FotM #3: ETF and TF2 veterans Coinz and Moose

Assembly Summer LAN 2010^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5} promo video by bonez. It emphasizes the controversial saying in the North American scene in those years that Europeans cannot airstrafe. The saying was one of the sensitive nerves along which the (mostly silly and fun) EU vs. NA rivalry flared. It surfaced time to time. One of those times was when Darn from Team Dignitas was shooting their Insomnia39 vlog in Newbury, April 2010, interviewing Exfane from FakkelBrigade and vallone from Power Gaming.
VOD of the live streamed Assembly Summer 2010 final between Power and Dignitas is still available on Youtube.

G:
Q6. Were TF2’s LAN tournaments the first time you ever attended a LAN for any game? Do you have any fond memories you’d like to share– funny characters or glorious gaming moments? Do you remember coming across to each other in Helsinki in Assemblies?

Moose:
I had been to one out of two of the AQ2 LANs in Finland before (missed the other one because of the mandatory military service in Finland). I think I do remember coming across Coinz briefly at the Winter Assembly, it was either him or Haunter complaining that it’s too cold in Helsinki. It was around -30°C that week, colder than usual in the winter.

Another funny story I remember would be basically carrying dunc to the sauna. Assembly Summer organizers had reserved a large private sauna at the arena for the TF2 teams. I think there were a few dozen of us there, and most of us were very eager to get to the relaxing sauna by the time we had finished the food they served us. For dunc, I think he got a bit self conscious when he realized the Finnish sauna is done naked, so changed his mind and decided not to go after all. Some of the guys there were quite drunk already at that point, and took that as a challenge. They basically carried him to the sauna with them! Don’t ask me how they got his clothes off. But in the end, he seemed to like the experience a lot, and stayed there for a long time with the rest of us.

There were some funny characters too, like Darn from Dignitas. He was a real party guy, and I saw him drunk more than sober. I remember thinking at one the Insomnia LANs that half of the Dignitas team is obviously drunk, and we have a match against them coming up pretty early the next day. Maybe we would have a chance if they’re hungover because they usually beat us. But nope, it was the same results as always, and even with a noticeable hangover, they still won the whole tournament.

Coinz:
I had already participated in small LANs in Portugal to play QWTF and QWDM, but it was in TF2 where I took part in international LANs for the first time! And every single one of them was a really fun experience because the rivalries stayed inside the game, and between matches, everyone would always socialize with a drink in hand. The first time I crossed paths with Moose was at the Winter Assembly LAN, where it was indeed very cold, but the buildings in Finland are very well prepared for those low temperatures, and inside you could always take off your jacket and stay comfortably in a t-shirt. 

I remember that episode with dunc, but only from hearing about it, because as soon as TCM heard about people going to the sauna, we ran away as fast as we could because it’s not part of our culture! And yes, Darn was a showman inside the show, putting on a one-man performance from start to finish! I also remember that at the i40 LAN, we had to improvise and play Byte as pocket soldier -he had absolutely no practice playing soldier- because on the exact day we were supposed to travel to England, Haunter crashed his car on the way to the airport!

[Editor’s Note: After the interview, upon contacting Haunter about it, this incident is realized to take place on the way to Assembly Summer 2010, which was three weeks before the above-mentioned i40 LAN. However, both LANs exhibit the same, extraordinary roster decision of TCM.]

Top 10 TF2 Plays of the DECADE, as a special episode in the popular Top 10 TF2 Plays of the Month series produced by LuckyLuke and commented by eXtine of eXtelevision, who was a pillar of competitive TF2 coverage for a long time.
The top TF2 team play of the decade (at 10:40) is chosen as TCM’s famous last minute push against Team Thermaltake (a.k.a. FakkelBrigade) in ETF2L Season 9 Grand Final, featuring Coinz as one of the Scouts that made it happen.
Haunter’s taunt kill on Predz also made it into the collection as an honorable mention.

G: Dunc appears to have been part of the Dignitas squad at Assembly Summer 2010, replacing agron as Medic, so that must be the event. Epsilon (a.k.a. idk?) had already ended Dignitas’ online win streak in the previous ETF2L Season 7 that spring. Power Gaming, coached by Moose, handed Dignitas their first and only-ever LAN loss at that summer’s Assembly.

Haunter’s unfortunate accident three weeks after that actually explains the i40 roster of TCM, where, I assume, numlocked stepped in as a last-minute “merc” (mercenary/ringer). I say merc, but he was an ex-Yoyotech player from 2009, and had already been rostered with TCM in ETF2L for the half-serious AFS 2010 season a few months earlier. And, I guess, the fact that he was a Demo main is what pushed Byte to Soldier.

