Interview with Shaunconnery and Shannarah: BG9's Hottest New Team

A couple weeks ago or so, I was randomly looking through Xfire streams out of boredome one night and saw a stream titled something boring like "BG9 druid/warrior 2v2" and decided to check it out. I usually watch streams anonymously so that I don't get weirdo fanboy-type reactions, and there were only about four people in the stream chat at the time. This warrior/druid team was Shaunconnery and Shannarah from Tichondrius Alliance and at first glance, they seemed like just any other joe shmoe warrior/druid team but after someone in the stream chat requested that Shaun broadcast ventrilo sound and his compliance with said request, their stream has literally exploded into becoming one of, if not THE most, popular Xfire arena stream out there today. Not because they're insanely skilled or 2800+ rated, but because of the amount of hilarity involved with Shaunconnery's personality and interaction with Shannarah, his druid partner.

After watching their stream for a couple weeks and watching the viewer base gradually incease from the 4 viewers it started at to the 300+ he gets regularly currently when streaming, he became one of the few people I've ever actually wanted to interview not only because of his comedic personality (his impressions of a crazy chinese man and Sean Connery while playing arena are downright hilarious), but because he was a genuinely great player, as well. In fact, I'd go so far to say that he's among the best warriors currently playing in Wrath of the Lich King today. If any warriors out there are seeking advice or tips on the warrior class in arena, druid/warrior 2v2, or arena in general, you should definitely talk to Shaunconnery.

In any case, I finally got a chance to sit down with both Shaunconnery (David) and Shannarah (Melody) and interview them both at the same time. So, without further ado:




          Shaunconnery                             Shannarah





Could you give us some backround information on your time in this game, your previous gaming experience (if any), and when you started doing arena?

Shaun: I've been playing since Classic WoW, led two progression guilds in classic to TBC (Advent and Overkill, both on Tichondrius), but then quit that to purely just play for fun!  Started arena'ing competitively in season 3, and achieved gladiator status as War/Druid, and have been on Tichondrius since Day 1 of course, Shoco be dat old skoo kid.  My name's familiar with all those who were on Tich since classic, and I've gotten some arguably e-fame from several songs I've done, i.e. Rapwing Lair.  I'll drop a hot rhyme in the same fashion I drop rating to a war/pally team.

Shan: i rolled on nerzhul w/ my bros as a rogue, but i quit at like lvl 47. i came back in tbc w/ school friends as horde on coilfang, but switched to alliance to be w/ another group of irl friends. we ended up xferring to dethecus where i finished lvling shan to 70. i was always rly excited about arena but most of my friends rly werent that interested. my first arena experience was s2 feral druid war priest and we were in all kara gear. when i xferred to tich i played druid war with Odysseia and druid war rogue with the friends i'd followed but we kinda sucked. i met shaun in a recoil raid and did a heroic with him a day after. i have no idea how we wound up playing 2s together, but thats when i rly started to get into arenas (late s3).




Given that you guys play on the same server as many recognized LAN teams and that Hafu and Rhaegyn were both considered among the best of their respective classes, what are your opinions on both of them individually both as people and as players? Have you played against them in any brackets? Do you ever get compared to these individuals and do you take that as a compliment or find it annoying?

Shaun: I've played against Hafu when she ran druid/rogue in 2's; and played against Glicks, Hafu, and Rhaegyn when they were in 3's, playing their trademark WLD style.I think Rhaegyn has a sharp competitive mentality in 3's, and handles the warrior class well in terms of defense and offense.Playing Hafu was like eating a deep-fried twinkie.  I've heard so much about it, but up close and personal, my taste test proved to be unsatisfactory.  I didn't think she was anything great.  This might be due to the fact I have a pretty high standard of druid play in 2's, after thoroughly playing s3/s4 and matching up against a slew of very well-skilled druids. I don't get compared to Rhaegyn, I think that's becuase there are too many iconic 'warrior class heroes.'  People who have watched me play either have mixed feelings, or shower me with compliments about my play in 2's.  But a comparison to top-rated warriors would always be a welcome compliment.

