The Tournament 2018 Qualification round is starting in just a few days (June 13th) and for those of you who don’t know, we’re delighted that Safiren agreed to be our official Travian reporter again for this year’s tournament. She did such an amazing job covering the event last year we thought it would be interesting to get an insight into her role and thankfully she had the time to let us interview her.
Don’t know who Safiren is? You must have missed our brief introduction last year or our interview with for her the Legends on Tour event. Have a read of those first! Now, let’s get straight into the interview.
For how long have you been covering the Travian Tournament servers?
The first time I wrote about the Tournament was 2011.
What has keeps you motivated to continue to provide such extensive coverage?
I hope my coverage not only informs alliance leaders about what’s happening in the Tournament but also allows even the average player to understand the high-level strategies at play, making Travian even more interesting for them.
Do you follow a routine, process or a structure to deliver your content? If so, what does that look like?
If we take the last year’s Final as an example when I was posting every Tuesday, I begin to gather content such battle reports and player interviews on Wednesday. I always think that I will start writing my Corner (the title of the Travian forum thread which I update weekly) on Sunday but most often I begin on Monday and end up late Tuesday (Wednesday morning).
What are some of the most challenging aspects of covering the Tournament servers?
As the Final servers support many different languages, finding a player with who is possible to communicate with and is willing to share information with the public is challenging.
Do you have any partners/assistants helping you?
I made a team last Tournament. I now have players from different servers which help with contacts, translations, battle report gathering, information collection.
How do you balance your personal life with being a journalist?
With difficulty! It’s more due to the nature of Travian itself than about being a journalist. I’m as addicted as any player to the game. This Summer I’ll try to take it easier, not post on a regular basis but often enough to keep my readers updated. I will enjoy the summer, the company of husband, real-life friends and my garden of course. All the while, filling my energy bars in time for Qualification endgame when the Winter comes.
During your time as a Travian Journalist, do you have a particular highlight or special moment which comes to mind?
My first scoop from the Russian forum (Final 2012), I used Google translator to be able to read forum posts and I found an analysis where a leader expressed with some annoyance that “Polacks were a headache the whole day”. At least I found it very funny!
Do you have any tips for other players out there who are interesting in being a journalist for a game?
Be polite and arm yourself with a lot of patience. Be careful to differentiate between what information can be used publicly and what is private, if you want people to trust you.
Let’s bring our attention to the qualification round that is starting in a few days. What do you think about the group arrangement this year?
The Russian and Turkey group servers are always hard for the invited domains. I’ve talked with HUN and CZ for example and even though they know they are outnumbered from the beginning, they look forward to having fun on the servers.
On the France and Germany servers, the player numbers will be more equal between hosts and guests. Wings from metas in the Final I expect to play with Germany instead of together. France’s server with Romania and Poland, I believe will draw the most interest.
We don’t know much about International yet. Several bigger domains from the last qualification have been drawn to one of the 4 host servers. Wings from last metas will be found here too in hope of getting more tickets.
Arabia – I’m wondering if it will be, as usual, only one big meta with 95% of the players.
Though we’ll be sharing your content on Facebook and our Blog, how else can people follow you and your coverage?
You will find me in the Tournament section on Travian Legends forum where my Corner is at your service!
Thank you for reading our interview with Safiren, we hope you’re looking forward to her coverage as much as we are. If you have any questions or comments, let us know! And don’t forget, the Tournament 2018 Qualification round starts in three days on JUNE 13th. So make sure you’re ready to sign up as soon as it opens to get a head start. Good luck!
