After a good start to their first International event, Cadred spoke to Epsilon Esports' Kevin "Ex6tenZ" Droolans. Thanks to managers Virp and Luke for their assistance translating!

Hey Kevin, how’s the event going so far?

Good, we had a good group stage, we had to play Logitech in our first match as Profos did not show up. We didn’t start well against Logitech, but we had a good recovery to draw 15-15. In order to finish top of the group we made sure we took every round seriously in other matches, to make sure we had a better round difference than Logitech. It was very important for us to finish first, and advance directly to the second round of the Upper Bracket, earning 200€ straight away.

Apart from your draw with Logitech, you’ve conceded only six rounds over your other two matches – how confident are you going into the elimination stage of this event?

The most positive result for us was the second half against Logitech, because we had lost 10-5 and then came back playing very well. This half showed us that we can compete with any team at the event. We know we can beat any team if we perform 100%, we have enough talent to create problems against any team, for us there’s no difference between playing Magnitude and an unknown team, it is the same for us – we just want to play our game, and it will be enough.

Obviously all the teams progress through from the group stages, have you been surprised by any of the placings that effect where in the elimination stage the teams will start at?

Group A is not surprising for us, Magnitude is very strong, they won their matches easily, and we were not surprised about the score between then and Four Kings, who we expected to come second as they did.

Group B was the most complicated group, we think Reason Gaming had quite a disappointing group stage, but they finished second which is quite good. Wtm had a good group stage, they played at their normal level, but they played as we expected. Unfortunately the biggest surprise of the group stage, Roskilde finished only fourth, despite pulling off really impressive performances against MGC and Reason, both games which they could have won.

Group D was difficult to predict, Crossed were really impressive at the beginning, other than their game against Multigamer, Tweaked and Multigamer have shown themselves to perform on a good level. The main surprise was OBi’s losses against those two teams, it was disappointing for them.

So you’ve said you’re confident going into the elimination stage, what teams can challenge you for the first place prize this weekend?

We really think that the majority of teams have a chance to win this event, including MultiGamer, Tweaked, Crossed, MGC, Magnitude, Four-Kings, Roskilde, Reason, OBi, wtm-Gaming, Logitech, and of course us. Anything can happen, it just depends how they play on the day.

How about away from the arena, how are you enjoying your trip so far?

We are fully focused on the competition, so when we finish our match we just start thinking of our next one. There is a good team spirit, because we all have the same goals. We have known each other for a long time, so we all get on well together – even though this is our first event with crZ and RpK^ we have met them many times before at French lans – most of the French top players meet each other four or five times a year, so whenever there are changes in the French scene, there is no big problem.

How do you think the event has been organised and run, how would you rate The Experience?

The admins are very serious, the rules are followed to the letter with no exceptions, it’s organised so smoothly that we know exactly what to expect and when – It’s run like the ESWC of CSS. The arena is setup really well, it looks very beautiful, and the lights are impressive.

The PC configuration is perfect, just we would prefer to have CRT screens. Each player has enough space, which is good. Honestly this is the biggest professional event for CSS in Europe, along with Lan79, so it’s very important that even more top teams attend next year.

You bought in crZ and RpK^ a few weeks ago, how have they been fitting into the team in game?

These players have given us a new dimension, crZ is one of the best snipers in France, and RpK^ is an amazing frag machine, the best aimer in France, so they’ve definitely proved that they deserve their places in this team. We are stronger than a month ago.

Ok, cheers for your time, any final remarks?

I would like to thank our organisation, Epsilon, especially our president Olympus and our head manager Luke, and our two CSS managers, NiaK and Virp, who are an important part of our team. Thanks of course to the provider of our official sportswear, Nike, for their support.

We will do our best to represent France at this event, and we are very disappointed that RedLine could not make it, but the most important thing is that they are well after their accident – we think that most of the teams would have under-estimated them, and that they could have done well at TeX.