Shan: are u kidding me? of course i get compared to hafu.ive never talked to hafu, but ive raided with rhaegyn and he seems like a nice guy. im terrible at judging player skill so i dont know much about that. ive played vs hafu's sham rogue mage as druid dk hunter and kicked butt twice! no ss tho... shes beat my pugged 3s as druid rogue mage too. i dunno. it kinda irks me that ppl are only comparing me to her just cuz we're both girls but i think shes gotta be way better. i mean...shes sponsored and shes won tournies




From your individual and team perspectives, what do you find as the most challenging matchups for Druid/Warrior currently in Season 6 and why?

Shan: dk pally? spam icy chains while pally pleas is def skillful

Shaun: Definitely Priest/Rogue, Mage/Rogue, Pally/DK, and War/Pally. Priest/Rogue has such a great synergy atm, and their ability to lock me down and fear my druid away for huge cc combos to destroy me is pretty damn good. I have to act like a (insert Ming Impersonation) running Naruto ninja, zipping from place to place in order to dodge and control priest/rogue.  Mage/rogue is understandable why they can tear up druid/rogue.  Pally/DK with icy chains spam is an obvious enough tellate.  And War/Pally with freedom and justice, can demolish a druid faster than I can demolish a paladin.




Obviously Shaun enjoys the attention that his Xfire streaming has brought both of you, but does Melody ever find it annoying or do you embrace it, as well? Do you feel it makes you play better or does it put more pressure on you to do well in the front of an audience?

Shan: i dont mind if shauns having fun but if he stops being the ge i know and focuses too much on being the entertainer then i get rly annoyed. he hasnt done that since i yelled at him tho. gj ge way to make me nerd rage on u for the first time ever....on live stream.

Shaun: When Melody knows she's playing in front of an audience, (the stream reaches near 300 viewers at times) she plays considerably worse.  The pressure surmounts on her bc she feels she's being judged for her every move. The pvp crowd who DO watch the streams, are very critical and harsh in their comments during and following the match, so it does sort of mess with her a bit.




I know you're both Asian, but can you give us some real life backround now? What nationalities are both of you and what do the things that you call each other mean? "ge" and "may" (I think?)?

Shan: its mei!im chinese, 18, freshman in college cuz i skipped a grade, got 2 real older bros, absolute adore shaun as a "ge" aka older bro in chinese because my relationship with him feels like one shared amongst siblings. my other bros are playing horde on nerzhul so i dont rly get to play w/ them much. i lvled one of their wars to 70 in bc and tried to play 2s w/ him.it didnt go over too well (1700s) since he was in greens and s2 mace.  i tried running locked t4 for him every week too.. but ya... i totally love ge and im honored to be his mei and to be playing 2s w/ him!

Shaun: Yeah, I'm half Chinese, half Vietnamese.  I refer to Melody as Mei because in Vietnamese Culture (which I am most influenced by) everyone is considered a relative.  Melody would be my 'em gai' in vietnamese, which refers to her was little sister.  Everyone is related, to assume a sense of belonging to everyone who is a part of that culture.  That carried over to my chinese influence in how i address 'Melody' as Mei.




I know from speaking in PM's with Shaun that a big reason he acts like a comedian all the time is to effectively supress his nerd rage when losing to bad teams. That said, however, do you two ever get frustrated with each other or lose your cool considering your brother/sister-like relationship?

Shan: ge is perfect period. i know he gets frustrated at me but i never get angry w/ him. cuz i expect him to be better than me and to always know wat to do. feels good to beat deadly glads >

Shaun: I do lose my cool when playing, I'm a bit of a competitive spirit at heart.  I hate to nerd-rage, and at times, I do get really frustrated with her in 2's.  I started training her in War/Druid in season 4, and so I've been there when she was an absolute beginner, and she's come a very long way. I know 2's ratings right now are highly saturated for sure, but playing in the 2400+ bracket, I do face teams that have players who are well-skilled or just know what they're doing. It increases my standard for her play, so it intensifies my frustration if we do lose to some crap team (i.e. dks that strangualte me.)  Luckily, I fall back to humor most of the time to kind of dodge the Swarm Rage.