Q7. Why did you quit competitive TF2? Have you played any other game at such a high competitive level afterwards?

Nowadays, I see one of you playing pickup games in QWTF almost every night (Coinz), and the other playing Apex Legends on Steam (Moose). What happened in the ~15 years in between?

Coinz:
Our team for i40 was supposed to be Byte on Medic, numlocked on Demoman, Haunter as pocket soldier, me as roaming Soldier, and zer0x* and skinnie on Scouts. Springer just wanted to come along to hang out, he wasn’t supposed to play.

I stopped playing TF2 because I was tired of the game and was moving to Évora to start a new job in the aerospace industry, where I ended up making a career. Today, I work as a material review technician, basically analyzing product non-conformances to provide dispositions and repair instructions. Because of that, I decided to focus on my personal life and put gaming aside for about 15 years, only playing PoE [Path of Exile] and OW [Overwatch] casually. 

In 2024, Haunter convinced me to play FortressOne [a.k.a. QWTF Live nowadays], which is a QuakeWorld Team Fortress mod [fork]. Since I have a lot of free time, I ended up accepting the challenge and have been playing practically every day since then. Recently, this interview reignited my passion for TF2, and I’ve been playing MGE and pickups lately.

Moose:
It was a similar story for me, other things in life took priority. During that time, I had my own business to run, I was the caregiver for my dad battling the final stages of cancer and also had my own health issues. It didn’t leave me that much time or motivation to practise and compete. I still was interested in the game for a while and had good friends within Power Gaming and the rest of the community, so I continued for a while in a more limited coach/admin type of role.

Since then my career has had me moving around quite a bit and besides Finland, I’ve been living in the UK, China and now I’ve settled in Denmark. I took a long break from online games after TF2, only coming back to Overwatch for a few months. For the past few years I have only played Apex Legends, but not competitively. I can still solo-queue to Diamond in that game, which I think is a fine achievement for an old guy.

G: I’m glad to hear the reigniting effect of the interview, Coinz. The same happened to one of the Q4F developers, Jared (a.k.a. “conebone” nowadays), with QWTF after our FotM #2 interview, and now he’s playing with you guys almost daily.

Q8. Do you have any final remarks, wishes for the future of the TF community or game, and/or shout-outs?

Moose:
Thanks for taking the time with the research and these interviews Güven! I wish you success with your blog.

Also a shout-out to the folks still playing the Fortress games and to anyone who might recognise themselves from the content of these interviews.

Coinz:
I really enjoyed the interview. I believe very few of the players who actively play TF2 today recognize the names mentioned of the players from that early era of TF2. This way, through the interview, they can get to know the TF2 of the first 3 or 4 years a bit better, as well as TF in general, both through my journey and Moose’s. Therefore, I would like to thank you, Güven, for this opportunity you provided us, and I wish you all the best and much success. As I said before, this interview made me install TF2 again; I’ve been playing MGE and some pickups, and it’s a shame that over all these years the game hasn’t received the development it deserves from Valve.

I’d like to take this opportunity to send a hug to Moose and to all the players who spent time with me back then.  

Güven: Thank you too, for this extensive collaboration which took more than three months, dozens of hours of research and numerous conversations. Not everyone will offer such availability and patience more than a decade after moving on. In my view, this interview article complements the Commemoration of the Early TF2 Era: EU 2007-11 w/ Byte interview, which was a tribute to my younger years and the memories associated with them.

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5 Comments

Aelkyr

Another great read !

Sep 8, 2026

Güven

It's great to see you reading here, and to hear from you again, Aelkyr. Your article on tf.tv was what gave me the motivation to write about history.

Sep 9, 2026

Byte

Such a great read, nostalgia is such a clean and authentic thing. Good to see Coinz and Moose around still and holding on to the same memories the original TF2 players had way back then.

Sep 10, 2026

june

fun to read !

Sep 10, 2026

Güven

Added another LAN photo in page 3 of the article, from i38, with Moose in it. I wasn't able to find such photo before publishing the article, and I didn't want to delay it further. Now after seeing the relevant records (on comp.tf) the photo led us to, the LAN history table in page 2 is also updated. In my search for the records, I came across this video for the first time, showing relevant footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHp6IBtqMLA Another photo contribution has come from Haunter. He states to have found the following two UKeSA photos online and saved to his album a few years ago. Due to the source being unknown now, I don't want to add them to the article without proper reference, but I uploaded them nevertheless to the links below to preserve history. https://comptf2c.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ukesa_26.jpg https://comptf2c.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ukesa_15.jpg In the first photo, from left to right: Boomeh, numlocked, Haunter, putz (manager), skinnie, Arnold, Springer.

Sep 23, 2026