Backstage at the EC Qualifiers

I remember an article by Tosspot a while back in which he mentioned than one of the major issues with ET is lack of coverage and we can certainly say that Clanbase has never really be very proactive when it comes to media involvement in its premier Eurocup competition. This is an issue, with a lot of people claiming ET is dying one of the best ways to combat that is to educate people on the new teams and by keeping the interest alive so i will try to improve that by talking to the players both before and after their games through this Eurocup season starting off with the qualifiers.



Negative Image
Twidi
eVo: So firstly tell me how the squad came about, my understand was that you were with a different team for this EC, what happened to cause you to switch?
Twidi: mm.. well I guess I should tell you the truth :D, that line-up which I posted @ gtv was just a joke to make the odds higher for ovs, lettu still plays for j52 and I and chmpp are playing for gmpo :D

eVo: ah so the plot thickens, so what's the line-up for tonight then?
Twidi: I really got no idea, I just know that most of them are playing WoW these days so odds 1,01:100 are pretty wrong ;D that's all I can say

eVo: There has been some dispute over the pro line-up and their added players, what are your thoughts on this and should it be allowed or are we just seeing more vila whine?
Twidi: well, the season hasn't even started yet so I don't mind them adding players now and CB rules aren't against it. Besides they basically only added two new players (butchji and snoop) to the line-up which they had informed to Adacore earlier

eVo: and what are your predictions for this Eurocup for your team and the final top 3
Twidi: our first goal is to make our way to playoffs and if we make it there gotta see about how far we can make it then. I think Kreaturen (TLR) will take the 1st spot, Impact 2nd and j52 3rd

eVo: ok, thanks for your time and gl


MulSu
eVo: Hi mulsu and thanks for taking the time to talk today. I have some questions for you regarding your forthcoming EC match against Overdose Gaming; I will also come back and ask for some comments from you after the game. Firstly how do you think your team will fare tonight against the polish Overdose squad?
MulSu Well it will be our very first 6v6 match so I got a feeling we will get raped.

eVo: A positive outlook :) Now rumour has it the line-up posted isn't the correct one, what's the squad for tonight?
MulSu I don't know, the 6 guys that want to play will play

eVo: Ok, aspirations for this EC, how far do you think you'll get and who do you think's gonna win it?
MulSu Well I got a feeling we will not get to EC this year and I think that TEAM DECEM IS GONNA WIN!

eVo: Marvellous, now your thoughts on the scandal with pro5 at the moment adding players, allowed in your opinion or not?
MulSu I got no idea what pro5 is

eVo: ok great, thanks MulSu always a pleasure :)


Overdose-Gaming
Edain
eVo: Firstly let me ask you to tell us a bit about your squad
Edain:: So we were praccing with our main line-up - zmk, naga, templar, michalek and our jewish star deadman, we did a really great job in practice, day by day we get more comfortable, but unfortunately, yesterday deadman announced that he won't be able to play against img due to some family problems so we are forced to play with our past player - duk3

eVo: How has that affected the squad?
Edain:: it's a huge loss for us, but we are going to do our best :)

eVo: Your predictions for the game will go tonight against Negative Image?
Edain:: Well, 3 days ago we felt like 'omigod, omigod, can'y wait for the whine after we're gonna win the match, and now our only goal is to play a good match and represent our country with maximum of our skills; which aren't that high, tho ;p
Edain:: so all in all it will be a great lottery ;]




Incomplete
Fel
eVo: Hello fel and thank you for taking the time for this interview. Let's start with you telling me a bit about your squad and how your preparation is going
Fel: Well we have been having a lot of line-up problems (Matias was going to play with waffles, but they had some problems with the mgc), but should be ok now though we have played only 3 pracs with our current line-up (Raptor, me, Matias, kentsu, crosby and Jacker). The line-up will be the same for today's match and we'll see what happens

eVo: what do you think about the incomplete line-up and if you could predict a result which way would you go?
Fel: Our line-up consists of some players who have played Eurocup before and some who haven't, but so far has been fun to play with these guys and we have played some good matches too. Hard to say about the match tonight, we have played one prac against elite and we won but that was last week, both teams had different line-ups, but I think we will win 4-2

eVo: What are your aspirations for this EC, how far do you see yourself going and who's going to win?
Fel: Depends on the group stage, hopefully won't be the same as last EC for Inc (TLR and polar in the same group), playoffs would be nice, mostly depends on how can we improve our teamwork because we are a new team. I am sure we will see great matches between Impact, TLR and megaProGaming about the 1-3 places


Elite
beAsty
eVo: hi have you got a few minutes to spare to chat about your match tonight for some crossfire coverage?
beAsty: Sure, but we are not sure if we are going to play tonight. Sexyhot got troubles with his GF.

eVo: ok, well that leads me onto my first question which is to tell me a bit about your squad, your strengths, weakness' etc
beAsty: The Line-up is really strong. But our problem was to get a stable 6 man line-up because didn´t found an smg engineer. 2 days ago we fixed that problem (deAdly moved to smg eng and Eddie joined as new medic). In our first matches we played really good. We got an excellent fops (sexyhot) and the medic work is also nice (Iratou,Eddie,beAsty) dio our rifle is better than I thought. When he joined the team I thought it might be better to get roYal back. But after some matches I saw that he really knows what to do with the rifle.

eVo: excellent and so how do you predict your qualifier match going?
beAsty: Hmm.. because of the fact that sexyhot won´t be avi I think we will lose. Incomplete is one of the hardest enemies we could get in the qualifier. Sexyhot got an important part and is an excellent fops. Without him it will be really hard

eVo: Who will stand in tonight in replacement of sexyhot?
beAsty: Maybe pulZa.. an ex-mate form sprd/vib. But maybe we aren´t going to play. The motivation is like zero now. We all know that the match would be hard with sexyhot. But after our good praccs we know that we have a good chance.

