Now that the Crossfire QCUP is over, we have our winners. One of them being EYEballers! With this in mind, I thought I would catch up with EYEballer's squad leader 
mintR, to gauge his reaction over his team's recent cup victory. I also wanted to cast an EYE (chortle) over CDC4 and how he feels the tournament will go for his team and how the competition will fair in the rest of the tournament!This will be the first of many interviews leading up toward CDC4, so brace yourself for some self promotional spamage!
Hello there and welcome to this interview! People on this site may or may not know who are in the world of online gaming, so could you give everyone a little history of your online gaming career to date and where it has taken you?
Hi. My name is Martin Röjder and my gaming alias is mintR, I'm 25 years old living in Sweden. My gaming history started with quake2 I guess but I quickly switched to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, where I played for quite some time reaching the EC finals before I switched to CoD1. I continued with the cod series and played for teams like WHO crew, serious gaming, and dignitas amongst other and I've won a few titles like, two straight Eurocups and a couple of LAN's. That lands us here in CoD4.
How would you compare CoD4 to previous titles you've played? I know they are a world apart in some cases but are there new features in the game that you really like and that you've not seen in any previous game titles?
It feels to me like this game has more depth than the other two games, I really like the flashes and the amount of possible guns to use, I think we will see more diversity in the weapon selections with the modifications that wnkr and zar has made with pamD. I haven't really compared the new game that much to the old titles, I've tried to focus more on how this game works. Overall I think this game is better than the previous in all aspects.
Recently, EYEBallers competed in the Crossfire QCUP and won the entire tournament, beating some strong names in the young but promising CoD4 community! What where your personal highlights of that tournament? Are there any moments that stand out in your mind and make you think "Wow, that shit was awesome! I can't believe we/I did that!"?
First of all I'm very happy with the team and that we were able to win this tournament, a lot of high profile teams were in it. I'm very satisfied with us not losing a single map on our way through the tournament, there were some close calls but in the end we managed to do what we had to. Special moments; we had one special moment against GUMMI where they had the chance to steal a map from us, we managed to pull ourselves up and draw them and then pretty convincingly take the map in Overtime. That’s the best moment for me as I believe team spirit and team play are the two most important factors in this new game.
Do you think that's what won the tournament for you in the end then? The fact you guys have been together (in some form) for such a long time compared to the other teams, which have just come together since the release of CoD4?
Well during 90% of the time in CoD2 I played together with zEm and we know each other inside out by now, odyxz, wnkr and zsilts have the same history and both me and zEm but mostly zEm has played together with these guys for example winning wonderbase2. That's the whole idea behind this line-up, we took people we know how to play with and then we sat down to learn the new game. Since this team was formed we have taken in tidde and klanne, two dod players who also know each other inside out, to fill in for zEm as he is to travel to Thailand now in 2008 and for wnkr who is joining the army in January. And even though we don't like to make changes we feel that these changes have been well though through and so far they have worked really well. To answer your question, I think it has a big part to do with that, but as you can see our team has changed pretty much, even though the core and the function each player has is more or less the same.
We're not far from the latest instalment of the CDC and there has been an astonishing amount of sign-ups from the CoD4 section of the tournament. Your team is one of those competing for the title and after recent results, you guys must be one of the favourites to be crowned champions. What are you and your team’s expectations for that tournament? Do you guys think you have a good chance of taking home the title?
Our expectations for CDC4 is that we hope for it to be a well structured and managed tournament, the previous instalments have been good so we hope for great stuff this time as well. The huge amount of teams signed up and entered will alone make it a great thing to attend. As for being the favourites, I think that the usual bunch of teams will sit as favourites, tek-9, dignitas, 4k, SL and so on. Of course our recent win in this Qcup would put us up with the rest of the teams to beat but I only think that can be of good for us. We hope to finish in the top 3. In this relatively new game with this many teams in the competition, it will be very tough in every tournament to see a single team as the winner until it's over. The competition will be fierce and nerves and experience will be great factors when it comes to the final games. That's why I think there will still be a few teams, even though I think there will be a few more in this game, who can win every tournament.
Do you think there are any players/teams that might surprise us with a really impressive LAN performance? Who do you think could be the "one"/"ones" to watch?
Well first of all, I believe in my own team. We are determined to be a top team in this game and I'm sure we will be. As for the rest of the big teams from CoD2, I think SL will do very good with their new additions and you can never really count tek9, dignitas and 4K out. As for the up and comers, I believe GUMMI will be a decent threat to any team and I guess we'll eventually have to look out for PGS and how they can evolve. I don't like to pick individual players to look out for and I never take any interest in individuals when we play either but there will always be top fraggers around, we'll just have to wait and see who those players will be.
I'm a massive gossip and I love it! Are there any line up changes that may affect your CDC preparations? I heard that wnkr was being drafted and I'm sure it's not just me that is wondering if there are any more changes to your winning combination.
Wnkr is a big part of our team, not only because he's a very good player but also because he takes a lot of room. When we decided to put zEm aside until he comes back home, we knew we had to find someone who could fill his shoes and in tide, I think we have as he has so far done nothing but impress us. The same idea goes when picking up the replacement to wnkr, along with the fact that he has to be someone who fits in the team socially; in klanne I believe we have found that replacement. With that said I would like to take this opportunity to thank wnkr for all he's accomplished with the team and outside the team I think we were very blessed to have him with us during this crucial stage of the new game. As for further changes to the team I hope we will see no more of them until zEm gets home at least and then we will see but that is after cdc and we can start thinking fresh on the next tournament.
Thanks very much for your time, it's been fun chatting to you! Would you like to give anyone a "mention" as we would say here in bonnie Scotland!
I would like to thank shrek and toker for being the best support we could wish for, a lot of love. And trigger you should really stop smoking.
