Name: Tomi Konvanen
Alias: Lurppis
Age: 19
Location: Espoo, Finland
Current Team: 69N-28E
Past Teams: rd, kopla, wings, Serious, hoorai
Favorite Game: Counter-Strike

Can you please tell us who you are and a little about your gaming history?

My name is Tomi Kovanen, I'm 19 years old and I've played for hoorai/69°N-28°E for nearly a year now. My previous teams are rd, kopla, and wings/Serious Gaming. I started playing CS competitively in January 2003.

What has been your most memorable moment in gaming?

The entire WEG Season 3 in Korea was a blast and nothing has ever even compared to it for me personally in gaming. Just getting there, playing the matches on TV, hanging out with all the people there, and overall just seeing how gaming is treated in Korea was incredible and I hope I will get a chance to go back there once more.

What is your favorite event to attend worldwide and why?

With all the stuff going on like tournaments dying and changing to CS:S, I can't really say what's my favorite to attend, but rather my favorite that I attended, and that would, without a doubt, be WEG Season 3; there's no comparison here.

What is your most memorable in game/match moment?

Despite our success with my current team, I think my most memorably moment would still have to be coming back from a 4-11 deficit to winning 12 rounds in a row vs Team 3D at CPL Spain back in 2005. That was my first international event and I can't say we had any expectations coming in but after that win, we realized that if we worked hard we'd have a shot at making it to the top.

Can you tell us a little about your training and practice regiment going into WSVG?

We had a five day bootcamp at Inferno Online LAN center in Stockholm on the 10th through 15th June but unfortunately that's pretty much all the practice we have had. Hopefully, that combined with our routine, and having had the same team for so long, will be enough.


As things are now, how do you see yourself placing in Louisville?

With so few top teams attending, I can't say I'd be happy with top 3 there, our goal is to win and unless we see "69N-28E" written on the first place check on Sunday, I don't think anyone of us will be satisfied with our performance.

With CGS coming to Eurupe, do you have any plans to play Source and tryout for the league?

I've tried CS:S out a little now, I actually think it would be a fun change but I'm not sure if CGS will be paying the $30,000 base salary for Europeans already in 2007. And because of this insecurity, we as a team decided that we would focus on CS 1.6 for the remainder of the year. I do think though, that in and around 2008, everyone will have moved to CS:S and CGS unless something dramatic happens.

What is the story behind your alias?

Long story short, a couple of my friends had kind of fun nicknames for CS so I figured I'd get one, Lurppakorva. I had to shorten it down to fit it in with a tag, therefore getting Lurppis and I don't really like it much which is why I'd always play with tinTTi/JTK if it was up to me. But unfortunately, our self-proclaimed nickname cop doesn't allow that :(.

Who is your personal hero or role model and why?

I'm going to have to be boring here and say I don't really have one.