eVo: ok, onto some other questions, how do you feel the standard of this EC compares to that of previous seasons?
beAsty: I don't think that the EC standard went down in this season. There are around 7-8 really good teams which known and experienced ex-EC players. The only thing which changed this time is that the most times are mixed up. There aren´t many teams with known and stable Line-up for a long time.
eVo: brilliant, thanks for your time and gl




obscaenus
FaKy
FaKy: Hi eVo :)
eVo: just want to ask a few questions in the build-up to your EC qualifier match. For those who don't know much about the team, tell us a bit about your squad
FaKy: well the former of the team is viol also known as violence. It was his idea to make a team. The main idea was to have fun and to play ET till the game is not played in competition mode. We all play for fun and not for achievements now because of the fact that we focus more on important things like school/university. But we are all gonna try to get the win tonight for playing the group matches. Our huge disadvantage is that we didn't practice but as I said we play for fun :DD

eVo: Your taking on the French team muse, they have played together for a long time now, what do you think of your opponent and who's going to win tonight?
FaKy: Well I never heard of muse-gaming before only one week before the cdc3 started. I just know zorny, pheex and freekish as players but as far as I know they play a long time together and that`s the huge advantage of them because they could and already improved their Team play. We just practiced 3 games as far as I know and I didn't even practice with them because of the school/exams that I had. I hope we can take the win tonight because we are pretty self-confident and also want to have some fun and be a part of the maybe last EC that is gonna exist for ET.

eVo: On that note how do you think the standard of this EC compares to previous seasons and who is going to win it
FaKy: Well I think that this EC is not bad but if you compare it with other previous EC seasons it is like not such good. Because of the fact that a lot of players quit ET and good teams just folded. Many New school teams started to play on "high level" so they get now there chance like muse and overdose the polish squad. I consider it good that new teams are now in the EC and get their chance because now everybody can practice hard and get a place in it.

eVo: And who do you think is going to win this EC?
FaKy: I think the TOP 3 teams for this EC season is gonna be : TLR also known as Kreaturen, Impact and mega progaming
eVo: Ok, thanks and gl tonight


Muse-Gaming
douille
douille: M. Impact manager!
eVo: douille, got a few minutes for a quick interview for crossfire for some EC coverage?
douille: I'm available right now!

eVo: excellent, let's start by asking you to introduce your team for those who might not be so familiar with muse gaming
douille: Well, first of all freek and class as rtcw oldschoolers, already playing at high level even before ET was out there. Most people know freek for his aim. Then pheex, the one who has the most selections in the French national team ( equally with freek), Bumeu, our main field op has some NC xp too and then the less known, Xenium, the only belgian, playing rifle, then Zorn FROM WHO CARES :p He's the multiclasser ! Or the Swiss knife, like we call it and then me, the one who started ET a bit later (2005), playing medic, I'm the lead in game :(, we lose because of my decisions: D

eVo: What are your aspirations for this EC and how do you predict your first game going?
douille: We didn't talk about it yet but we're active only since the beginning of September, so our TP isn't really strong, about the qualifier, it will be the first real online test, since we didn't win a map to really good teams at the cdc and I prefer not talking about cheating n stuff ... if you see what I mean

eVo: hehe ok, how do you think the skill level of this EC compares to that of previous seasons
douille: Lower for sure, there are not many teams that play together for a long time

eVo: with this EC being accused of being a bunch of mix teams who do you think will find the team play to win it?
douille: Not to win it of course, but if we prac a bit more actively, we could be able to have decent results. That's only an activity question and that's our main problem, with players being there since the beginning, they are not at 100% active like at the beginning of the ET time, to win the whole thing, TLR or Impact fo sho, maybe GMPO if they prac enough
eVo: ok, well thanks for your time, I will catch up with you again after your game for some post match reaction, good luck ;)




hMg.II
All too busy and or incapable of talking English to comment

pro
butchji
eVo: got a few minutes to chat about your EC qualifier game for some crossfire coverage?
butchji: sure

eVo: Ok first of all tell us a bit about your team and your aspirations for this EC
butchji: At first this team was meant to be a just fun for mixed with e- and rl-friends. But when stercus accidit folded snoop and me joined megaProGaming eSports e.V. We now want to play more competitive with a main line-up rather than just mixed. I hope we'll make it into the EC and perform well in it just for fun
P.S. Yesterday we played our first pracc so I think our first official won't be that impressive. :-)

eVo: so there has been a lot of discussion on the added players in your team, set the record straight about that
butchji: We didn't do anything against the rules. As I mentioned above this was meant to be a mixed fun team so we added just several players who maybe wanted to play now and then - Stronger than hate style. They prolly won't play a single round now. Boring topic imo. :>

eVo: I agree, the EC hasn't started so there isn't really any infringement, now your first game is against hardmethodgaming, how do you see that going?
butchji: I've no idea how good they are and I only know three of them. Let's see what they're capable of!

eVo: A lot of people have said that this EC is low+ skill compared to previous seasons, what are your views on this?
butchji: Impact should wipe out all resistance this EC and could easily compare with the teams of the previous ECs. Then there is Kreaturen who should perform well even though they have a rather unbalanced line-up skill wise. Then a lot of "ok" teams and teams I've never heard of. In general there's a skill drop but there are still some clans that can compare with the top teams of the last ECs.

eVo: so what's next for you in ET and gaming butchji, do you plan to continue and go to lans in ET, possibly CDC4?
butchji: Well there's a possibility but since there are no details about CDC4 yet I can't tell with certainty.

eVo: ok, well I'd like to wish you the best of luck in this EC and I'll try to catch up with you again after the game for some post game reaction.
butchji: Thanks a lot!