A lot of people that have watched your streams (including my guildmates) find that you're a lot more "boring" to watch in 3v3 rather than 2v2. Why do you think this is? Do you find 3v3 less fun, is it because there's just a lot more going on and less time to be joking around or another reason? Which bracket do you two prefer?

Shan: 2s its more personal. i know ges focusing on a lot more things in 3s and he doesnt want to clog up vent with his screams for justice.

Shaun: People get used to my comedic antics, and then set a standard for what they expect to watch when they turn on my stream.  I talk on vent like a raving Chinese/SeanConnery lunatic, but I play well I'd hope, which offers an interesting combo for what people want to see.  When I play 3's, there's a lot more going on and I have to pay attention to even more details; bringing my focus away from screaming out my oriental tourette's-like rants.

Shan: imo he hits harder when he screams. channel that chakra!

Shaun: In 2's, I have a large amount of control over the fight as a warrior in war/druid.  If something happens to her, I can peel vigorously; or when I'm focused, I can actively escape.  I DO hit extremely harder when I do yell out in accents. I've noticed that things seem to fall over, when I scream Justice for one. And everytime I've hyped up my own bladestorm, and then righteously bellowed out a scream into it... the bladestorm can not be stopped.




Shaun is most reknowned for his legendary "Bladestorms" and how he acts when performing these on streams. Do you think Bladestorm is a better offensive or defensive ability?  By defensive meaning to prevent cc from hitting you that you know is incoming and/or to peel for your partner(s).

Shaun: Bladestorm is an ability that I'm still assessing for its worth.  I've reserved from using it as a self-defensive move (i.e. using it to break my novas and prevent shatters).  I've used it to peel Melody, in a forced scatter against double physical dps. I think the power of bladestorm... (cue dramatic music) Lies in its absolute mix of defensive/offensive capability. The most utility in bladestorm i've noticed, is in healer dps. If I'm training a priest or druid and their rogue partner is on Cyclone DR... it's pretty much fruit peeling time for the rogue, and my damage can be stopped. I'll reserve baldestorm for that moment, to make myself CC immune and then apply a lot of offensive pressure, while disallowing any form of lockdown on me.

Shan: bladestorm is amazing vs double dps! everyone just disappears while hes screaming





On the same note, how do you feel when you get absolutely gayed by a Death Knight that death grips your Bladestorm?

Shaun: Okay, the only thing. Okay, **** that, the only two things. That can neutralize the raw whirlwind force of bladestorm. is deathgrip, and desecration. Bladestorming through desecration.. is on the same level of dramatic crime, as being able to piss in the wind and stop a tornado. There is no absolute reason, why bladestorm should be slowed by desecration. Not to mention, the warrior is currently under a whirling wall of blades and high-speed fury.  How does it make sense to have a death grip able to pull a warrior under bladestorm?





Coming off of Season 5 where both the druid and warrior classes were extremely weak and under-represented, do you feel that any aspects of your classes are too powerful now? On the same tangent, what do you feel is still too weak?

Shaun: Warrior Mobility is at an all-time high currently.  Juggernaut is what makes Arms Spec.  Guaranteed crit on MS is unsurpassed, and having a glyphed 12-sec charge allows so many escape/attack opportunities using intervene or intercepts on alternate targets. At the moment however, what warriors do suffer from most, and still do, is their survivability. Using defensive cooldowns requires a stance that effectively neuters us with no painkillers. We lose our attacks, can not overpower, and other than shield wall | enraged regeneration, we don't have any cooldowns we can pop to maintain survivability. Disarm is great, but hey who doesn't have disarm reduction?

