This article is taken from the french website wolfarea.org. Finnish star 
Squall (Team Finland, mASCULINE_MANS, Mamut.si) answers a few questions about his year 2009, marked by a lot of successes in various competitions.
Hello Squall, could you introduce yourself to the community ?
My real name is Taneli Härkönen, most people know me as Squall or something similar. Im 20 years old but in one month I'm gonna be 21 ! I'm currently living in Turku and well at the moment I've got nothing else to do than playing random games. I'm going to be away for the whole month of february so I hope people won't miss me too much.
You've won several tournaments this year (CC6, EC XX, ESH Steelseries Tournament, Warleagues XII, etc). Which one are you the most proud of ?
I guess it must be CC6 because it was offline and I think I played quite well there and there is also the fact we actually won it after my screw-ups ! Being at LAN is always awesome even if you don’t win it, you can still have awesome time with e-buddies.
Who was the hardest opponent to beat this year ? What was the best match you had the opportunity to play ?
That is kinda hard question to be honnest, I played so many tight matches against ButtonBashers with Mamut and with mASCULINE_MANS against H2k, but the best matches was when we played SummerCup with "Fantastic 7" because playing with those guys is always fun, doesn’t really matter if you lose or win. Still, I'm not saying that playing with Mamut or MM is boring.
What do you think makes the difference in your gaming style ? Are you more like a supportive player than a rusher or is it the opposite ?
It depends on which clan I'm playing with, usually I'm more an aggressive player but I think I can play both very well, but I rather play aggressive, I guess that comes from playing too much public when I started playing E.T (smiles).
Who's the best player you've played with so far ?
That must be the well known .ee player known as Night, he does always something stupid but somehow he manages to pull it through, I guess it is just because he can trust his team won’t fail if he himself fails (laughs).
At the beginning of EC XX, did you already know that your team was going to win ?
Our goal was to win it again so I didn’t expect any less, but our main goal was to win every match with 4-0 but in that we failed. But I'm still happy we won it.
Do you think you won because the level was lower than the previous editions or because you were simply above the others ?
I think you really can’t say that it was the lowest EuroCup ever because in every season there are different skills, you can’t compare us to parodia for example, you would never know who would win. Maybe there were even lower EC ever back then ? You never know.
What did you think of sNoOp's attitude when his team (EC Winners) had to play the final again ?
That was kinda lame because there were 11 other players waiting to play and about 700 spectators to see that match but he didn't care at all so that was ridiculous.
Do you think that little event helped you not to lose ?
I think that might have even helped them to win because we had to change our line-up after little disagreements and we had to take Vanhaomena to play instead of chmpp. And holding west radar parts for 8 minutes isn’t that hard.
Is mASCULINE_MANS going to the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 ?
Nope, like people say we are "online only" !
How did you react when you learned that CB was launching it's NationsCup just after ESL's Country Championship ?
Well I could blame ESL for this to be honest. I had not heard anything from ESL that they were holding some sort NationsCup but I remember someone from CB staff saying they were going to announce NationsCup right after the end of the EuroCup. Hopefully they gonna stick to 6on6, otherwise it's just bullshit. If they don’t, hope that ESL will hold it's Country Championship thing and keep it 6on6.
Does Team Finland has a chance to be the best team of the world this time ?
It depends on who's going to be the captain because some players don’t like some others and so on, but if I would be the captain then we would have chance at least ! I'm not saying any other captain doesn’t stand a chance but...
What was the team you enjoyed the most playing with during your career ?
Every team which had Xpaz, always so fun to play with, great laughs and awesome player sometimes (smiles).
Bonus questions :
mASCULINE_MANS - Mamut.si : who wins ?
Would be too hard to tell because when I still played with mamut against them we had very tight matches and draws, but I think mamut would win 4-2 because the decider was supply and mASCULINE_MANS sucks in it.
5on5 or 6on6 ?
6on6 all the way, 5on5 is missing something, feels so empty, not enough spam and you can only kill 5 guys. Besides, some maps like bremen aren't adapted to 5on5.
Do you think that Ensam is cheating ?
No !
Thank you for this interview Squall, the last word is yours.
Special shoutouts to my roommates Hessu and Quiki <3
Images by
PhaLoiD
Interview byKDL
Squall (Team Finland, mASCULINE_MANS, Mamut.si) answers a few questions about his year 2009, marked by a lot of successes in various competitions.Hello Squall, could you introduce yourself to the community ?
My real name is Taneli Härkönen, most people know me as Squall or something similar. Im 20 years old but in one month I'm gonna be 21 ! I'm currently living in Turku and well at the moment I've got nothing else to do than playing random games. I'm going to be away for the whole month of february so I hope people won't miss me too much.
You've won several tournaments this year (CC6, EC XX, ESH Steelseries Tournament, Warleagues XII, etc). Which one are you the most proud of ?
I guess it must be CC6 because it was offline and I think I played quite well there and there is also the fact we actually won it after my screw-ups ! Being at LAN is always awesome even if you don’t win it, you can still have awesome time with e-buddies.
