Johan "toxic" Quick

How are you preparing for the event?

I have been playing as usual against medium Swedish players, but mostly I have been playing against my best friend Phantom from iCE CLIMBERs. I used to practice against him for fun before tournaments, as I did that before Quakecon and ISC, mostly for aim practicing, etc. :)

The KODE5 finals will be the first LAN event to use the 1.3 patch. How do you like the 1.3 patch so far and how do you think it suits competitive play?

I think I'm getting used to playing with 1.3 now, but I haven't really played any pro's in 1.3 yet, so I don't know really how it will effect the game play. I think I liked 1.2 better then 1.3, because I think they have made rockets too overpowered now. As usual when they change something they always change too much, etc. I mean shaft isn't as good as it should be nowadays, so my guess is that it will be even more railing now, since all close combat weapons suck. :)

But isn't that what the increase in RL/hyper blaster was for?

Well what I meant was that the rocket launcher is too strong, because you win with RL vs. shaft in medium range now also, they shouldn't lower the knock back on shaft, since they increased the movement speed so much, it would have been okay with the same shaft then. As well, rockets shouldn't shoot as fast as machinegun with that reload time.

What are your thoughts about Galang being re-instated in the map list after its removal at Quakecon? How are the maps in general in 1.3?

I think Galang should be in the map pool, my opinion of a good map pool is Phrantic, Galang, Monsoon, Placebo and Lost Fleet. I think Phrantic may be better now. I guess all maps still works, but it's too dangerous to run around fast on the maps now. The rocket is the best weapon and you don't have a chance if he hits first and lifts you up, so I think it will be slower game play actually. :)

This is the inaugural year for KODE5, how do you feel they've handled the qualifiers and events in general?

The Swedish qualifier as excellently prepared, nice computers, nice chairs, nice table, good admins, good schedule, etc. I don't know about the other ones :), but I'm happy about our qualifier, I think all the Swedish players were satisfied with how it went.

What things could they do to make it better?

I haven't had any complaints but I heard that it's not normal monitors at KODE5 finals, and that sucks big time :). That's unprofessional from the KODE5 organization.

How do you feel about having to use TFT monitors?

I think it's really bad for the pro=gaming scene. It's not professional for the directors to force us to play with it, all the players losing a lot of skill of using these screens, and I don't think it will be as fun to watch when the pro players play as medium players.

Top 3 predictions?

Me, Cooller, and Stermy.

Alessandro "stermy" Avallone

How are you preparing for the event?

I started playing online on a regular basis 10 days before the event.

The KODE5 finals will be the first LAN event to use the 1.3 patch. How do you like the 1.3 patch so far and how do you think it suits competitive play?

I guess I really like the new patch for the following reasons: the rocket is so much more important now and I definitely love the faster movement. Since this is going to be one of the first events using the new patch (for me the first one), I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of new playing styles.

What are your thoughts about Galang being re-instated in the map list after its removal at Quakecon? How are the maps in general in 1.3?

I'm really happy about it because it's one of my best maps ;). I think the maps are still fine even with faster movement, they should just fix the jump in monsoon after you take the teleporter: if you take it too fast you might jump too long and miss the second jump to the mega.

This is the inaugural year for KODE5, how do you feel they've handled the qualifiers and events in general?

I think they did a good job handling different events around the world.

What things could they do to make it better?

In my opinion they should have released the "stops" a bit earlier so people could have actually planned to attend the events, and make it a bit easier for us. Announcing information about the final event a bit earlier too.

How do you feel about having to use TFT monitors?

I would just like to say that using TFT monitors for professional FPS tournaments isn’t the greatest thing. I haven’t tried new TFTs with low response time (<4) besides the Dell’s XPS laptop, so I can’t judge the ones we are going to use there but I’m almost sure that TFT monitors aren’t ready yet to handle FPS without Ghosting.

Top 3 predictions?

Whoever is going to be in the best shape!