Pre-CGS Combine Season 2 Interview: Simen "warclown" Henriksen

The break up of Reason-Gaming post-i33 saw one of Europes biggest, strongest and most loved teams disappear. Although some members of the team made their dislike of the CGS prospect known there were others who had not been vocal about their feelings. Perhaps the most popular player from that Reason squad was Simen "warclown" Henriksen, who will be making the long journey from Norway to the UK to take part in the European CGS tournament, but there are no signs of a Reason reunion on the cards. Instead he will attend with a mix team made up of players from different backgrounds and different levels of experience. We caught up with him to find out more.

So, what team will you be playing with at the event?

Our team is a pure mixteam. We got Zeek from Multigamer.no, me from Reason-Gaming, Leffa from dtekt and REAL+noLA from the 1.6-community. All are well known players in their respective games. The team has signed up as Team Gameway because of a sponsorarrangement we had with them – but suddenly they got financial troubles and that are leaving us with problems to attend. So we are now going as CleanUpCrew (creative name by REAL+noLA). Hopefully we will sort out the finances tomorrow (talk about last minute…)! We are all going with hopes of being drafted, but we are also going to have a fun trip and get more experience.

How have you found CS: Source since the breakup of Reason-Gaming?

Well it feels terrible to be honest. As Reason-Gaming was known as one of the absolute strongest teams in Europe and even when we played our absolute worst we ended up at a 4th place at Europe’s most challenging LAN tournament to this date (Going out of the tournament 14-16 vs. Birmingham Salvo and London MiNT who later got 1st and 2nd.). It’s not only sad because of our huge amount of potential, but also because I will miss going to all the tournaments with those fun lads. Reason-Gaming was both my favourite team and the best team I’ve ever played in.

Recently I’ve been playing loads of mixes and working hard on getting together a CGS lineup. Only problem is that since we just made the lineup, we haven’t gotten to practice much. Tomorrow I’m off to Oslo to take care of sponsorships and hang around at Leffas crib. Since the flights are leaving from Oslo early on Thursday, it’s easier to just spend the night there. The only thing that makes this event a tad boring is that it’s so few European teams going. So sad to see the biggest thing that has ever happened to CS: Source, get so little attention from the top teams.

Why are you attending the Combine as a mix?

I am attending the combine with a mix because CGS has chosen to have individual drafts. It would be a waste to make a real team, and then go to the CGS and be picked apart. It has not been easy to make a mix at all, trying to get the best players in Norway. I made several lineups, but since some of the lineups had players from top teams in Norway some drama occurred – and players from those teams started bailing. Finally, having fixed what I call Norways sickest lineup to this date (CS:Source), we are ready to travel to Birmingham.

How prepared are Norge.mix for this tournament?

Haha, good question right there. We played a couple of games last night, and are going to play some tonight aswell. But since we are leaving on Thursday morning we can’t really play more, we have all got Nationscup commitments also. But we are all playing mixes all the time, and deathmatch, public etc. to keep our individual play up. As CGS is based on getting the picks, and less tactical details, we are hoping to bring a lot of frags instead of sick twists in our strats.Personally I’ve been preparing a lot by playing on an LCD monitor, as I’ve always used a CRT. And I hope that is gonna help me a lot on the combine, but it probably won’t as all the former CGS players are used to it and probably some of the others aswell.

The team is built up by a real solid bunch, and we all get along great on vent. Leffa and I have been close mates since early ages, and we have both met Zeek on LAN events and he is a great guy. REAL and noLA seems like two really funny guys aswell on vent, but I have never had the pleasure of meeting them in real life. REAL is a bit of an online-thug but I’ll keep him in place (with my monstermuscles!!!). Nah but it will be a real fun trip, and I’m looking forward meeting all of my old management and mates from England (Reason-Gaming).

What are your motivations for attending the Combine?

Well everyone attending the combine is hoping to get drafted, of course? So that is my main motivation, but also I’m attending to get more experience and to experience how the CGS is. Last time I attended an event at Omega Sektor I won it (Oh hi London MiNT 16-2 slaughter in Grand Final!), and since it’s a sick venue I wanted to attend more events there. I really need the money as well, but I would rather get drafted!
I’m also glad to go because I get to meet all the nice guys I met in my time in Reason Gaming. So many nice guys in England – I was about to give you some examples, but there is just too many. But its worth mentioning Ben Dalloway (manager in Reason-gaming) as he is going to buy me dinner! Thanks Ben!

What are your views on the individual draft?

I don’t really know. I don’t see how they could’ve arranged it otherwise. But it’s hard to say, because it really mess up for the strong teams to attend the combine and then maybe lose two or three players. They should get more franchises in Europe and in UK, no doubt about it. Being drafted in Europe means you get to play the region finale – and that’s it (unless you win the finale).

How do you feel about the EU and UK tournaments being merged?

Well it kinda messed up our economics, with so few teams attending we could pay out as much as we needed to go to attend the combine, and we would get prize money even though we lost the entire thing. It's good for the competition, imagine the European combine with 3 or 4 teams it would be a joke. Since they are merging the tournaments I expect to see a double stack of prize money, or at least a massive upgrade.

Whats the future for you post-Combine?

Well we are only going as a mix, so if somebody gets drafted or not – it doesn’t really matter. We will not become a team after the Combine. As for me personally, I’m hoping to get a good European offer and attend the eXperience.dk. I don’t know what the future holds really, but going from one of Europe’s absolutely best teams, to a mediocre team is stupid.

Any closing comments?

I’m looking forward to this event, and if something goes wrong with sponsorships/money and I can’t attend I will actually cry a f**** river! Thanks to all the support that has been shown to us by the Norwegian community! And hope to see you all at the event for a great tournament and some cold post-game beer!