Name: Dan Mehler
Age: 21
Location: New Jersey
Current Team: Turmoil
Past Teams: pV, den!ed, savior6 ->GB -> rSports, u5, Turmoil


What was your most memorable gaming experience?

My most memorable gaming experience is by far ESWC. The sole fact of traveling to Europe for CS was incredible and the sights were amazing. Having the chance to play against top teams and show the international CS community what we could do was crucial for us. Obviously our experience against non-American teams was minimal but I think we did extremely well, and we could've possibly done better if a few things had swung in our favor =]. I also feel I played well during the ESWC tournament, so that makes the overall experience that much better!


Seeing as you have recently hit the big 21, what is your favorite alcoholic beverage (besides strawberry daiquiri of course)?

Haha, well if I'm hanging out by the pool, why not have a strawberry daiquiri? If I'm at a bar and everyone is drinking an alcoholic beverage, I'd go with a Jack & Coke... if not, I'm content with a beer. Bud Light if I must choose one, but I'm not very picky =D.


What do you do in your free time outside of CS? Do you have a part-time job or attend school?

Well I currently have a full-time girlfriend and a part-time job selling produce. The job itself is pretty easy, pays decently, and they give me time off whenever I need for tournaments and such. My girlfriend, who I've been seeing for about 4 months now, has been very supportive of CS, although she's never really seen it or knows anything about it. I've been able to juggle my time quite nicely so she doesn't complain much ;D. Other than that I guess I'm a normal 21-year-old, I like to go to parties, movies, and will definitely hit up a bar or two with my friends... but at the same time, I can have just as much fun chilling at home watching TV or renting a movie. Personality wise, I consider myself a very relaxed person. I take things as they come and go with the flow.


So what was it like to see yourself on a television commercial for WCG? Obviously it must have been a big surprise, did you feel like you were having a dream?

It was awesome! I was watching TV, flipping back and forth between a Yankee game and MXC on Spike TV. My girlfriend was half asleep. After MXC, a show called GameHead came on, which is all about gaming. I've never seen the show before but they were talking about a new Marvel fighting game which caught my eye. When it was about to go to a commercial it said something like: "Coming up next, World Cyber Games 07... blah blah" and I saw Counter-Strike on a bunch of computer screens and then I saw my face! So I had to watch the entire episode of GameHead till the WCG segment finally came on at the end. It was a little weird to see, but exciting at the same time, and there was actually a lot of me in the little clip that they played, including an interview where me and Matt answered a few questions. Link: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24421.html


What was the most fun you had at a LAN tournament and who is the most interesting or entertaining person you have met through CS?

I've had plenty of fun at more LANs than I can count and I've met a ridiculous amount of people during my career that have been funny, interesting, and awesome to hang out with. I've made very good friends with a bunch of people and I don't want to drop any names incase I forget someone =d!


We have to talk about your crazy -- unique setup. Did you ever feel pressured to change it? Have you ever ran into trouble recreating this setup on LAN? Does your neck ever ache while sitting in that position?

It wasn't that I had trouble recreating my setup on LAN, but in my earlier LANing days I didn't realize how important it was to set up as close to my home setup as possible. When I first started going to local tournaments I wouldn't move my monitor really, and I would half ass my keyboard/mouse setup so it was close, but it was not really how I played at home. I played fine, so I didn't really give it much thought until one tournament where I completely rearranged everything and made it almost exactly how I had everything at home. I couldn't even tell you the outcome of that tournament, but I do remember being extremely more comfortable and almost "in the zone". So I made a few measurements at home and now I recreate my setup anywhere. Places never really gave me a hard time about rearranging all their hardware, they just looked at me funny =P... and no my neck doesn't ache at all, I turn myself a little so my whole body is facing my monitor to prevent such things.