Why did EG and Jimmy Lin part ways? I've heard that he signed with another team and left, your news post says released whats the story?

I had a series of long talks with the core of my team after the CPL Championship event, and we decided that it would be in the team's best interests to let Jimmy go. Obviously this decision wasn't made overnight, but rather, over a series of weeks. Recently, within the past several days, we finalized our decision. Jimmy had told me he received an offer from another team, so yesterday I informed him that I would not make a counter-offer and that he was officially free to do what he wanted. I believe that it was the best decision for both parties.

Many people have expressed how surprised they are at Jimmy's release. I imagine this is because he puts up big numbers statistically, and that's certainly true, he's a solid fragger. However, it's not necessarily the stats themselves that matter, but how a player is getting them, and what matches he's getting them in. You also have to consider a number of other factors, such as personality, work ethic, and team play in-game. After a HUGE amount of statistical analysis on my part, and a HUGE amount of discussion with my core players, we decided with 100% certainty that it wasn't working.

You also make a point of singling out that 2007 will have a better work ethic? Why single that out? Did Erik “da_bears” Stromberg's reason for leaving, Lin's work ethic, come back to bite EG in the butt?

Our work ethic was not up to my standards in 2006 for a number of different reasons, and if I were to single out one aspect of the team to change for 2007, it would be the team's work ethic. I believe that with our new lineup, the work ethic will be there 110%.

Was Jimmy Lin the primary cause of the team's poor work ethic?

I don't think it would be fair to say that one cause was "primary," again, I think there were a number of reasons. I will say that I think that with our new lineup, work ethic will not be an issue. I also believe that Jimmy will work hard with whatever team he chooses to go to next.

Well clearly you think this lineup change will improve the team's work ethic. Why is that?

I think that in order for a team to click and work hard, a number of have things have to happen, related to many different aspects of the team's players. I believe that this lineup will click and work hard because the personalities, playing styles, and drives of the players fit well together.

In your news post you say that 2006 was a 'disappointing' year for EG. What is EG doing to make 2007 much more productive beyond the improved work ethic?

On the level of the players, we're going to be doing much more outside of the game. Our work ethic will manifest itself, specifically, in not only practice sessions and and scrimmages, but also in staying sharp outside of practice time, through aim maps, DM servers, and pugs. From the the business side of the equation, we have more to work with than ever before, and I'll be giving the players everything they need around them to succeed, including the Intel Core 2 Duo Dell M1710 laptops that Intel provides us with, as well as the Killer network cards that we use with our desktops at home."