PowerPlay Magazine

Roman Abramovic: Please introduce yourself. What's your name, where are you from and how old are you?

Mazakis: Not so long ago I have not arrived on a white horse (note: according to an old Czech and Slovak saying), for those who don't know the saying, my name is Martin. I live in the Sudet region, in the small town of Kadan located in between Chomutov and Karlsbad. However, I come from the center of the Vysočina region, the town of Jihlava and I am really proud about it. As far as age is concerned, next month I will celebrate a jubilee, which will not be not starting with the digit 3 any more :-). After going through a bunch of professions, I have finally landed in the Czech railway company, which I do for money and in a certain betting company, which I do for fun :-). Otherwise I am a graduated retired pedagogue.

RA: How did your nickname and team name at PPM come into being?

M: My nickname came into being spontaneously some twelve years ago, when I managed to do something cool (which doesn't happen that often), and it means something like boss, king, champion etc. (Czech "mazak"). The "is" ending is an original and I like it very much. So  Mazakis is a true original. Sometimes I use M.J. before my nick which are my initials. TO be honest, this seems rather childish from a man in his mid-age, but what can I do? :-D

The team name is clear - my place of residence, or region of residence rather. Koloušci is also clear. Kolouch was my nickname on high school. But I will probably change the name for the full version to a traditional German name. I tried a Czech name in beta but I didn't get used to it. The Sudet region used to be a German territory in the past, so the team deserves a German name. :-)

RA: So what will be the name for the full version?

M: The same as in most managers that I have played (even though there weren't many) - Hirschkalb Sudety. The connection Hirschkalb Sudety and Mazakis is the same as two and two is four.

RA: How did you get to PPM?

M: I learned about PPM even before it started developing. From whom? That is easy to guess - from Ivan, with whom I have worked on some other online manager. Everybody knows which manager I am talking about. :-) I liked his vision and I like him as a person (I am not trying to create a personality cult :-D), so I was pleased when he offered me the chance to contribute to the development of this project. I am trying not to disappoint him.

RA: You have the developer icon. Can you tell us laymen what it means?

M: Developer means development manager. Even though I do not feel like that I have contributed a bit with my opinions, ideas etc. The real developers are mainly debik and Mike22 and of course the founding members. They have done a lot of work.

My main contribution to PPM are the Live commentaries, which I had to remake a number of times during those months and it was a little depressing sometimes. :-)

RA: Do you play any tournamentJ?

M: Of course I play in your tournament. It deserves to be named, so I play the PPM Cup, the first PPM tournament.

RA: How do you like it so far?

M: I cannot do much because it is played in accelerated time. It is good that even though the speed is so high, there is only a minimum of forfeit games. When the full version starts and it will really be played only during the weekends, it would really need some improvements. So that the tournament would really be alive, i.e. live discussions, interviews, statistics, prognosis, game comments etc. I am a perfectionist when it comes to this. :-)

RA: How about PPM? Which league you play in and how are you doing (had been doing in the previous seasone)?

M: In simple terms, I am not doing well. Last season I was relegated to league III.8 and now it looks like another relegation. Because of my two jobs, PPM activities and of course family, I really don't have much time to look after the team. So at the beginning of every PPM month I set my tactics for the games and leave the rest to god's will. During the first part of the testing I managed to make it into the top division. But I am not sure if it was thanks to my strong team or thanks to my skill. :-D

RA: What do you see as the Achilles' heel of this project?

M: As you can read in the news, we are having financial troubles (but I wouldn't call it Achilles' heel). I do not know how serious it is because Bratislava is quite far away from Kadan and I do not feel it appropriate to ask Ivan about this. As long as development goes, there is no reason to worry about that. The guys are skilled, creative and have good work ethic. Sooner or later they solve every problem.

RA: Do you play hockey or other sports?

M: I used to play football as a junior. I narrowly missed a place on a hockey team. I wanted to play in goal during a draft in a town interschool tournament. I was really good.:-) But we had a boy named Holeček in our class who was about as good as me. Holeček was very popular in the 70s. A national team goalie who wan three gold medals for us. So my classmate had to go into the net even if he hadn't wanted it. Of course he made it into the club even though he stopped playing during the elementary school. Maybe if I had been able to show what I was capable of, I could have taken away some Vezina trophies from Hasek in NHL and be in Nagano eleven years ago. :-D

RA: Do you like to attend football or hockey games?

M: I don't attend football. Only if the national team plays in Teplice or when Teplice played in European cups. I like football like almost any man, but I not crazy about it by any means. I prefer hockey. I attend hockey games irregularly because of a lack of time. I have only seen four games in Kadan this season. But I did manage to see Sparta - Slavia derby in Prague. Just for the record - between 1984-2001 I haven't missed a single game in Kadan, I even signed a declaration in hospital on two occasions just to get to the game. Back then we played for promotion into division 1, which was in fact the second highest division.:-) Since then I was unable to attend all the games due to the change of jobs.

RA: What are your favorite teams in football and hockey?

M: I don't have a favorite football team. But I do have some sympathy for Vršovice Kangaroos, not the other ones which used to play in the division under the name of Kompresory Praha.

Hockey is clear - Dukla Jihlava, I was born in Jihlava so it is obvious, an of course SK Kadaň. It would be ideal if Dukla made it to the Extraliga and Kadaň would stay in division 1, but that is a sci-fi. Anyway, when these two teams play together I am a neutral spectator.

RA: Thanks for the interview.

M: You're welcome.