One of the main stories at the event will be the new VeryGames squad showcasing what they can do at LAN for the first time. Essential to their success will be the performance of their veteran Loic “RegnaM” Peron, who will be competing at LAN for the first time after a spell out of the game.

Despite being a top quality player he found himself a permanent sixth when part of the previous VeryGames roster, so there will be question marks about how he can perform against the better opposition.

I managed to get an opportunity to speak to Loic, no stranger to Cadred, before the tournament began and asked his thoughts about how well he thought both him and his new team would do.

First question then - How have you been getting on with the new team? Have you settled into a good rhythm at the moment, or has it been difficult to adapt to the new set-up?

I've started to play secretly with redLine players like 2-3 weeks before we officially announce our departure for Team VeryGames. We played around 4 maps per night so we can say we are getting a nice rhythm. However i think we are not fully prepared yet, i guess we need at least one more month to be perfect with our team-play. It wasn't difficult for me to adapt actually, ex6tenz know my game-style, and how to use me the best depending situations.

I've been told that your former colleagues, now known as Nameless, will now be attending the event. Would it have been disappointing for you if they hadn't?

Well, it is always disapointing when a top team is not attending. I have no bad feeling about them, they are just like other team. Of course it would be sad if we can't play against each other especially for spectators because there is a lot of expectation... When we do I'm pretty sure it will be a tight match.

But if they were out the picture - and perhaps with them in it - you must be looking at an easy win here then?

Not at all, I actually hate being "favorite", as I said there is a lot of expectation, but one thing i know for sure is that it won't be easy, ALTERNATE is clearly a strong opponent because they are prepared and play together since summer.

You are currently undefeated in French EPS and many people don't expect that to change for the rest of the season - Have any of those teams pushed you close to defeat?

Well, without nameless and D4team during this EPS season, we are likely going to win the event, others french teams are just not at the same level that VeryGames/Nameless. Hopefully next season we could see these two teams back

Is there a danger that by not playing stronger teams in regular online competition that you might get complacent?

It's always dangerous, but we are experienced guys and know how to handle it, so we play as serious as possible our matches because at the end of the day, if we loose too much rounds, people will start to talk too much about our level and we don't want to disappoint them. So the largest score possible is important.

On to the competition then... You've already mentioned Attax as a team you will be wary of, but are there any others, ones that perhaps people might not be aware of. I know you will have a pretty in depth knowledge of the French scene.

Well about french scene, as I said, there is VeryGames, nameless, D4team, UBITEAM, others teams are good too but not enough consistent to defeat European teams, but beware of surprise. Frankly, I haven't played some of the other teams there before, so I don't want to talk too much about them. Looking at their rosters, they could be pretty strong, but I prefer to let the Maxlan results talk.

You've been out of the game for a while now, but have you kept yourself "in-shape" - will we see you playing to the same standard you always used to, or are you still finding your feet again?

Well, I haven't been too far away of the game, i used to play a bit and now I'm back, I've managed to get my best shape back too. We will see this weekend if it was enough or not.

Do you come into this tournament thinking that you will be disappointed with anything other than a victory, or is it more about using the event to help everyone in the team bond before the bigger competition of DreamHack?

Well I personally think it will be like MaxLAN 2008. We came without being fully prepared and had very hard matches against mTw. Here it is the same, it will be hard, so if we lose I won't be disappointed that much as I know we aren't at our best yet. Dreamhack is just after this, with different top teams so both events will be a very good preparation for us even if we don't finish first.