Interview with Edward & Zeus - part 1

- Hey guys. We gonna interview
Zeus and Edward on the Na'Vi base.
Tell us about your modd, what were u busy with lately?
- We are busy making final preparations
for the closest tournament - Dreamhack,
in 4 days we will fly there.
Immediately after Sweden, we will have to travel to Bosnia.
2 tournaments in a row are not goint to be easy.
We want to win them badly.
- 2 weeks have passed, since you won ASUS.
This was the first tournament of CIS scale.
Each of you repeatedly won it before.
Which time have u won it for, Vanya?
- It's 10th anniversary for me :)
Together with Zeus we have won 9 ASUS tournaments
and without Zeus i won 1 with markeloff for DTS.
- Danya?
- Edward said it for me.
- Then, I have a question for you.
What can u tell us about ASUS in the whole?
Previous CIS tournaments didn't yield to you,
but this time u passed group stage pretty confidently.
- You want to hear about the whole system of the tournament
or how was it for our team?
-How were you preparing for it
and do you think you were in optimal shape?
- Not in the optimal, but in normal.
When you win the tournament, you sense that you must
be in a good shape.
We won a nice tournament for the whole CIS territory.
Hmm, yeah we failed several times,
like losing to USSR and Storm, but in general,
USSR wasn't dominating us. It was best of three,
the 1st map went smothly, on the 2nd we realised
that we made mistakes - i must say
they outplayed us in a pretty way.
We understood that 3rd map will be final
and we played it confidently.
Then we came to the finals
and we had to show maximum of our game,
because u wouldnt show all your rounds and alignments.
So if you want to win the tournament,
you have to do it in the final.
We played our game in the finals,
though i can't but admit -
DTS showed that they are in a good shape -
they confidently outplayed MoscowFive.
So we expected a hard fight
and played our game like in the world finals.
DTS is considered to be 10th in Europe,
that's why we played our maximum.
Yo have seen the score - it is not close as 16-14.
We are glad that we won it.
So we prepared for it not in vain.
-There is a tendecy in your group stage,
that you have a risk of not passing through it.
What do you think the reason is?
-I think that during the tournament
we gain plies - the further we play,
the better we play.
In the beginning, teams who play against us,
have to win us badly, try to do their best,
when we barely gain consciousness;
I agree with Vanya's words,
but still i think that our general problems
are - lack of motivation
and underestimating our opponents;
I must add that we are playing best of 3 beteer,
than best of one.
We have to understand that playing
one map is better than playing 3.
For example we played map in group stage
against SK at Intel Extreme Masters making it a draw,
though we made a comeback outplaying fnatic
on de_dust2 and other opponents.
On bo3 u have to play 2 maps minimum and on bo1 only one.
This is a matter of attitude.
I must say that we were not prepared
for most of the tournaments with bo1.
- Do you think it is fair that
team prepares 3 of 5 mapsor even 2.
- It would be fair for the team
to play all maps without crossing out any map?
- Earlier, a lot of championships
were played by tours.
I think both systems are good,
but it would be better if tournaments
all over the world - Europe, CIS, etc.
were held by a single system.
For example - we are in the world championship -
there is one system, then we visit ASUS,
which has became a prestigious championship,
they have another system.
So it would be great if they were the same,
besides ASUS organizers should take examples
of holdingthe championship from other great
torunaments - bo3 groups with crossing out maps.
I think their system of chosing the map
is absolutely incorrect.
Teams know that we don't play de_nuke so they
want to play de_nuke with us, we know that
someone plays de_tuscan badly, so we will
play de_tuscan with them.
And when u play crossing out maps -
standard system of world championships -
you can cross out the strongest map of the opponent
and your weak map too.
You will chose maps, which you prepared and which you are confident in.
- As you mentioned before,
you will visit DreamHack soon.
This torunament stand out among the rest,
so what is DreamHack for you?
- We had a dream to visit it and then we won it.
DReamHack for me is kind of a party
- besides the exhbition,
many gamers from all
over the world gather there.
many people even
with own computers spend time together,
play different games, party there.
It's like in Ukraine, teenagers gather in campings
and on DH they gather in computer campings :D
They like it much.
Most of them come from other cities,
sleep on the cots and in tents.
Watching it all, being there is very cool.
Besides, the championship takes place there
with many great teams from
all over the world - Brazilians will be there this time.
I think this tournament will be very dynamic - Swedish teams:
Sk and fnatic chaged their lineups - when u change your roster,
you always gain new motivation,
"fresh blood" and you think that team becomes more powerful.
- Vanya, what can you tell us about DH?
- I agree with all the word said by Danila.
- You said that you are preparing for DH,
how are your trainings going? How long are you
at your base already? Whom do you practice with?
All top teams will be present at the tournaments,
except FX from Poland, how is your modd for the tournament?
- I think that Vanya should tell all this,
because i got to our base only yesterday.
Guys have gathered here for 4-5 days.
- But all this time we trained through the Internet
and its been 3 days,
that is clearly seen we starteed to gain our shape.
Though we still have to work some monets
to get our satisfactory shape, good shape.
In general, our training process funny,
though we didn't have so much praccs
with top-teams for a long time as we have now.
Yesterday we played with SK, 3 days ago with fnatic,
mTw is rarely flexing, though FX won't be present
at the toruanment, they also practice.
We asked FX - why do you train?
and got the answer - "we just love this game".
We play with everyone and as Vanya mentioned,
we gain our shape, though we have left 4-5 days
till the tournament and we want
to dedicate all the time to training,
gain good shape and win!
- Let's talk about the last peripetia on the world scene.
Your opinion about the Swedish teams changes.
By the way, is SK playing praccs
with Delpan in their Lineup?
- Look like they are.
I respect Carn as a captain and i think
it was hard for him to work with such gamer as pita,
but from the sideview, this player demonstrated nice game
and he had desire, motivation, he gained his shape.
So i don't know why this decision was
made-to kick him and don't support him,
but Delpan's is doubly dissapointing me.
In my opinion, it is Carn's and fnatic team merit
that he came on such a level - for SK to invite him.
Before fnatic, he wouldnot be
invited to SK - he was not considered to
be a strong player, everone knew he was a top player,
but wanted to play with SK at that time,
long before he joined fnatic. I had a confersation
with him and he said that he will quit Counter-Strike
because he didn't see further prospects.
Then he was picked up by fnatic,
he played good in European finals
and in further tournaments,
though the team didn't win.
They performed well,
but it was clearly seen that they lack something,
but they could take top3.
Delpan made a decision, pita was kicked,
i think that manne and Gux
wont make the team stronger
in 2-3 months for sure.Though, when pita
and Delpan were picked,
fnatic came and won European championship,
maybe they can win DH now, i don't know.
SK has a standard situation -
they had to take someone,
because they didn't have a normal fifth player
- they had troubles with allen, dennis,
who demonstrated not bad game,
he progressed quickly
- he had little experience
before playing for SK - he hasn't ever
played on world championships before
Intel Extreme Masters. Delpan as there several times,
so it was more reasonable to take delpan.
We will see what happens, over time.
They have good teams now, though i don't think
that they will show very strong gaming
and that they will powerfully dominate us.
Definitely, it will be harder for us
to combat with them, as they became stronger
- we were rivaling all the time.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!
Plus this situation with
SK and fnatic mangement doesnt look pleasant.
The heat is maximum there.
I always thought that the war is between
CIS managers and teams - the teams neglect
playing praccs with each other, etc.
And now i see this war is all over the world. COLD WAR :D