Los Angeles, California - GotFrag Editor in Chief, Mark Cheben, puts Pandemic manager, Mark Dolven, under the bright light and makes him talk. Mr. Dolven is very forthcoming under the gentle persuasion (torture) of Mr. Cheben.

Download the audio file here.

I’m here with Mark Dolven, the manager of Pandemic. We are at the Bridge CGS qualifier in beautiful sunny Los Angeles. Just want to ask you first off, your team had a really recent roster change adding devour and re-adding elusive in place of keen and Ph33r. How has that affected your teams performance coming into today?

The roster change was very recent. It is definitely going to affect our teamwork. We only had two days of actual practice, taking it one map at a time. Then all of a sudden, we had to learn all four maps front to back for this tournament. Some maps are stronger then others. It is really going to depend who we draw on what map. Communication is definitely really good, last night I was very impressed how the guys were really communicating so that’s a good sign. Teamwork wise, some sloppy play so I hope things work out a little better today.

Your team did really well at the Buy.com 1.6 tournament, earning themselves $12,000. Why the roster change and focusing on both 1.6 and Source?

Well, Buy.com was a great event. We were excited to get the $12,000, but we were kind of still looking towards CGS. As they started announcing more details, it sounded a bit better then it did in the beginning; so right now we’re trying to qualify so we have all our options open. The roster change was kind of a needed thing for a more Source lineup, but at the same time Bobby Aihama decided to join United 5 to play with his friends. At this point in the game, if chemistry is what we need to get into a CGS or be prepared for the summer, then I’m not going to stop Bobby from going back.

Looking forward, how have you guys adapted to Source, in the interm realising you had to compete in the CGS qualifiers to keep all your options on the table? How has adding devour impacted your teams Source play, beyond that, where do you see the team going Source wise in the future? Have you picked up any tips or tricks how some of the other teams have made the transition?

Well I don’t think Source is any different from 1.6. Obviously the game play is different but the preparation levels, the way teams have to act, and carry themselves on LAN. Counter-Strike to me is more of an emotion game. I’m sure the flashbangs are going to be different, and the aim is going to be different but at the end of the day, the teams that know how to win are going to find a way to win.

Our team has been very fortunate where we didn’t have to go through that learning stage of Source, just because our strat caller is Daffsta and he has a Source background. We played the first CPL at Source and he was the caller then as well. The addition of elusive who has been playing Source for a good year now and devour is obviously one of the best Source players. That only leaves s0nNy and Torrez to adapt, and they have done remarkably well.

The original Pandemic Source team, had some old school Pandemic players who made the switch from 1.6 to Source and aren’t with the team anymore. Are there any plans in the future to re-add some of the former players with more Source experience? Maybe a Drew or Griff?

Well Drew and Griff are kind of doing their own thing right now. I’m really happy with the five that I have. I wouldn’t change it for anything right now. It is the roster we want and hopefully we have enough time to refine it to become of the top teams. I think we are definitely headed in the right direction, and we will find out today when we play the better teams. If not this week, I think in the next couple weeks people will really realize it is better then it looks on paper.

Which teams are you partically are you excited or concerned about facing. Any matches coming up that you are anticipating?

Seems like every single team here, would be considered professional, we have some kind of rivalry with. With JMC, you’ve got an exodus and hanes on the team. Kind of had some head-to-head with zid and the other guys too, so that’s a fun rivalry. EG has Garret, so any time we play a former player they still get along and have fun. Then we have United 5, these guys hang out together all night playing DOTA and all those things and now they have Bobby. All the teams will be a rival game, but at the end of the day it will be interesting to see who plays well. The matches that I watched yesterday, we’re going to some strong individual play, just because the setup favors individual play over teamwork.

From watching your matches behind your team yesterday, how do you think your team has performed so far? Where do you see your team placing at the end?

After the first match, I will probably know a bit better. In the last couple years, the Pandemic guys that I have, they definitely play different day-to-day. I really never know which team is going to show up. Last night versus EMG, they went up 8-1 after the first half and then all of a sudden they started getting sloppy. The CGS rules have no slack at all for sloppy play and all of a sudden, EMG was right back in it. We were on game point but, the match ended at like 11-7. They’re not going to have time to procrastinate their strong play at this event. They need to play strong from the very beginning and not give up sloppy rounds while playing fundamental when coming to clutches. That is probably the biggest probably we are going to have.

This isn’t 1.6 where their level is above everyone elses. In Source it comes down to smarts. It comes down to out-thinking your opponent then out-shooting. Fortunately for us, we got a ton of experience. These guys have been around the block too many times, so I really feel like if they do what they need to do and start strong in all their matches, we should be able to finish top 3 and hopefully get one of the qualification spots.