Shan: druids cant kite as well nemore. no feral charge rly sucks when the moment u shift cheetah u have a chance to get insta gibbed. tree tanking is def awesome tho i think druids should still be a kiting class and not just sit there and tank w/ pseudo plate





(Shan) Give me an impression of David when you get stunlocked in caster form by a rogue and die.

Shan: SHIFT TREE SHIFT TREE WAT ARE U DOING IN CASTER MEI MEI WAT WERE U DOING IN CASTER THERE????

Shaun: just fyi melody, if god killed a kitten everytime you got kidneyed or hoj'd in caster form, north korea would be starving





Did you ever believe Shaun when he told you many times early on in playing 2s together that he wasn't in fact streaming?

Shan: i tried rly rly hard to. but seriously u gotta come up w/a  better idea than "ironforge tv."

Shaun: I didn't make up ironforge tv, deathguise did, gg.

Shan: o ya u straight up lied. then answered some dudes ui question, believable right?

Shaun: yah, it's what I do.





Speaking of Deathguise, when you stood there helplessly in a root with no other magic debuffs on and his felhunter sitting there idle, did you never feel the urge to rage?

Shaun: Deathguise is a very good 2's lock, but is akin to those couch potatoes in the movie, 'Knocked Up.'  Lazy as ****kkkkkkkkkkkk.  He didn't even have a bind to devour me until way later.  He narrows more into the other team in 3's as well.  Quick devours are the sort of skill principles a healer develops.  Maybe I should make him play his resto druid again.

Shan:  NO! thats ANOTHER druid i have to share u w/ wtf!

Shaun: You, Aiushtha, Feraltree, Wildclaw, Jiwa. I gotta ask Daays to play, too. Gosh.

Shan: i hate u




How did you two end up meeting in-game, and eventually play 2v2 together? When did this whole geh/mei relationship begin?

Shaun: uh i randomly talked to her in a recoil ssc pug raid. that was a long time ago, i started playing arenas with her in s3. i started helping her learn war/druid after i saw how eager she was to be competitive in arenas.  i quit after s4 and came back late in WOTLK expansion.  and started playing again. I started calling her mei cuz it was shorter than melody and I treated her like a lil sis. Mel is a guy's name, imo. 

Shan: WTF, take it back now. /kick shaunconnery




Do you guys prefer PvE or PvP?

Shaun: PvP, I PvE to PvP; as any PvP'er would do. Bosses are fun and all, but they don't think for themselves.

Shan: i love pvp. i play pve just to see the content and get gear for pvp.





(shaun) A lot of people criticize you for not interrupting spell casts enough and for overpowering things like mana burn (which doesn't adversely reduce its effectiveness). What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel it's not worth the rage loss and GCD's from switching out of battle stance and/or weapon swapping to shield bash or another reason.

Shaun: Bc of how arms spec forces a warrior to stay in battle stance, I have to use a sword/board macro to shield bash so that the stance dance doesn't consume all my rage.  Swapping to berserker stance is too costly (2 gcd's to swap there and back).  I overpower mana burn bc it affects pure damage+healing.  The reason why I choose to overpower it, is because priests tank me with instants mostly.  I rarely can catch a priest self-penancing much less than I can catch them mana burning. Overpowering mana burn, provides me an opportunity to bladestorm since I already have an MS debuff stacked on them. Most priests counter bladestorm by healing in its face, so mana burn overpower + ms debuff prevents them from exploiting the inability to interrupt under bladestorm.

Shan: ur totally reading that from somewhere




Why is that Xyi slave on your 2v2 charter?

Shan: <3 brad. we did 10 games for points 1 week back in s5.

Shaun: I've told her I want Xyi off the charter. and demanded she pass me Lead to boot xyi off. But she's too concerned in maintaining her friendship with him, and not having to tread on thin ice apparently, to want to boot him. He has not played any games this season, has no contribution to the team; and doesn't belong on the charter.

