GotFrag - On the first day of the CEVO P Season, TeamPandemic, LLC announced the addition of the former Forbidden Counter-Strike Source team to their organization. The team plans on attending numerous LAN events, including CPL, Newegg.com LanFest2k7, and the GGL DigitalLife Tournament in New York.


Pandemic.CSS:
Mike “Paradox” Stanowski
Kyle “Mustang” Cummings
Jon “Juan” Mumm
Nick “Nickn0it” Nowakowski
Grant “Griff” Hall


Hey guys, to start off, could you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Mustang: Hello, my name's Kyle "Mustang" Cummings and I'm currently playing for Team Pandemic's CS:S division. I've been a competitive gamer for many years now and moved over to source at the end of the 2005 year. I'm mainly a rifler for Pandemic and I always strive for entry kills to start off the round. Other then that I'm 20 years old and I'm currently majoring in computer science.

griff: My name is Grant "Griff" Hall and I am currently playing CS:S for Team Pandemic (formerly Forbidden). I just turned 22 years old and I'm going to school majoring in Information Technology. I also just recently got married and I have an awesome wife who supports my gaming as well as keeps me from being a waste of space. I love playing CS:S, Lanning it up with my friends (Hey! Cramblock, Psylynt, Haplo and Guvk), Playing all kinds of PC and console game especially old NES games, and watching movies!

n0it: Hey my name is Nick Nowakowski and I'm 18 years old. I started playing competitive CS in 2005, helping build Verge Gaming, as well as their CS:S team. Currently I play for Pandemic as the main sniper in Counter-Strike: Source. I'm the player on the team who always stays calm and focused, keeping to myself and doing my job.

Chris Lemley: Chris Lemley, owner and president of TeamPandemic, LLC.

How did the move from Forbidden to Pandemic get started? Who approached who?

griff: Well I was approached by the owner of Team Pandemic, Chris Lemley. He informed me that he was interested in getting Pandemic back into the CS community and asked me if we were interested in being a part of Pandemic.

Lemley: Following the CGS draft and subsequent selection of our original Counter-Strike team, a large portion of the gaming community assumed that Pandemic as an organization was more or less put on cruise control and that our brand's driving force had left along with my former partner Dolven and what is now the Carolina Core.

We've instead went on to win five World Series of Video Games championships in 2007, secure one of the largest North American gaming team sponsorships to-date, and earn a coveted nomination for the worldwide "Esports Team of the Year" for our successes across the board in multiple games and platforms.

No matter how much we accomplished, however, it felt as if something were missing.

The reason I saw the need to reinvest in Counter-Strike is simple: despite our banner year, it appears that we had distanced ourselves somewhat from a large portion of the competitive community -- the same community that fostered us from the very beginning. CS is the game that 'started it all' for the Pandemic organization, and it still appears to be the game that a majority of hardcore competitive gamers truly have their heart in. It's long past due that we return some of our focus to these events. In addition, it provides us the opportunity to further our reach beyond the circuit stops we frequent and perhaps introduce our name where it might not otherwise be recognized.

More from Pandemic on the following pages...