I caught up with Mark "Exfane" de Ruiter and Joseph "Fisshu" Carter of FakkelBrigade earlier this afternoon, just after their first warm-up. They're aiming high. Well, not too high. But high.

Exfane and Fisshu. Grown ass men.

Exfane: Most of us got sick and tired, basically, of not playing. And when we were playing, underperforming to the standards we have. We had a chat about it.

Fisshu: In some ways I think the break in February was good for us. It refreshed us a bit.

Fisshu: [laughs] Yeah. A double format. 150 FPS, sick gaming. I'm ready.

Fisshu: Definitely.

Exfane: We have the opportunity, at least. We have all the skill. We can win 2nd. But you know, being realistic, we do have to get past a higher seed [Dignitas or Power Gaming] to get there.

Fisshu: I'd say that 2nd is possible. But of course, with Power and their full lineup, they'll be strong. Medic is our main problem right now.

Exfane: We've only played a couple of proper matches with him. We have been so busy in leagues that we haven't had the chance to prepare with him, really.

Exfane: Mirelen is an extreme medic, likes to lead the way, and, although we're fine with it, he has a limited vocabulary. Admirable is totally the opposite. He thinks about what he's doing, keeps out of harm's way, and has very good English so we don't have any communication problems. He has the potential to fit in and be really good for the team. We know he can do it - that's why we asked him.

Exfane: Me and Admirable had a good talk and basically I let him know that I have to play in front as a soldier, and all he has to do is follow my lead. We have a good relationship. I've been telling him what he's doing wrong and he's been telling me what I'm doing wrong. It's obviously going to be hard, but we'll deal with it.

Fisshu: I think the key thing is that he's a really experienced player.

Exfane: Yeah, just the fact that his main is soldier for a division 2 team and he's able to just hop in and medic for us, in a couple of big online games too, demonstrates that.

I'm trying to get Fisshu to say "I'm your number 1 homeboy" on tape in this photo.

Fisshu: It's going to be so awkward if we lose.

Exfane: Everyone is talking about WWW versus us, but we already beat them in ESL. So we've already won the slapback match.

Exfane: Well, we hugged Dunc and Jones yesterday, had a few beers and a good laugh together.

Fisshu: Yeah, we did. But Dunc kept talking about us. He's still a bit bitter about it.

Exfane: [laughing] I think he's keeping a diary on us.

Fisshu: Yeah. We cannot lose that game full stop.

Exfane: We would be happy even with 4th. We're only going to spend all the prize money on beer, anyway. So anything above 4th is excellent. If we get 2nd we'll be out of our minds. If we come 1st... I'm going to kiss Fisshu.

Fisshu: Oh god.

With each win, these two faces get closer and closer together.

Exfane: We've had some talks with MGOs, just prior to this event. Some big ones. But so far they won't offer us enough to give up what we do with FB and the community. If we moved to an MGO, probably half of the TF2 community is sitting on its ass because our services would have to go.

But it's exciting times. Maybe in a couple months, and if the right offer comes, we'll see.