DuRuS speaks to Obama from TheImperial after their game against fnatic

With the group stages over for TheImperial, I took some time out to speak to Obama, one of The Imperial players. They took fnatic right to the wire, and managed to get a point from them. We spoke about the event in detail, but also talked a bit about the future of TheImperial as well as their new player.

I am here with Obama from TheImperial. You’ve come to OOF, but how have you found the event so far?

Um, it’s going well, till now. The travel was quite funny; we had some problems with the car. I have my license now, so I drove myself. It was really funny. But it’s a bit hot in the basement, but here it is fine. We’re excited about the event.

And how have you found the matches? You have just beat ASES and drawn with fnatic.

Yeah there were a lot of troubles with the computers that meant the schedule was a bit off. ASES had to play fnatic first and then we had to play them. But we played fnatic first, because ASES had some sound troubles. I didn’t feel like we had that much grip on them [fnatic], but we kept winning round after round. And then in the end we out clutched them. Stevy had some great rounds, and we had some great rounds. And the match against ASES, they lost 13-1 against fnatic so we knew it would be a bit easier, but we practiced Citystreets a lot last week, so it went well, and the tactics worked out.

Fnatic were tipped as one of the favourites for the tournament, but did they lose the match or did you just play better at times?

Well it’s the group stage of the tournament, and there are only 3 teams in our group. Maybe they knew already that ASES were quite weak so they would go through anyway. Think that affected the game really, but they wanted to beat us, and we wanted to beat them. But we knew before that they were a great team and we just did our best. I think they are still one of the competitors to win the title. But a draw, yeah, it doesn’t really say much about their form. They are still great.

And how do you view your chances? You are going to go through to the playoffs in 2nd place, so it will be a bit harder, but how do you think you will do?

Our goals before the event was just to pass the group stage, because they’re all good teams here, so much. We were middle seeded, and all the top seeds are all really good, and the middle seeds are also good. We set ourself a target of passing the group stages, and let’s see where we get. It is going fine now; we don’t know who we’re playing in the next stage, but we will see.

How has your preparation been for the event?

The last 2 weeks it has been great. But 2 weeks ago we removed Aerox, and we brought in Oliver, exo. He has been seen as the “ultimate onliner” as seen on Tek-9.  He showed in both matches that he is a good player. We’re really confident with our lineup at the moment.

How is he settling into the team?

Well we played with him in Sample This before, so we knew him already a little bit. We played Age of Empires a lot together, so we knew what type of guy he was. His aim is really good, but hes never been to big LANs before, and never played in any big teams.

What are your plans for the rest of the summer after OOF3?

On Tuesday we’re flying to TeX, with the same lineup, and after the events I expect the lineups to be the same. There are some smaller LANs in Benelux, FOM, with €1,500 prize money, and then i37. Imperial, the UK organisation wants us to come there. We would like to go to England again.

How do you think you will do at TeX and i37? Do you think you will be able to step your game up again for the next few events?

Well we won FatLan over ButtonBashers, and this was the first LAN with this lineup, but it is going fine. The TeX seedings are being based on this event, which is good for us as we are already in the last 16 teams. With a low seed it is harder to get far in a tournament, but we should get a good seed now, so it should go well now.

What are the teams here and at TeX that you would prefer to avoid for any particular reason?

The Germans, definitely them. Both of them. I don’t know what it is, but online we never get out played by teams like Reason or dignitas. But the Germans were always better than us, they always stratted each map perfectly. I don’t know, I’d like to avoid them.

Do you think they’re gonna win these tournaments?

No I still think reason or... I don’t know how Dignitas are doing with Blackmane, or Fnatic, but I don’t think the Germans are going to win any of the events from what I’ve seen from mTw against Next and  YoYoTech, but we will see.

Thanks for the interview, finally do you have any shoutouts?

Of course shoutouts to the managers who brought us here, and to everyone at home who is following us on tek9 and have supported us, and to my teammates.

If you want to listen to the original audio interview, a flash player can be found below: