MugNMouse is on a hot streak. Second place in the PNY March Madness, 7-3 in Cal-Invite, and first place in their division. Fresh off an impressive triple overtime win against Cyberglobe, I wanted to find out what’s been going on down in Texas to move them into the position of a top team in North America. Can their recent online success translate into a big international finish? Only time will tell, lets take a look.

Congratulations on a big win tonight, very exciting! Recently you competed in the PNY March Madness where you took first place in Texas, and second overall. What went wrong in the match against Excello that lead to your defeat?

Mason: The 1st day of the tournament we were pretty much on fire, communication was good everything seemed to be going our way, 2nd day came and we started out just like the day before; with a real good start winning our first 3 matches. It all came down to the Excello match where pistol round me and pham were able to get 3 quick picks leaving it a 5v2 and the LAN center was then packeted, right then and there after losing the 2v5 our morale was just shot. Our ping began to spike for the 1st 5 rounds and we weren't able to get ourselves back in the game.

Pham: Well, the PNY tourney was organized very well and we enjoyed participating in the tourney. During that excello match the LAN center was getting packeted which caused us to lag very badly during the first couple rounds, thus causing us to lose the pistol which was a 2v5. On top of that we lost some gun rounds thereafter. Going into that match our team was playing very well with one another and our communication was at its highest. After losing these rounds due to things out of our hands we became very demoralized and didn’t play to our full potential.

Currently you sit at 7-3 in Cal-Invite. What is it going to take for you to keep this pace alive and finish well in the playoffs? How do you feel you compare to the other teams in the US and World Rankings going into 2006 with your recent success in Cal-Invite?

Mason: Well we obviously will continue to practice hard like we have been for quite some time now, I think with the right amount of practice and teamwork it shouldn't be a problem for us to keep going in the same direction. I feel if we continue to practice and keep up what we've been doing then we can compete with any team out there, it's just a matter of who shows up and is ready to play, I also think we are in Top 5 US.

Pham: Our team has really just starting to gain chemistry with one another, and I believe if we keep up with our practice schedule we can beat any team. Right now I feel that we’re a top 5 team in the U.S.

What is Mug N Mouse’s plan to prepare for the 2006 LAN Season? How do you feel about your teamwork with the new lineup compared to years past with Summer CPL steadily approaching?

Mason: Right now to prepare for the 2006 LAN season we have and will be attending almost every LAN we can. I am hoping there are at least 2 tournaments a month that are reasonable to attend, we will also be bootcamping before major events. As far as the past MugNMouse lineup goes, there really hasn't been a strong lineup like the one now.

Pham: In preparation for the 2006 LAN season we will be bootcamping before every lan event and attending as many local/major LAN events as possible. I recently just joined team mnm so I really can’t compare past lineups. But from what I heard there could have been stronger lineups for past CPLs.

Tonight's game was hands down the longest match of the season, where you came out on top against Cyberglobe in triple overtime. What did you do to remain focused throughout and what changes did you make to finally come out on top?

Mason: Tonight's match was definitely a close one, the thing I love about this team is the guys never give up. We went down the first OT 1-2 on our CT side, came back and tied it to go into another, then we lost our CT side 0-3, we changed up our strats a little bit and were able to get the 3 rounds needed to enforce triple overtime. We just had the momentum going into that CT side for the 3rd time and were finally able to lock it down and get all 3 allowing us to get the final round on T side to win the match.

Pham: Well coming off the PNY tourney our team chemistry was at the highest its ever been despite the outcome of the tourney. We just played our game and were luckily able to come out on top.

What do you think of the Asian countries finally starting to make their mark on Counter-Strike? For the first time in history we see two teams outside of Europe and North America in the Top 10 of the World GotFrag Standings. Do you think this trend will continue? If so what teams are you expecting to make their mark? Who may or may not have already?

Mason: Well with a lot of these asian/korean teams doing so well at WEG I would expect a lot more teams coming forward as Korea gets more into Counter-Strike and FPS gaming.

Pham: Well being probably the best Vietnamese player in the world, I am very proud of my fellow oriental countries showing the world what us Asians can do. These Asian teams will definitely continue to dominate the cs scene. A team that I really see emerging as a worldwide top team is wnv because of their hard work and commitment on getting better.