While DuRus is off transfixed with the Call of Duty finals I decided to mingle with the crowd. A lot of tired gamers here and it’s baking hot, even as we approach the evening.

James “wilzOOO” Wilson has made what can only be described as a nest in one corner of the room and has decided to grab some shut-eye. No one seems to mind. The rest of the Source players are watching the Call ofDuty finals. I sit behind the FM Toxic mix and prepare for an interview with them.

“I don’t get it” says Kritikal. “Well, I get Call of Duty obviously, but I don’t. Definitely not my thing to watch.”

“Fuck... That reminds me, there’s a massive gay pride march outside Luke” says Pez.

“That explains it” says Kritikal “I thought there was something going on outside like that, but you know, when you’re in London, you sort of just get used to it I guess.”

Pez starts laughing... “Nayden thought it was a body-building convention. I didn’t have the heart to tell him different.”

What follows is a transcription of the interview as I try to ask FM toxic their thoughts on the events do far.

First question might come off as a little harsh lads, but why did you crumble so badly against Crack Clan?

Kritikal

What are you talking about? No one crumbled... We’re not a team, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Pez

Yeah, they’ve been playing together how long? I mean, you could tell they’d just come out of one event together. They were drilled man.

Kritikal

Whereas we finalised our line-up last night...

Pez

We came here for a laugh, get a bit of money, have a nice LAN and rep FM. Mission accomplished. We had no expectations outside of that.

At this point Sam “RattlesnK” Gawn interjects

Have you even tried playing on the monitors. I was AWPing and it was like I had 400 ping because it just kept jerking about. So you know, it’s a bit of a lottery anyway in that respect. I don’t even know what it is, but some of the monitors are very jerky. That doesn’t help when you’re trying to play your best and find some consistency.

Obviously you’ve played and lost to Crack Clan. You’ve also got a player that is in the Dignitas squad. Between the two of you, who do you think is going to take the final?

Pez

It’ll be close, but I just have this feeling that Crack clan will isolate and exploit Blackmane. He’s a decent player, but he doesn’t have the experience these guys do and I’m sure they’ll have factored that in to their tactics.

Kritikal

Yeah, but Blackmane is absolute ownage online and could bust out a huge game if they think he’s going to be a soft target. If you add beta and Mx loving a crumble into the mix as well, literally anything could happen.

Pez

If Dignitas’s big players go huge then they might nick it, but Crack Clan are so well drilled and I just think, with them being all set to quit and what have you, that this could be their event.

Kritikal

Personally I’m disappointed that we didn’t take more rounds off Crack in all honesty. We did come close to pulling off some rounds on de_dust2 that could have changed the whole complexion of the game, but it didn’t happen. I have faith in my boys anyway.

With the EPS being one of the more prestigious events on the UK calendar, what do you think about it effectively being contested by a series of mix teams?

Pez

ESL is progressing and is helping the UK progress. I believe that the UK teams will adapt and stop switching teams, orgs and players as frequently as they do. You know how the UK is... It explodes every three months. Basically we ‘re here for Callum and FM to make sure they’re in it for next season and I’m sure that team is going to stick together.

Kritikal

People forget we had CGS over here for how long and that led to two stable teams that dominated and no-one else had a chance. After that died there was always going to be this sort of instability as so many teams were created after it, and there’s not the same support there for the teams.

Pez

It’s also worth mentioning that Dig were very unlucky at not being allowed to use Luke on their roster so it’s not their fault as such that they are a mix.

Kritikal

The bottom line is if people invest in it properly, it will settle down. You can preach about professionalism and all this, but when you go to LANs like the one we did a couple of weeks ago and it’s so badly run it does make you think about what you’re doing. Professionalism needs to start at the top and trickle down.

What players have stood out for you this tournament?

Pez

Mx, unfortunately...

Kritikal

Naaaaaaaaah

Pez

Zeox had a good one too, especially considering it was his first one.

Kritikal

wilzOOO was prett ill against TLR.

Pez

And HaZ dominated us on Inferno. So yeah, been some good stand out performances. MVP voting should be interesting.

You’ve got your third place playoff match against TLR / Andy’s vent to look forward to. How do you see that going?

Kritikal

We’re going to win for sure. They’re as much of a mix as us and I think, with all respect to them, our calibre of player is a little bit better and has more experience.

There have been a lot of rumours about you moving from TCM, Pez. Would you care to comment on those?

Pez

I can’t believe you’ve done this. My loyalty is with TCM and I signed a a contract for six months and will be honouring it. We had a bad LAN at UKeSA, that’s no secret, and we weren’t happy about it. But we’re working through those problems together as a team and it will be different when we get out to TEX. Those rumours only got started because all my old team mates from 4kings ended up at FM, so that was nothing to do with me at all.

Obviously you’re enjoying the event as a whole, watching some COD, playing some Source... What have you made of the whole thing?

Pez

It’s been great. I’ve been watching the Trackmania and playing a bit of it. I play it in my spare time so it’s good to see how it works in a competitive capacity. A very under-rated game in the UK.

Kritikal

Yeah, the racing car game is good, but Gran Turismo is better.