Although well known in the UK, TLR have never been a big European name. However, after succesful tournaments in i28 and i29, TLR are starting to get more attention, and I caught up with TLR|Dre to see how he feels about it all.

Can you introduce yourself and your gaming history?

My name is Dre some call me crazy others call me belgian, but im just a crazy belgian. I have been gaming for quite a while: I started with my first online game waaaaayyyy back when Medal of Honour: Allied Assault came out and was in some of the best online teams the game knew. I moved onto CSS when it came out although never having played 1.6 transition to css harder than most of our other members who had been playing cs before it.

Tell us a little something about the other players in your team.

Most of the people in our team have been in it for almost a year now. They are all extremely talented and its starting to show. CuLo- is Clan Leader having started Warning! raL and Hostage made the transition to TLR.

How long have TLR had their current roster?

As previously stated the current lineup has been going for about 6 months now although we have recently made it into a 5 man team where Hostage and Zab play as backup. The 5 man roster consists of Culo- raL rem7 Immi and Dre.

How often do you guys practice per week, and what practice do you do?

We're currently in the process of structuring our team to become better. We are working on a schedule to practice consisting of aim practice and tactics. Up until now we have mainly been relying on our individual skills to get us through games and tactics training was usually a day or two before each match. Not very ideal which is why we want to change our ways.

How do you see the future of CS:S, and eSports in general?

Eventually there will be TV-coverage seeing as digital tv would be perfect for this. As long as Valve sorts out the remaining bugs in CS:S i think CPL will take on this game and it will blow up just like 1.6 did ages ago.

Is it true you wouldn't try out for Team Belgium because you didn't want to speak Dutch while playing? :P

I have no idea how you obtained this false information. *cough hacks cough* However it is true that I have been contacted by the Team Belgium manager and it is also true that i dislike speaking dutch during games. All the names are different and i dont intend to learn them. It is unlikely that i will join such a team as it would lack practice and would take too much of my time since i have never played with any of their players.

What are your goals for TLR in the next year?

TLR is growing as an organisation not only is the CS:S team pushing to become alot better, but so are all the other teams. We are trying to rack up a few sponsorship deals and we are setting out to win as much as we can. During this we are going to improve our teamplay so that we can finally do better at lan than finishing outside of the money again :P

When you're not playing, what do you spend the majority of your time doing?

When im not playing I am usually still playing *wink wink* .... HEH just kidding. I have alot to do all the time like I co-own a company selling computer parts and i make websites on a semi-professional level, im also enrolled in two universities but I hardly attend any classes because I am rather lazy :( My team think I'm extremely lazy since i sit at my pc most of the time when im actually doing stuff and working. It is true however that i watch alot of TV-series like lost, prison break, naruto, heroes and all that stuff but thats because working is boring :D

We all have a little fanboy in us, who is your favourite European team, and why?

For me that is a really really tricky question since I dont know many teams. I would have to go with the Cadre since they have this awesome member called xileF, even though he headbutted me at lan i still like him :] I have no idea who he is, do you Felix? Also the uQ lads are a sound bunch of guys with JaFro and w1p, they always make it a close game (triple overtime sjeesj).

And controversially, your least favourite? :P

My hands are tied on this one. Because I dont want to get kicked in the balls at i30 by Culo i am obliged to nominate this team: You guessed it! Its Reason. Now I do not hold anything against them personally but it seems they are disliked by many people in the community. This showed at the finals at lan when their team was announced it was closely followed by a big BOO of the crowd spectating ( mainly started by Culo probably :P).

How did you feel about your results at i29? We're you expecting better or worse?

Being seeded fifth was pretty much what we expected. With teams like r3, Reason, Zboard and temp.css attending the event we knew this was going to be tough. But as usual we start to shine when the pressure is on and by finishing 4th we were all very happy. Same finish as last time but with alot more good teams!

What will you be changing in your approach to i30 and future LANs? I think you're attending Starbytes also?

We want to come top 3 at i30 just so we can say we didnt come 4th three times in a row :P Also we are planning on lanning more but I dont think Starbytes is a go for us. There wont be many teams and its smack dab in the middle of my exams. It would be hard for raL to get time off aswell so we'll probably be skipping this lan event. What is certain though is that we will be bootcamping before i30 and there is talk of TLR attending a French lan :o

What other games do you play apart from CS:S? Have you ever played any other games competitively?

As i said earlier I used to play MoH:AA at a competitive level. Although the game wasnt that big it was still played alot in Europe and had alot of good teams in it. We mess about in BF2 sometimes and I try out most new games but I never play them seriously.

If they were going to make a film about TLR, which actor would play you?

I would be Hally Berry so i can feel my own boobs coz Hally Berry's got nice boobs mmmmmmm boobs. My team seems to think I should be some hyperactive foreigner that likes to blow up stuff.... what the hell do they know huh. I do like explosions though. As for the rest of the team I think Culo- would be a fat Chinese person (don't ask me why) raL would be your local dealer/high person. rem7 would be the clerk at tesco's that rips your bags and then says he doesnt speak english. Immi would be one of the gypsy in snatch because we dont understand him either being a scouse :D Zab IS SilentBob, he has been contacted for their next movie as he makes a better SilentBob than the actual SilentBob. Hostage would probably be a lost spanish disco-dancer asking: "Donde esta la discotheca?"

For all the Belgian women out there who find CS skills a major turn on, how do you like your women?

I am already a celebrity in Belgium as it is, so I wish not to attract too much attention as I already get 800 mails a day. But as a great man once said: "She must have tight anus like 7 year old boy". Basically anything non-fat, big boobs, good looking, great personality will do. Oh and she has to love me long time.

Thanks a lot for your time, and you can finish the interview with any shoutouts.

I would like to thank our main sponsor: Chefinal who has provided us with everything we wanted and for running the great organisation that TLR is. Also e-Frag for providing us with quality servers and GetPro for hooking us up with bouncers and Adam Cook for giving us free Tescos plastic bags. Also AMD, INTEL, NVIDIA, ATI and offcourse TESCO's (free alcohol for lan) for sponsoring us in the future. U know u want to! I would also like to thank Felix for coming up with half these retarded questions (Introduce yourself pfffff). Felix Rocks!