Interview with Edward & Zeus - part 3

- You both come from Kharkiv and you were called
ìKharkiv hit squadî when u came to Kiev.
Didnít you think about fully moving to Kiev and live
here (not gather for bootcamps only)? Can you make
a parallel between Kharkiv and Kiev?
- I can say that when we moved to Moscow going
back to Kharkiv was completely different. Hahaha,
born anew! We came back to Kharkiv and everything
wasnít the sameÖ We didnít have the same feeling.
Yeah, of course family, parents, home ñ thatís all we
understandÖ But it wasnít our usual life with friends
and so on. Someone was working, someone was
studying and everyone was just busy with his own stuff.
You felt lonely back there and it still feels like those times sometimesÖ
Itís still the same now so most time I spend in Kiev,
I have a lot of friends here as well.
I had no thoughts of fully moving to Kiev -
there were no assumptions to such ideas.
But I wouldnít mind that. I remember when
I came back to Kharkiv, Ukraine from after
WCG in Los-Angeles (Hollywood where we had some fun) and
felt like coming to damp swamp, trashcan, a nightmare.
Although going back home is very important for me
ñ my parents, family, friendsÖ I start to bloom inside my
heart, everything is so close to me I spent all my youth there and
I donít want to move anywhere. But I would like to say that
I like to travel very much and I would like to live a month in New York,
a month in Miami, Kiev, etc. No matter.
No matter how many ideas I have, my native city calls
me so I will hardly ever move to another city.
- As far as I know you started your own e-sports school.
Could you tell us more about it?
- Currently Iím not engaged in it ñ I did it when we had
free time when we had 1.5 month of vacations.
It lasted for 2-3 weeks.
I recruit participants, the education stems in Skype for example.
I gather groups 5 to 15 people. Then we join random
server no matter what ping they have 30 or 150ms -
the thing is that we donít play CS, I just coordinate them how
to train their aim, how to play DM, which DM they should play,
how to play with pod-bots, how much time should they
dedicate to CS, etc. I am responsibly approaching to such
kind of activities and I hope Iíll continue this in the future.
Of course my trainings are not for free, I had to earn money
for spending my time and my energy with my experience.
- Havenít you lost your strive to victories? Or is it dull for you now?
What can you say, Vanya? You have won 4 world championships.
- Every new tournament has something peculiar ñ
emotions, memories that I lack.
Zeus: I can say that I had a period when I lacked some motivation
(even a week ago) and I thought of my future, my baby.
These trips are hard, my wife stays with my daughter alone
although our parents help a lot and I understand
that her main helper is me. Iíd like to slowly move further.
But at the moment Iím fully concentrated on CS,
I want to win DreamHack badly and so does my team ñ
they all train hard. Time will show.
- Itís time for a financial question. How many tournaments
have paid off their prize money. Is this an essential
question at the moment?
- It is the question of current interest. We are pissed
about it and even thought of giving up our attendance
in such tournaments.
Tournaments like Intel Extreme Masters are doing extremely bad job,
we did not receive our money from the last season
and at the moment they owe us the biggest
sum of money (approximately 90 000$).
Itís a big amount and we have no idea when they are going to pay it.
I hope they will pay it soon but this year weíre going
to treat them differently. Everyone else seems
to be paying in time, only Dream Hack is delaying payments
but I think everything is going to be OK.
- How many personal rewards, diplomas do you have?
- Danila and I have personal hall of fame at home, we
have even badges there. I collected badges from all tournaments,
I have lots of medals, diplomas, the most beautiful are from WCG.
I have the same situation. My father is my biggest fan,
my parents are. He didnít treat it well long ago but when
he saw me earning money for living by CS he got more
interested in it. I explained everything about my hobby,
what are computer games and he liked it.
Now he spends much time by computer.
When I lived with my parents,
I was sharing my room with my small brother
(he plays football) and my father made a hall of
fame for all our rewards there
(for cups, medals, diplomas of my brother and me).
tís great to look at it when I come home.
My brother played for team Metallist and
now he has a chance to be taken into
a serious football organization.
- What is your plans after Dream Hack?
Adepto BH Open? E-Stars Seoul?
- I think that we will have a vacation after Bosnia.
We havenít decided yet whether weíll be
visiting a tournament in Moscow.
- A couple of words to your fans ñ Vkontakte,
Facebook world community?
- Thanks to all our fans of just to people
who love this game. Iím sorry for those whom
Iím didnít answer, because if I will start to do so,
we wonít be able to prepare our team for the tournaments
We are very glad to see the activity of our fans
(during contests, in videos, etc.) in our Vkontakte
and Facebook group. I think that when we attend tournaments,
we are there not with just 5 players but together with at
least 40 000 vkontakte fans and fans from all over the world.
So if you continue supporting us and believing in the team,
we wonít leave a chance to anyone!
- And the last question ñ what would you like to
wish to your friends, thank to sponsors and so on?
- We are thankful to our sponsors: SteelSeries,
Kaspersky Lab., Hell energetic drink, Gamefrag.ru, Antec,
our partners Kiev CyberSport Arena, Zona 51.
Regards to our parents, brothers, Nos, Kristina, Ksusha,
my sister, Sasha from Simferopol, Starix, Dima Kochuga,
swamp chocolate and to all girls and boys, cheers to all!
- Thanks for the interview, guys, good luck!
- Thanks, bye!
...It is not the end...
- Hello everyone, guys. We are sitting together with Zeus and Danya here at Na`Viís baseÖ
- Edward: With Zeus and Danya, yeahÖ LOOOOOL