We had a chat with both teams after the CS:S final at i38

The CS:S final was one of the best finals we have ever seen. Finishing at 3:15 in the morning, over 2 maps, with 4 overtimes played gives you a rough idea of just how good it was.

We may put up the audio versions of these interviews in due course, so make sure to keep checking back.

First off Gonzo caught up with .PhP, the person tipped to take the MVP award. He had a great final, and even better game in the UpperBracket final against dignitas.

.PhP from Reason Gaming

What a great final! How are you feeling?

It feels great.

It look likes your are shaking. Are you really fully of adrenalin now?

It was a difficult match. We lost almost every pistol bar T side on nuke. This was terrible for us, as they won the pistols and then one the next few rounds. We didn't have much space to do much.

Were you surprised at how well Power Gaming played?

Not really. We knew they would play well, so we weren't surprised.

How do you feel about playing the final so late at night, were you guys tired, exhausted?

Yeah definitely, its terrible playing this late.

How did you find the strength and resolve to push through in such a tough game. How did you do it?

Well on Inferno it was really close and on the last round in overtime just before it started Guardian timed out, and we had to rush our positions and try to make something and we failed. So we just knew that we had almost had Inferno, and Nuke is our better map.

You guys are the winners of another i-series, so I guess you are over the moon at winning again. You said earlier in the tournament you didn't want to lose another event until you retired. So are you feeling really good right now then?

I don't think we will lose.

Everyone is saying you personally deserve the MVP award for the event. Everyone has been saying you have been playing huge. Do you feel it was a team effort or have you really stepped your game up this event?

I had a good game against dignitas, and I played OK against these guys, but other guys played well. It's not that easy to say who was the most valuable player, but personally I think that re1ease played great.

So are you going to celebrate tonight or is it to bed and then a plane tomorrow (well today) morning?

We would have celebrated, but we have a flight tomorrow so we are going to get some sleep.

Next up we spoke to the runners up of the tournament, Power Gaming. One player had played really well in the final, but was struggling to keep his eyes open by the end of it. It is none other than HenryG. Gonzo spoke to him straight after the final.

Henry, you look kind of disappointed, which may be a bit of an understatement. But how do you feel?

Same old story for me really, I get to the final, give them a close game but never finish the deal.

Everyone was saying that Reason were cast iron favourites coming into this. You guys pushed them to two map, and were so good on Inferno, with 4 over Times. You could have conceivably won it, if it hadn't been the Grand Finals. You can't be that disappointed surely.

Reason have been together for ages, they are a much better team than us at the moment. We have a very young team, this is our first event together with any of these players. I've never met StingeR before really, so the fact that we have come to the finals, beaten our UK rivals, we've beaten fnatic, we've beaten GLG who had a good event. I'm really happy that we made the final but I'm sick of 2nd place. I want to win.

Do you think having to play the game at 3 in he morning must have played a factor in the outcome of the game? People were saying that you were struggling to keep your eyes open. I know you won't make an excuse but was it a factor?

Well we had to be here at 9am for the game this morning so I have been up since 7am. Now at quarter past 3 it is a bit much to ask to play at this time. However it wasn't really a problem and it didn't really affect the outcome of the game.

What do you think was the turning point. On Nuke you boys looked like you had done enough. What changed the game?

We had just gone out with the mental state that they had watched our demo and so we were too scared to do anything in case they about it. So we tried to do new things. We lost the round, lost our money, had to eco, lost the next couple of rounds. Just a horrible saga of trying new things as we thought they had anti-stratted us.

As you said you are a UK side, you're all young with a glorified Norweigan in the team. You guys are going to stay together aren't you. You aren't going to make any radical changes are you?

No man! We have Dreamhack in a couple of weeks I believe and we are still going to hardcore practice this week. This was the warmup for Dreamhack, that is the one we really have set our eyes upon.

I think this would come from everyone who watched the final, you boys might have second place, but you weren't losers. I hope you are as happy about it as everyone. As always I will give you the final word; Reason, are they the best team in Europe? Is that the bench mark?

I think we need another big tournament to decide that. There have been a lot of roster changes, but from what I can see at the moment they are going to be very very hard to beat.