Transcribed by Chris "radioactive" Kennedy

Nearly two weeks ago, Mousesports captured the Extreme Masters II title by defeating Korea's e-STRO twice in the grand finals. Gotfrag's Liam "crow" Crowley was on hand at the event, and after the conclusion of the match was able to speak to Antonio "cyx" Daniloski about the tournament, Mouz' goals for the year, and Cyx's barely-contained excitement over the victory. The following is a direct transcription of that audio interview.

This is Liam Crowley here for Gotfrag with “cyx” from Mousesports. First off, congratulations, you just won Extreme Masters, how do you feel?

(deep breath) I can't find words to describe it; it's just really amazing and fantastic.

You had an incredible run, you started so well in the group stages, you topped your group, you dropped to the lower bracket against Alternate, you lost to Alternate there, did you think everything was lost or did you still believe you could finish it?

We had some minor problems with our communication within the team, but I thought if we could fix it, we could win this tournament. It's one of the biggest and one of the best tournaments in 2008. I don't know what to say, I'm so excited, this victory is really amazing.

You wouldn't have exactly – I mean, obviously all the teams at this tournament are the top teams in Europe but you wouldn't have been maybe one of the main favorites coming into this event. How did that feel to start off so well, what did that do for the motivation of the team?

Well, because of the NGL One finals two weeks ago, we had nothing to lose since nobody thought we could win this tournament. So we changed our practice, we focused more on our tactics and on demos of the opponents, and we just did this for about two weeks.

What do you think was the secret to your success, was it a certain player who really stepped it up or was it just the whole team?

I think everybody knew exactly what role they had to play and that's why we won. For example, I was playing great against SK, Kapio was doing well in every pistol round and gob b too – I don't know, everyone had their own role in every game. The teamwork was great all around, there is nothing more to add.

You were saying you were underdogs coming into the event and then you were underdogs again in the final, how did you motivate yourself for that?

We really motivated ourselves for that match, because we knew we could beat e-STRO, we thought our game would be better against e-STRO than the other teams. e-STRO had dominated SK and Attax, so knew they could be dangerous, but when we played the first round, we knew what style to play versus them, and so we won.

At what stage during the final did it really get into your head, god we're going to win this?

I think it happened when I was playing really well against SK. I think I was 14-14 versus SK and we made a timeout and Kapio said we'll try a deagle eco and he would buy 2 flashes to rush the main – B1 spot. When he said that I thought OK this is a very great idea and I've a great feeling about this I think we will win this now. And that's how it was.

The final map played out was cbble. Some people have been saying that the German teams might have had an advantage on cbble because they played that in EPS whereas some of the other European teams hadn't. How strong do you think you are on cbble and were you pleased to see that as the final map?

I don't think we are that strong on cbble, I think we are much stronger on nuke or dust2, but you are right, we had an advantage over the other teams with cbble because we've played it more often. I think the other teams don't practice for cbble, they just play. They maybe talk about some tactics but they don't play that map a lot, and that's our little advantage. I don't think we are that strong on cbble, I think we could have lost to SK because they have strong AWPs.

Now that you are the Extreme Masters champions here in Hanover, how does this change your expectations for 2008, what are your goals now for the rest of the year?

We already thought last year that we would do some damage to the top teams this year. This was our first goal, and we have now reached it. We didn't think about winning this, we just said, "OK guys let's play a good tournament, let's see how good we are, and see what place we're gonna get." We then played our best Counter-Strike I think – ever – and that's how it is. I hope we will do some more damage in the next events – ESWC , or this new league ELC.

Personally do you think this is the highlight so far of your counterstrike career?

For me, yes, and all of the others also yes. Maybe not for Kapio because he won the WSVG in New York with Attax. But for me, this is for sure the best achievement we've ever had. It's the first place I've ever got with Mousesports and it feels great to achieve it at such a high skilled tournament.

OK thanks very much and congratulations again in the tournaments

I hope my bad English didn't cause any problems, and thank you.