news series into a podcast, and asked if I would like to be his co-host. I’d been watching Rich’s content for years, so of course I immediately said yes.

Rich and I are both MCOC news junkies, but we often have different takes on what is going on, so I think that dynamic makes for some interesting discussions. We’re also going to have regular guests on the Podcast, and will be covering information on Realm of Champions as well, hence the name “Contest Realm Podcast.”

The first episode of the Contest Realm Podcast is currently available on the RichTheMan YouTube page, and will be available on Podcast services soon.

Favorite MCOC champion right now?
Mephisto has been my long-time favorite and was my third 5/65 5*. I love champions that are able to prevent the defender from doing what they do best, and Mephisto’s Soul Lock at the start of the fight has come in clutch so many times. Additionally, he has immunities and regeneration, and he also has some powerful synergies with other amazing champions like Sunspot, The Champion, Morningstar, and Symbiote Supreme. He’s fantastic for the monthly EQ and Dungeons. I wish I had a 6* so I could run one Mephisto in AQ and the other in AW at the same time.

Whose your top pick for a Marvel champion to put in the game?
Excalibur (the Alan Davis run) was the book that made me fall in love with Marvel as a kid, but right now we only have Nightcrawler from that team. I’d love to see any of the original members, but if I can only pick one, it would be Kitty Pryde. We know phasing/invisibility is possible in-game, and she’s a hugely important character in the X-Men universe. Plus, if Squirrel Girl can have Tippy, just imagine when Lockheed shows up in the SP3 for a blast of incinerate damage.

Nerf Buff Sell: Omega Red, Corvus, Domino.
Oh, the nerf is easy, because no one likes Domino’s Critical failure. I don’t have Omega Red, so I guess I can sell him since I don’t know what I’m missing, and I might as well buff Corvus since he is my AQ workhorse. Let’s change Corvus’ True Strike Buff to a passive, because it’s never fun when that gets nullified when you really need it.

With players beginning to dive into the Abyss of Legends, how long do you think it’s going to take to complete?
I am so excited to watch Abyss live-streams. I felt the Labyrinth runs by YouTuber's were events that brought the community together, and we haven’t had something like that for a while. I’m really hoping it will take several weeks before we see an initial completion, but given the talent and resources the best players are throwing at it, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone get an initial clear in the first 72 hours.

We met at NYCC, what was your favorite part of the convention?
I think like most players, I don’t get to interact with anyone in my day-to-day life that plays MCOC. So when you go to NYCC, and you’re standing in a crowd of hundreds of fellow Summoners watching and cheering during the Beat the Boss challenge, it’s really a wonderful community feeling. It’s great just to be able to have a conversation with people who also care about the game as much as you do.

Favorite food of all time?
Fish and chips is my all-time go-to.

Anything you want to say to the community out there?
MCOC is an incredibly vast game. No one has all the answers, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. There are so many helpful, brilliant people out there in the community. Also, the more you put yourself out there in the community, the more fun the game gets.

Until next time Summoners!