"The Road to Bressuire"

I caught up with a few of the top teams attending Lan79 this weekend. Its sure to be an amazing event with some of the worlds greatest CSS talent in attendence. I aks them about their journey, preparation and their top 3 predictions, enjoy!

Tom "url" Chenery

Hey url, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers

I'm Tom 'url' Chenery of Reason Gaming; I am 18 years old and am the team’s in-game caller. HenryG is our team leader, jonoVa is our halo world champion, ritch is our little e-thug and hughsy is our madfragger!

Great, how are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

We are going on the Eurostar (train that goes underwater to France from London), and then from Paris to Bocapole on the lan79 bus. Me, Henry and Jon have LANned abroad before at SHG, which was quite a disappointing event for us so we look to set that straight.

Lets hope France lives up to your expectations. Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

We have been practicing a little, we have had some problems with pings and stuff lately, but we hope it will be enough... We expect to finish in the top5 here.

What are your top 3 predictions then?

I think top3 will be, in no order, x6, fnatic and hopefully us!

Well, good luck with the event and remember to bring home the bacon! Finally, any shoutouts?

Lauri "Jonssen" Niitamo

Hey Jonssen, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. I'm sure most of the readers know who you are, but just give us a quick introduction about yourself and the Cadre team attending lan79?

I’m Lauri Niitamo from Finland and I'm playing for Insignia Cadre along with late, aNGeldust, gRiLLi and albbis. This Friday were going to LAN79, France and we have been very busy on preparing to it. We have changed something and we'll think it works and are pretty confident that we'll take it home.

How are you guys getting to the event?

Airplane from Finland-Amsterdam-France and then we're gonna take the bus to LAN79 from Paris.

See you on the bus then! After missing out on the top spot at assembly LAN last week, do you think you have changed enough to take the title at lan79?

We have been practicing a little, we have had some problems with pings and stuff lately, but we hope it will be enough... We expect to finish in the top5 here.

Top 3 predictions?

Hard to say, so I wont say anything :) Everything’s possible!

It’s LAN at the end of the day! Good luck in "Par- EEEE" and thanks for taking this interview, any shoutouts?

George "HudzG"

Hey HudzG, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

Hi, my name’s George most of you will know me as hudzG or hudz or zdh ,whatever you prefer. Currently playing in r3 been in teams such as cZar , subversion , zboard , clicksports etc. The rest of the team consists of Tom "beta"; he was in zboard alongside me. A very quick player and a great guy to play alongside. Adam "shivers" our key man in any tough situation, much like Tom and the rest of the guys. A great player to play with and a really nice guy.

Ollie "crazycat" our little prodigy , love this guy to bits, he says the funniest shit on ventrilo especially when killed. He is mainly our colt player, a very strong one! He was in r3 when I joined. Finally Mike "phx" formally of auxilia many of you know him as the Irish ownage.

Sounds like a lineup with lots of well known UK faces! How are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

We are travelling down to our managers house, and then from there we are hopping in a minibus to the ferry across the channel then we are hopping off and going on a crazy road trip to the LAN and chilling out. Alot of us have been to quite a few LANs but I personally have never been to a LAN abroad however I imagine its going to be great fun and should be the same as UK because France is only 1 hour ahead of us, so the time difference wont be an issue.

Sounds like a Eurotrip effort! Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Ye it is a bit of a Eurotrip hehe :). Ye we have been training quite hard for the event and as a placing I never really like to say how high teams are going to place because its counter-strike and anyone can beat anyone on the day so you just gotta put all your eggs in one basket and go give it your best and see what you can do on the day.

Definitely, and it is LAN of course, anything can happen. Who do you think will come top 3 anyway?

Well I don’t honestly know, like I said it all depends on the day, you saw in assembly lan Insignia Cadre take down Logitech and then Logitech came back really hard and beat them 2 maps in a row it all depends so I don’t like to say but everyone is going to be fighting for the money and putting there all and heart into it.

Definitely, well I wish you luck at lan79 as a UK team! Finally any shoutouts?

Shoutout to our sponsors www.1moregame.co.uk , our manager chilli who is making all this happen and much much more in the future so stay tuned. a shoutout once again to my girlfriend - ollz , fatal because i love him , w1p the police man all of fnatic and dragonality and papertiger loko . etc all the people I met at i30 and Colt KillazZZZz!!!! -

Kenneth "tOr" Van Gyseghem

Hey 811`tOr, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

Np. My name is Kenneth Van Gyseghem, i'm 20 years old and i'm playing css for about 2 years now. I played sof2 before together with nergal and alexander. My team consists of the following players: Ck, Pumba, Nergal, Quick, chaos, me and alexander as manager.

Great, how are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

This is the first international LAN for everyone in our team. We will go there by car because that is the cheapest way we found. It's about 7 hours of travel.

Haha nice, sounds like an adventure! Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

We're been to occ lan in the beginning of April, which was a very good practise. Now this last week before LAN79, we are going to try to play as much as possible and review all tactics we have on all the maps. I really have no idea where we will place in this event. We are hoping for a top5 spot, although I don't think anyone will expect us to end that high, but you never know, LAN is always different than online :)

CSS is a different game on LAN! Who do you think will finish top 3 anyway?

Its so hard to predict seeing all those topteams, but I'd say Dignitas, x6, cadre in any order.

Definitely, well I wish you luck, I'd like to see a slightly underrated team surprise a few people! Finally, any shoutouts?

