On SEC in Hannover this year we will see many official tournaments during the event. One of our seven tournaments will be Counterstrike 1.6 of course. We asked the well known
CS player
Jan "mooN" Stolle
1. You’ve been selected by the WCG to represent Germany as the national team at the Samsung Euro Championship 2008. Are there any spezial preperations or changes in your lineup to achieve the best results?
It’s an honor for us to represent Germany at this event. So of course we want to give it our best – and that doesn’t leave us with any other choice than opting for our lineup of regulars, consisting of paN, CHEF-KOCH, Roman R., approx and not to mention myself. We will try to train as much and as effective as possible, because we don’t agree with the people that think it’s “just about competing”. For us, it’s about winning.
2. So what are your expectations for the tournament?
Clearly, we’re in it to win it. Realistically speaking, a goal would be finishing under the top 3, seeing as we’re at a rather early stage in our training. But that fact not withstanding, our aim is definitely for the top. We don’t want to visit an event just to take part and go home. Which doesn’t mean we’re not aware of how many really good teams will be there and that it will be extremely tough for us, but if everything goes well and we manage to exceed our limits, we have a good chance at winning.
3. Should you win, then…?
Then that would be phenomenal - Who WOULDN’T want to be European Champion? ( grins )
4. This isn’t the first time that the SEC are happening at the CeBIT and you’ve visited the expo several times before in Hanover. Do you get to see anything of the fair-grounds or are you too stressed to be bothered with touring through the different halls?
Since the SEC aren’t the only event we’ll be taking part in during the CeBIT, we will likely see little, if nothing at all of the expo itself. One event can already be tiresome enough, two events at once leave you with no time at all sight-seeing, because if you don’t catch your breath at some point, you really can’t expect yourself to perform that well.
5. What role does your position as “National Team” play during an Event like the WCG/SEC? Is it special to represent a country or is it just another tournament to you?
No, obviously it’s something very special. You feel honored to compete for your country and at the same time you feel a sense of pride. But of course you represent it capably – and that’s something we need to achieve first!
6. This year, the WCG Grand Finals will be held in Cologne, Germany. Does that give you a boost in regard to the coming season?
Having a world championship in your own country is always something great. It’s easily the most important event all year long and you look at it now at the beginning of the year and already the anticipation is out of this world. But still you should never lose sight of the other tournaments throughout the year, because you have to give 100% during those as well.
7. Every year the WCG chooses a rather special location for the National Final ( In Germany: Heide-Park, IFA, in-door swimming-hall). How important is the location to you as a player?
Personally, I liked the Heide-Park best. You really had the chance between and after matches to just take a look around and chill. Purely from a gameplay point of view, a soothing and quiet atmosphere is the most important aspect, because you really need to be able to focus all your attention on the game. Usually you don’t take your surroundings into regard anyway.
8. How often and long do you train in the hot phase?
We try to increase our training hours the closer an event draws – without burning ourselves out of course. So let’s say you start out with three times a week and coming up on the event you’ll be at five to six times a week, also you’ll do bootcamps every now and then, as in playing one whole weekend at a time.
9. What still makes CS so special after so many years?
CS is the only multiplayer game that, from a competitive standpoint, offers you everything you could wish for, while at the same time offering casual gamers a lot of instant gratification. Regardless of the complexity when it comes to professional gaming, the concept itself is easy to understand for any spectator. And let’s be honest here, who didn’t enjoy playing cowboys and Indians as a child? And this game caters to exactly that kind of desire. ( grins )
10. Let’s say you could change anything you wanted about the WCG Tournament Rules, what changes would you make?
The first one would be changing the constantly debated “Russian Ducking Rule”: Either create a plug-in that makes these kind of moves impossible to perform or just get rid of the rule completely and re-introduce this kind of movement to the game. Apart from that, give us back our CRT monitors as official tournament monitors, because sadly gaming doesn’t work so well on TFTs.
11. During our last interview several weeks ago, you said “I’m quitting CSS”. Has anything changed since then?
No.
12. What are your personal goals for 2008?
Even if we managed to win two of the most important German leagues, we weren’t, or at least I wasn’t always satisfied. We had a lot of plans for the second half of last year, one of which was getting back into the international scene. But that didn’t work out for a variety of reasons. So for this year our goal is clear: Defend the German Championship – and win international tournaments.
13. Last question. You’re a “veteran” of the eSport scene. A lot of people are complaining that things used to be different (and better) and that the joy of playing was the most important aspect of competing. What do you think about that?
Compared to how it was back then, everything has gotten much more professional and the community has grown as well. So obviously some of the personal appeal gets lost along the way, but still I think this development is highly beneficial for eSports. You just need to know what you want: Do you want success and fun achieving it, or just fun? In the past those things were easier to combine into one: If you had some talent, you could achieve something even without totally investing yourself in it. Obviously, that won’t work anymore today – so if you think that’s a bad thing, you should look for more of a niche-game.
Thanks a lot for the interview. We’ll be seeing you at CeBIT.
