WCG-Europe: You just defeated the French emuLAte with 16:11. Could you sum up the match for us one more time?

Neo: Unfortunately we had to give in for a couple of rounds completely uncalled for, the first pistol round for example. As the terrorists, we really couldn’t find our balance during de_train, we just get along better as counter-terrorists on that one. And we really proved that as well. I guess it’ll keep on going this well for us.

WCG-Europe: Looking back on the last World Cyber Games Grand Finals, that wasn’t really a successful tournament for you guys. You’ve really improved since then though, what changes have you gone through?

Neo: That’s one of the things that we really had to discuss a lot internally. After every single event we tried to change and improve almost everything, in order to surprise our opponents with constantly changing play-styles. But we ended up changing too much and it didn’t pay off the way we had hoped, so we just relapsed into out old play-style. And it suits us a whole lot better, as you can clearly see. It’s our style for a reason.

Neo: We still try to surprise and stay flexible, playing aggressive and fast at first and then switching over to a slower and more defensive style. Your opponent has to be unable to foresee your next step. We just aren’t that advanced on a tactical level, so we try to rely purely on our skill.

WCG-Europe: Your next opponents are either going to be Team Alternate or fnatic. How do you think those matches are going to turn out? Which team would you rather play against?

Neo: Both teams are extremely strong, so I really can’t comment on how it might turn out. It would be hard to say anything about it just because both teams are so completely different. Fnatic is used to playing in front of large crowds and Alternate is just ahead of us in terms of skill. The Germans are tactically just much better and play smarter. So it really depends on how the team-captains are leading their teams, so it’s up to mooN and cArns. But to be quite honest, I would prefer playing against fnatic. We’ve played quite a few decisive matches against them, so I think I can place them better. I would be more afraid of facing off against Team Alternate.

WCG-Europe: A few months ago, you switched from PGS to Meet Your Makers. Lately there have been rumors about a new CS Team from the Polish Clan, is there anything you know about this?

Neo: All I know is that the financial resources of the CS-area have been put into a DotA- and CoD4-Team. So I doubt that PGS would be able to surprise with a new CS-Team. Sure, it would be great if there were another team from Poland that could travel around like we do, but that will probably not happen. But to be honest I don’t really care for what’s happening with PGS, because they’ve said some unpleasant things about us. We’re with MYM now and very happy to have made the switch. It’s just a lot more professional now and I like it.

Neo: This is the fourth time participating in the SEC for me. The first time I finished in 1st place, afterwards I got silver twice. The organization and the tournament itself have improved every year, so I think it’s about time I score another win! Sometimes I can’t help but feel bothered by the amount of background noise, because the sponsors are really advertising their products pretty loudly. You can hear it even through the headset, but it’s something you can and have to get used to. I’m just surprised ending up at CeBIT every year. Because I’m actually not interested in IT- or Office products and would never personally come out to see it in person. For me computers are about playing CS and some other games.

Neo: Recently we had a bootcamp in Kopenhagen for 10 entire days. You can’t really just play Counter-Strike for that long without any break. So next to maybe 6 to 7 hours of CS every day we played some Call of Duty 4. And believe it or not, it really is a lot of fun!

WCG-Europe: Thanks for the interview!


Picture courtesy of David Donschen / fragster.de