Kevin "L0rdZz" Pascal

Hey L0rdZz, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

Hi, I'm Kevin "L0rdZz" Pascal, I've been playing CSS since June 2005. I’m Currently playing for against All authority with RpC^ Steuch Pi.aiM and crZ`.

Great, how are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

We are playing with 2 new players so we are not totally ready on the all maps but we will do our best.

Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Umm, we have been practising for 3 weeks and if we have lucky maybe we will do the same result as the shgOpen (top8)

With all the top team competing in the tournament, what are your top 3 predictions?

Dignitas, check6gaming and Insignia Cadre; but it's hard to say which team will come first.

Good luck at lan79, a bit of pressure as the top French team! Finally, any shoutouts?

Erik "Haz"

Hey Haz, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

No problemo. My name's Erik, I'm 19 years old and I live in Stockholm. Our team consists of four of the old adastra lineup and ferus, the shining star =)

(If SK made CSS teams…) How are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

The management of Check Six helps us a lot with everything! Especially our own manager gurhan. We are flying from Stockholm to Paris and then going to the venue by train. I've never been to a competitive LAN in Sweden, so yes! The others do have some experience of LANing abroad as well.

Sounds good, I'm sure they treat you well! Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Well actually we've had a break up until today... So we could've prepared for this better, but some things have come in our way so we can only hope that two days practice will do the trick. Considering our preparation, I'm guessing top3-5.

What are your top 3 predictions then?

I'd say fnatic, dignitas and us in any order.

Good luck and have fun at lan79! Finally any shoutouts?

Sandor 'proph' de Munck

Hey Proph, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

I should make a bind for answering this question! Hi readers Im Sandor 'proph' de Munck 17 years old playing for the fnatic CSS team, I usually do the awping in my team. For the rest we have Mark 'AirRaid' Koks the 19-year-old tactical mastermind behind our team our succes. Then we have Luuk 'darky' Verink also 19 years old; the consistent one in the team. Ofcourse the infamous Quint 'Blaze' Spierenburg also 19, make sure you cover your back when your playing him cause he likes shooting at it!

And last but not least we got my good buddy Milan 'xertion' Veeger the grandpa in our team (20 years old), he likes the awp as well and knows how to handle himself when 5 people rushing in from every side!

Great, how are you and your team getting to the event and how often do you guys LAN?

Well, we're going with Marks minivan bus thingy, more then enough space for all of our stuff and us! This is about our 5th foreign event within 6 months; we really enjoy being able to travel around as much as we do.

Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Yes we have been practising just our regular online routine business, playing as much as we can even though sometimes people have other stuff to do we try to play as much as we can! About our placing.. It's hard to say definitely with so many top teams competing but a top3 placing should be within our grasps.

What are your top 3 predictions then?

In no particular order: attax x6 dignitas.

Good luck at lan79. Finally any shoutouts?

Nico "sYrox" Strott

Hey sYrox, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

Hi ! My name is Nico Strott also known as sYrox. I play CS:Source for the Clan ALTERNATE aTTaX where also players like Head, philipp, ej and mEiJin do their job aswell.

Great, how are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

We will drive by a small bus and it wont be hopefully a to long trip ;). We LANed abroad before for example the EuroCSS in London and SHG Open in Denmark. Unfortunately we had some problems on both LANs so that we couldnt become 1st ;).

Oh, I wont go into those "problems" :P... Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Well, we just practiced like we always do - just playing PCW's in the evening. In my opinion its hard to say where we will end up but we wouldn't travel this far if we wouldn't be able to win such a tournament. So hopefully top3.

Sounds like a good practise routine to me! So who do you think will come top 3 then?

As I said: Its hard to say for me because on one day any Team can play very good an on another day they just suck. But I would say Dignitas, aTTaX and x6 in any order.

Probably same as what I would predict. Well, good luck with the event and have fun! Finally, any shoutouts?

Thanks DeadCell ! First I'd like to thank our Sponsors for supporting us that well and makin' such trips possible. Then I want to greet my whole team including smon and LADY who are doing a great job, the whole germany CS:S community, cadreangeldust, H2K|inCre, 4K|limpz and 4k|iden and all I forgot ;)

David "Olander" Olander

Hey olander, First of all, thanks for taking the time to take this interview. Please introduce yourself and your team to the readers:

Hello my name is David Olander and I play CSS for Team Dignitas. When I'm not playing I work out at the gym or study at college.

My team is Mathias 'maths' Eneström-Jönsson, Jonas 'nordQvist' nordQvist, Fredrik 'vizzion' Nilsson and Martin 'tyron' Jeppsson

How are you and your team getting to the event and have you ever LANed abroad before?

We are going by plane from Skavsta airport in Stockholm to Paris. Then we will take the LAN bus to the event! Yes I have, I have been in Finland, Denmark, Italy before.

See you on the bus then, sounds like a longer journey than mine! Have you guys been practising for the event and how do you think you will place in the event?

Well we have been playing as much as possible and since we have played together for a long time there is really nothing to do but to try to become better and analyse what we have done wrong before. So its small things but they are hard to find. We will play a lot different this event.

I'm sure you will distract the other teams with your "barely moves" sense!...Anyway, Who do you think will come top 3?

I have no idea. Personally I believe in attax because I think they are a good team. I rspect them as players but of course not ingame. Cadre, fnatic, attax, check6 are all possible candidates.

Definitely, well I wish you luck at lan79, and have fun! Finally any shoutouts?