Because you finished first in your region, you do not have a match until the second round. Has this affected your training schedule or mentality at all? Do you know anything about either of the teams you could face in the second round: the Carolina Core or the Seoul Jinhwa?

It seems more likely that we will be facing Core in the second round, and we have done a lot of research on their team. Obviously it would have been nice to play a stage match before going into this game but we should be OK, we have the experience from the UK Championships on stage where we all rose to the challenge and did exactly what we needed to do. Mentality is good in the Mint camp, we all believe we can win and that's what we hope to do.


What is the atmosphere amongst the players? Are people mainly nervous, excited or confident? How are you feeling about the event?

Our whole team are excited and confident, it's the way Sujoy has taught us to be and I agree fully with it, you should never have any doubts about a game and should always believe you can win and play to your full potential. Maybe a few of our players are nervous but they wont let on to the others that they are, which is fine, everyone gets nervous as the big game approaches, it's human.


How do you expect the London Mint to do in the World Finals? In your opinion, which teams have a good chance of taking the title?

I believe we have a tough side of the draw. Core will be a hard game and will be very close, but if we manage to get through that one I feel we have a chance to go on and win the whole tournament. All of our players are world class and we all have confidence in each other, all that's needed is luck on the day and we can go far. The other teams I feel to be up there in contention would be Berlin, Core, Chimera, Stockholm and Sydney, but we will see how things pan out on the day for all the teams!


If you win the entire tournament, what will you do with your share of the money?

Haha, I guess I would buy a nice new car or something like that. I'd put quite a bit of the money into my savings for the future of course!


Thanks for the interview and good luck in the finals! Is there anything you would like to add?

I'd like to say hey to all our fans, without your support we wouldn't have got this far and we hope you will cheer us on during the World Finals. Thanks to Sujoy who is an excellent GM and its a pleasure to be working with him, come on the mint!