Who was the hardest opponent to beat this year ? What was the best match you had the opportunity to play ?
That is kinda hard question to be honnest, I played so many tight matches against ButtonBashers with Mamut and with mASCULINE_MANS against H2k, but the best matches was when we played SummerCup with "Fantastic 7" because playing with those guys is always fun, doesn’t really matter if you lose or win. Still, I'm not saying that playing with Mamut or MM is boring.
What do you think makes the difference in your gaming style ? Are you more like a supportive player than a rusher or is it the opposite ?
It depends on which clan I'm playing with, usually I'm more an aggressive player but I think I can play both very well, but I rather play aggressive, I guess that comes from playing too much public when I started playing E.T (smiles).
Who's the best player you've played with so far ?
That must be the well known .ee player known as Night, he does always something stupid but somehow he manages to pull it through, I guess it is just because he can trust his team won’t fail if he himself fails (laughs).
At the beginning of EC XX, did you already know that your team was going to win ?
Our goal was to win it again so I didn’t expect any less, but our main goal was to win every match with 4-0 but in that we failed. But I'm still happy we won it.
Do you think you won because the level was lower than the previous editions or because you were simply above the others ?
I think you really can’t say that it was the lowest EuroCup ever because in every season there are different skills, you can’t compare us to parodia for example, you would never know who would win. Maybe there were even lower EC ever back then ? You never know.
What did you think of sNoOp's attitude when his team (EC Winners) had to play the final again ?
That was kinda lame because there were 11 other players waiting to play and about 700 spectators to see that match but he didn't care at all so that was ridiculous.
Do you think that little event helped you not to lose ?
I think that might have even helped them to win because we had to change our line-up after little disagreements and we had to take Vanhaomena to play instead of chmpp. And holding west radar parts for 8 minutes isn’t that hard.
Is mASCULINE_MANS going to the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 ?
Nope, like people say we are "online only" !
How did you react when you learned that CB was launching it's NationsCup just after ESL's Country Championship ?
Well I could blame ESL for this to be honest. I had not heard anything from ESL that they were holding some sort NationsCup but I remember someone from CB staff saying they were going to announce NationsCup right after the end of the EuroCup. Hopefully they gonna stick to 6on6, otherwise it's just bullshit. If they don’t, hope that ESL will hold it's Country Championship thing and keep it 6on6.
Does Team Finland has a chance to be the best team of the world this time ?
It depends on who's going to be the captain because some players don’t like some others and so on, but if I would be the captain then we would have chance at least ! I'm not saying any other captain doesn’t stand a chance but...
What was the team you enjoyed the most playing with during your career ?
Every team which had Xpaz, always so fun to play with, great laughs and awesome player sometimes (smiles).
Bonus questions :
mASCULINE_MANS - Mamut.si : who wins ?
Would be too hard to tell because when I still played with mamut against them we had very tight matches and draws, but I think mamut would win 4-2 because the decider was supply and mASCULINE_MANS sucks in it.
5on5 or 6on6 ?
6on6 all the way, 5on5 is missing something, feels so empty, not enough spam and you can only kill 5 guys. Besides, some maps like bremen aren't adapted to 5on5.
Do you think that Ensam is cheating ?
No !
Thank you for this interview Squall, the last word is yours.
Special shoutouts to my roommates Hessu and Quiki <3
Images by
PhaLoiDInterview by
KDL
ps. add EC XIX
Also:
well said, well said mister.
masculines MVP!
*_*
and ordos>* tbh :D
didnt actually read but nice player so must be nice iview!
Nothing more to say.....
sidenote:
agree about Xpaz ;)
Nice interview though!
that made you obvious favorites, nobody would put the effort in to "catch up" for an online tournament
just take a look at cs some mixteams with right players do fantastic and there no one can claim its not taken seriously
ensam, fel, kapaa, sample can win ec then ya the level skill is simply shit
i really hope noone is actually thinking teams like parodia were only good for their time
cause they were pretty insane when it came to teamwork and skill
so explain us how can this "shitty" players beat up players like snoop, dialer, butchji, reload, night and so on ?
u still think the level was low?
good playor with playstyle like no one else
nice iview
it was 2ez back then.
nice read.
cant agree more
dont think you are that aggressive though. You seem to push out and lean at unexpected spots to catch your opponent off guard. It's not the same as a truely aggressive playstyle in which you run into the fray not knowing what to expect.
e: squalls lionheart ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR :XDDDDDDDDDDDD
and the only reason mamut would win 4 - 2 from mm now is is cause they just started playing again, i bet they will get raped after a few weeks of playing
And when teams got dropped from EC and stopped playing it also reflected to us. Instead of spending hours to find a decent game we though it was a waste of time also and instead praccing we just warmupped before the offi. We may had pracced more than some others but difference wasnt that big tbh
FUNNY HOW HE FORGOT TOO MENTION HIS WALLHACK