(San Diego) - GotFrag sits down with number one ranked Pandemic's Mage Greg "Malice" Risselada. Malice is the lone player to stick with Pandemic since their run of success starting back at WSVG China. He gives us his feelings on what should be a big MLG San Diego event along with a lot of excellent insight into Pandemic's success.

Pandemic comes in as the clear favorite at MLG San Diego, what does that mean to you guys?

Some may consider us the favorite because of our accomplishments last year, but in my eyes the new season brings a clean slate for every team and we will need to prove ourselves once again. There are a lot of up and coming teams and this year is going to be even more competitive than last year.

The 2007 year was extremely good to Pandemic, what was the key to your success through so many tournaments?

Our success came through a lot of practice with our main setups as well as a lot of experimenting with different things. For instance, we brought rogue/mage/priest popularity by using it first at Louisville, and continued to practice with it as our main setp. But, at WSVG Toronto we played more games with a new setup of rogue/shadow priest/affliction warlock than any other after fooling around with it and realizing its strength against many of the popular teams. Practice and innovation are both very important in competitive gaming.

MLG San Diego will represent the opening to the 2008 Season for all respects; beyond winning, how important is it to get off to a good start in what should be a huge year for Competitive WoW?

It is a very important tournament because it is the first open invitation LAN event since WSVG and it will allow all of the new teams a chance to show what they are made of. On the other hand, there are 3 major tournaments over the next month (MLG San Diego/Orlando and the Blizzard WWI) as well as several online qualifiers, so that somewhat diminishes the importance.

Which teams do you think present the biggest problems for you in MLG San Diego?

All of the teams that qualified or were in the running to qualify on the recent Blizzard Tournament realm are solid teams. This includes the MoB teams, the Frag Dominant teams, SK gaming, and some others. I am also interested in seeing how European teams such as Nihilum will perform.

Recently it was announced that Nihilum will be sending a team from Europe to play in this event, currently the #1 team from the 3v3 Bracket on Cyclone Battlegroup; what's you thoughts on them?

I expect them to be a solid team with a chance to win any given tournament.

What do you think of the rivalry between Europe and USA in eSports; traditionally Europe has been a bit stronger but with WoW the USA has dominated?

To say USA has dominated isn't really a fair statement. Most European teams haven't had the chance to compete at LAN tournaments due to a majority of them being in the USA. I'm sure the top European teams are great, and I'm looking forward to finally being able to compete with some of the better ones in the next few months.

Do you think that any Battlegroup, including Cyclone in EU, can ever touch Battlegroup 9 for supremacy of PVP WoW?

The reputation of BG9 has caused so many of the best teams to transfer there that I believe no American battlegroup will ever come close to its competitiveness. I simply can't comment on European battlegroups due to the fact that I've never played on one.

On to more specific topics of your team; Pandemic is known for playing lots of setups, how many do you guys plan to use or be prepared to use at MLG San Diego?

We will play as many as we see necessary to give ourselves a legitimate chance at winning the tournament.

Which setup do you guys feel the most comfortable playing in San Diego?

The setup that gives us the best chance at winning. :)

Recently the winners of the first qualifier for Blizzard's 3v3 event were announced, Pandemic was absent and even missing from the event overall. Why was this and does not putting your name on the early qualifiers leave doubt about Pandemic's ability to dominate in 2008?

We participated in the first qualifier under the name "Eclipse" as many people in the community have figured out. We ended up being in 5th place with around 8 hours left but caught an unlucky break in the queing process and things went downhill from there. In the end, a ladder based tournament, especially in World of Warcraft, requires a certain amount of luck to qualify in and we didn't catch enough breaks to make it in the first qualifier.

If I ask you to single out the top five players in PVP WoW who would you pick? I know you'll pick your own players so let's go with people not on Pandemic's roster.

Instead of the top 5, I'd rather list one of each class. This is extremely subjective, but each of these players are very solid and worthy of recognition. It is also based a lot on who we played recently on the tournament realm.

Warrior: Hoodrych
Rogue: Zecks
Mage: Ohnoes
Warlock: Veex
Priest: Swarm
Paladin: Duds
Druid: Greenranger
Shaman: Kollectiv
Hunter: Hammura

There's been some talk about PVE vs PVP only player and how they fair against each other. What's your background in terms of PVE and do you think PVE players make good PVP players? Or is PVP only players tend to be better in Arena?

PVE really has nothing to do with PVP. If you are a good player in PVE, you aren't necessary a good player in PVP. I used to be a pretty hardcore PVE player before TBC, playing in one of the few guilds who downed Kel'Thuzad. I feel PVE does take some amount of skill as a group, but the individual skill required to be successful is negligible. Whether you PVE or not does not have any affect on your skill in arena.

Both MLG San Diego and Blizzard have gone with Season 2 gear for their competitions, what's your feeling on Season 2 versus Season 3 Gear?

Season 2 gear allows for an all around more balanced game. With season 3 comes armor penetration gear, and with that comes melee zerg teams. I am happy with the decision to use Season 2 gear.

The recent trend by tournament organizers including MLG San Diego is to go without add-ons or mods on the tournament machines; what is your feeling on this?

If I was organizing a tournament this is the way I would choose to go as well. From a player perspective, especially as a mage, the lack of a focus frame hurts, but as long as everyone is on an equal playing field it all works out. Add-ons and mods just make the entire setup process ten times more complicated.

What is the difference for you playing LAN or online? WoW seems to have a completely different feel online then it does at LAN, how do you cope with the difference?

The biggest difference is the comfort level. Your chair isn't going to be the same height, the table isn't going to be as tall, and your screen is going to be a different size. Adapting to the change of environment and just going with the flow helps a lot. Attempting to practice as much as you can in LAN like conditions helps, but there is no way to fully prepare for what is like until you have experienced it yourself. I am really looking forward to finally playing on LAN again after 6 months off, should be a lot of fun.

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