I had a chance to sit down and talk with Andy “Talon” Penwell (leader of DeadZone), Jonanthan “Arkael” Harding (the scheduler for DZ), and DeadZone’s manager Chris about their recent successes, failings, goals, and plans.

Did you expect to go 4-0 at the start of this CAL season, and why?

Talon: Not really, we had a hard start and we've always started every CAL-i season 1-3 so this is a first for us coming out strong.

Arkael: We've always been a middle tier team, but I can't say it was expected.

The CPL was not your best LAN performance, how have you adjusted?

Talon: The addition of our under age player back to the starting line up is how I think we have picked it up. Not only does emz bring a tremendous skill to the lineup but also adds to a more positive attitude and the overall teamwork

Arkael: emz is playing instead of kyro, who was too young for CPL. He's a more active player, we've been practicing a lot more than before.

Any more comments on your CPL?

Talon: I guess mostly we got caught up in it being our first time there. it’s quite a different LAN in comparison to others we've been to

Arkael: Terrible performance, it happens. People will say what they will but it’s happened to good teams before and it will happen again.

How have you been preparing for your match with die this week and does D!E's penchant for talking big add any desire to win?

Talon: Not much as of yet just a few scrims and the addition of 1-2 strats really

Arkael: We always want to win regardless who we're playing.

Talon: I haven't seen die talking big anywhere lately. well I think by now teams are gonna be a little more prepared facing us and we will fight for the die match as hard as any other match

Last week a lot of controversy surrounded your matches and charges were leveled at you by several players and teams. How do you feel about the things players from coL and WEW said about you guys?

Talon: I think coL was very out of line in the things they said about us it wasn't our fault what happened during that match nor was it the whole organization saying things just a select few. as for WEW if we wanted to ping whore them we could have played them on a Toronto enough said. col thought we were trying to ping whore them but there average was obviously much lower then ours fact is we don't live in Chicago we can't ping whore teams from there

Arkael: It was CAL's decision to put this new "1 server only" rule in place, and it was either we play with 100 ping on Dallas, or they play with 100 ping on Chicago.

Chris: we also had 80-90 average and WEW had about 90-100^

Deserving this reputation or not, does this affect your play in anyway or the quality of scrims you get?

Talon: I guess it does effect scrims that way cause we haven't played WEW since then nor col but other then that not really

Looking forward to the end of the season where do you see yourselves as a team?

Talon: we will be a much more seasoned lineup with a wider range of strats and even more comfort playing with each other hopefully with enough sponsors to see us competing in so northern united states LANs as well

Care to predict a seed?

Talon: I’m looking for a top 6 but in the end just getting to playoffs is great cause your gonna have to play everyone anyways and you gotta be able to beat 'em all

If there is one team you would really like to face in say the CAL finals which team would that be?

Arkael: 2d We could have the finals on LAN in Toronto

Talon: Then we could play it on LAN

Seeing as the upcoming CPL is CS:S, have you guys logged any playing time with it or are you just waiting and seeing what happens?

Talon: yeah we have it is simply awful There is no way this game is ready for any competition

Arkael: Terrible game. It has potential, but at this point it’s a joke

Chris: I mean why would any tournament run it while it has the "Report a Bug" feature in the menu?

Do you plan on competing at CPL then or abstaining?

Talon: we look towards ESWC before CPL but if we can't do that then yes we will go to CPL hopefully by then the necessary changes will be made but to be honest I don't think it will be ready

Arkael: Neither do I

Talon: I’ve enjoyed every single update of counterstrike believing that pros out way the cons There is not one update that worried me at all until CS source came out it really has the potential to kill the team play esports as we know it

You guys have any parting words?

Arkael: Everybody wants to be like Jhef Caspersen

Talon: Shoutouts to all our sponsors and people on our team. Johnny from nzxt.com, the guys from battlepad and anyone else I may have missed.

Chris: Check out the new website www.DeadZone.ca we have many news features being presented by our writers which our updated daily. I would also like to thank our new ventrilo sponsor www.HurricaneHost.com for providing high quality voice solutions for our team; and Johnny from NZXT.com. Make sure to check out the DeadZone battlepad which will be available online at www.battlepads.net --- GG Rhys!

I also was able to get comments from members of coL and WEW about their experiences with DZ, and a response from DeadZone by Stew “emz” Houston.

coL|1’s statement

How did you feel about the match coL played versus DZ?

Jason Lake: Well, it was an online disaster that honestly threatens the integrity of the league. By no means do we blame DZ for the pranks of some sad children. However, we were disappointed that they didn't offer to replay the entire match. Even if allowed to replay the questionable rounds, we are still at a disadvantage. I guess this match highlights the flaws in online competition, and regardless of the CAL decision, we definitely look forward to a rematch on an even playing field.

DZ’s reply

emz: There were many things that happened in the match that were unexpected,but one thing that we did expect was to do well. We practiced hard and reviewed numerous demos. Though it is unfortunate that such bad luck came of coL that night I don't feel they deserve any leniency because of the trash we had to put up with from them and the general public. After the match I recall frod threatening to kill us all with a baseball bat. Would you be nice to someone who threatens you online?

WEW’s statement

What do you think of Deadzone as a team?

Jout: Whenever i play them they have a style of play where they buy every round and always just walk out places without flashing and smoking so there style of play is pretty unexpected. I dont like the fact that they pingwhored us in our match, but somtimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get a win :)

emz: Talon calls some pretty crazy buy strategies, and we don't always make our takes in an orthodox manner which often catches teams off guard. As for this pingwhore issue, you agreed to our Chicago server prior to the match, and we ended up switching to your server that didn't lower your ping, but raised ours +30.


How do you square their online performance versus that of their LAN achievements?

Jout: They are obviously an Online team because in my opinion i think they cheat ..but my team thinks i think that everyone cheats. Just overall you cant have a strat on lan where you just walk places without flashing and what not and expect to win the round. I think they have a little something that helps them know when to peak :)))

emz: No American respects the Canadian LAN scene. We attend every LAN in Toronto and since I've been on the roster we have one almost all of them, losing to 2D on the odd occasion :). We may have had a poor CPL run but it was our first shot at it and I was unable to attend because I am not yet 17. I find it hilarious you guys are calling us cheaters because we've always thought you cheated.