69N-28E finally got your first major event with the win at WSVG Kentucky. What are you guys doing to try to make it two in a row?

We're just going to do what worked for us in Louisville, play our own game. We have changed up the stuff that wasn't working for us over there and came up with new pistolrounds and bunch of other new strats. Other than that, we've practiced couple of days online and will continue to do so until Wednesday unless something comes up (which usually does for us) as well as try to play a lot of CS individually to make sure we're going to hit our shots come match time in Paris.


The team list for this year's ESWC is a veritable who's who of talent from all over. Are there any teams that you are particularly concerned about? Have you done anything to prepare for those team specifically?

I don't think it'd be right to say I'm concerned about any team, but obviously we have respect for teams like fnatic and PGS. Changing our own playing style to better fit our opponent's has never worked for us at all, so we're just going to stick to what has been working for us in the past, playing our own game.


If you look at how the start of the Championship Gaming Series has affected the US Counter-Strike scene, with only one team attending ESWC, it is not hard to imagine just how different the European scene will become once they launch there. Do you think this may very well be the last year for 1.6 tournaments? Has your attitude towards making a transition to source changed after seeing how things are progressing abroad?

I don't see the big European names changing to CS:S as long as there are any big CS 1.6 tournaments left, and even then I'm not so sure all top players/teams will make the switch. How long CS 1.6 will last, is pretty much all up to Valve, but I think this could very well be the last year. Personally I wouldn't mind making the switch if I had enough time to adjust to get used to the game, but I know all of my teammates don't think the same way =P.


Finnish teams haven't really had much success at ESWC. With your team playing what seems to be your best CS yet, do you feel a sort of added pressure to represent your country and really place well?

I don't think it adds any pressure but of course we hope to bring the best placing in Finland's history at ESWC back home. However, since no Finnish team has ever placed in top8 that is by no means our goal at the event, we're going there to win.


Why do you think your team has become so successful lately?

I think the reason we've been doing so well after adding natu is that now we have a really good mixture of players and we mesh well together. We had a disappointing 4th place at SEC right after natu joined, but then we had time to get our teamplay down and build some chemistry and after that we've managed to win every event we've attended. Basically, I think the addition of natu made our team better in general, rather than us just being on a hot streak lately.