Not wanting to labour the point about England crashing out the World Cup, since as it has been mentioned several times in the coverage already, yet there are potential parallels between their fate and the one that many are predicting for Dignitas.

Both squads include the best players in the country, both have everything in place to make a serious push to competing on a world stage and Dignitas are supposedly likely to crash out the tournament in a similar fashion.

Preparation is key in that. It wasn’t even known that there’d be a UK qualifier until ten days before the event. Throw in a roster change and Team Dignitas aren’t coming in at 100% when compared to some of their European counterparts. With the weight of a nation on their shoulders I spoke with them to try and gauge whether they were feeling the pressure and whether their performance would be more Wayne Rooney than David Villa.

First things first, do you think youre going to go out early doors? How confident are you feeling with some of the big names in attendance? Do you think you're going to give a good account of yourselves?

Wez: Yeah, if we play like we know that we can then I think everyone in our group is going to be beatable. Obviously SK is going to be our hardest game. Burning will probably be the deciding one so if we beat them we should go through.

Am I right in thinking it wasn't ideal coming into it because you didn't know you guys were going to be here, so I'm guessing you guys haven't really practiced.

Aaron:Yeah, we haven't practiced that much, especially with Keyser joining the team we've had about 2 weeks practice, so its been pretty rushed.

The dignitas players watching over the WeMade Fox Players

How has the new chap embedded into the team?

Kurt1s:He's been doing alright, we'll see how it goes today won't we haha. No Pressure...

What about you, how are you finding it?

Aaron: Yeah its going well, it's a bit different from what I've been playing before, it's a big step up. So we'll see how it goes.

In the qualifier you sort of struggled against Vital Signs. I saw Sam coming back to try and get one over on his old organization and colleagues which was a nice touch. Is this indicative of your form recently?

Aaron:One word for you…dust2.

Wez:Every LAN we've been to dust2 has cost us. This event we're just going to eliminate it straight away. That and Tuscan.

Predictions-wise, what do you think of this event? 1.6 is always hard to call and theres often upsets, who do you think will be spearheading this charge from the underdogs this time?

Aaron: Us of course, Firegamers look good .

Wez: Probably Burning, if they play like they do online then they could probably win it. Online they're unstoppable. I don't think they will though.

What about the established favourites? Fnatic and Na'Vi had a bit of a stumble out at Dreamhack, is that encouraging to see? Do you think it's the end of an era for Fnatic?

Kurt1s:Yeah it's the start of an era for us haha.

Wez: Yeah it shows that theyre all beatable, so if we play like we know we can they we can beat them.

Aaron: To be fair they came into Dreamhack on the back of 3 tournaments was it? So they may have been on a burn out.

Do you think they'll bounce back at this one?

Aaron:Yeah they will, it was just a stumble, but you could see against fire gamers they were just warming up. Fnatics second game, so they should have been warmed up I spose, but there you go.

kurt1s:It's the perfect opportunity for us to cause an upset though, as there is no pressure on us.

What about the SGL coming through last minute to provide the qualifiers? What do you think this holds for the future of UK 1.6? Do you think it is just a random event or are you expecting it to be the rebirth of the scene?

Kurt1s:Seems like that, they've just done it randomly to help us out. But at least we know theres someone there doing that for us. Otherwise it does seem to be going downhill

Aaron:There is a lot of teams in the UK scene, but they don't want to pay £10 to play against us.

Kurt1s:The Kode5 qualifiers and WCG qualifiers we need someone to host them for us. But I don't know if anyones going to do it.

Moving away from 1.6 briefly, something that might not be on your radars, but will be pertinent to some of our readers, the CSS update, which seems to have once again divided the community in source. Do you think might push people towards 1.6?

Wez: Gamers just hate change. This update won't affect the amount playing 1.6 too much, but this update may divert some of the top gamers back to 1.6. Which would be good, we need more teams to play against

What about local competitions? Multiplay haven't done a 1.6 event for 2 years, would you like to see them picking up again? Do you think they will get people to sign up?

Wez: The last i-series event with 1.6 was i30 I think and that was just like a fun tournament. So they would be quite a few teams for the fun tournament, but theres no competitive teams and its so expensive and far away, theres no point.

What's your top3 for this event then?

Mtw
SK
Fnatic