Shan: thats mean dude





What's up with the team name, "we still hate each other," anyway?

Shaun: Her field

Shan: lol. its the team i made w/ redmantis. our 2s team in bc was we hate each other. i played ds druid rogue cuz shaun mysteriously disappeared. after weeks and weeks of going "ill play w/ u after i get my shoulders"





What is the best characteristic of your partner and why?

Shan: everything, I love everything about him.

Shaun: girl

Shan: ...





(shaun) Do you ever plan on releasing a video?

Shaun: how do you capture genius into a few frames, when genius could be going on this very second.

Shan: PFFT

Shaun: no but honestly i'm very bad with video-editing but if i learn I'd make a video with my accented commentary to showcase druid/war strategy but with a much more entertaining twist. Better than Hafu's tutorials even.





If you could give one piece of advice to any guy out there playing with a female partner, what would you suggest?

Shan: girls are generally more sensitive than guys, be careful of what you say and treat her nicely when shes PMSing. if she actually likes you, she'll try a lot harder

Shaun: There is an ongoing stipulation that girls are lesser-skilled gamers.  To an extent, this stipulation has some basis in truth and in distorted facts.  Gaming's just been more widely accepted by guys for a much longer time.  Girls are steadily catching up in the competitive world of gaming, but catching up is still catching up.  Be prepared to have a different set of standards in interacting with your partner.  Gender does make a difference, as she will interpret criticism and advice differently.  And I ain't even frontin'.





Any UI screenshots that you can share with your fans?

Shaun: http://i40.tinypic.com/9ao3va.jpg

Shan: http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1126/wowscrnshot050709022738.jpg





Word Association. List the first thing that comes to mind when you read the following terms (Shaun's responses in blue, Shannarah's in pink):

Zilea: Douche; doesnt remember me =(
Chains of Ice: gay; glovesbonuslawl
Snap: cracklepopbietch; ya i wanted to say that but i knew u would =(
Justice: BLADESTORM; Bladestorm.
Bladestorm: Justice; phoenix wright
Ming: Dodger, I know he remembers my diss; naruto trying to cast his lil look alike spell pops into mind
Jasi: who?; footprint
Sean Connery: Sex; some old geezer
Nike: ROCKET BOOTS; Speed, you can't be wearing no adidases
Steelballa: Hype; annoying
Affix: LEVITATE EVOC; QC
Anenga: wld - 1 / team bliz - 0; should spend more time developing than raiding ulduar
Spoh: Casino Indian; another day at blizzard, anenga says hey guys buff priests so i can get 2k rating. ???? says ok i give u legendary mace. buff dks too. arioch says hey guys let me have fun too. noobs
Minor: Walrus; Iceblocking right now guys.  Jay Kay, joke's on you.
Mortale: who?; Spends parent's money on name changes
Litreocola: awesome and nice person!; litreocum, Tank it in the meedoh.
Naruto: honestly, get a new move other than clones and tornado palm; mini fireball that only takes half an episode to charge






Thanks to both of you for the time to do this interview. Any final shout-outs or mentions?


Shaunconnery: Shoutout to HB2 from B3 first of all most importantly (Hope this gets me minutes back), then Advent Arizona Crew, Chi-Town peeps, Xiaa(Shaw), Pokemon Folks, Notorious, Tichondrius, Slags, and any semblance of fans shiettt.


Shannarah: <3 zord
<3 brad and riley
THE craig erickson: pls tip me one day
bobby: ice cream
mike and michael: i miss u guys =(
ryan: welcome to tich
sunshine: all disappeared!
meowffix: pls log on





To anyone interested in watching his streams, you can either add "shaunconnery" or "melody6" on xfire friends and/or check out when he's streaming here.

You can also check out Shaunconnery's myspace site here. I highly recommend listening to his "Ain't no thing but a Chkn Ming" rap.