UKTerrorist

4K^natu tells it like it is

Posted by Thorin at 18:08, 20/2/2006

Joona "natu" Leppänen is 20 years old and resides in Lahti, Finland. As well as placing 3rd at the WCG in 2001 with All-stars he placed 4th at CPL Summer 2004 with D-skyline and most recently 8th with 4kings at CPL Winter 2005. Few players can say they've stayed at the peak of their LAN game for over 4 years but as one of that elite group who better to give his opinion on recent events in the esports world and give us the lowdown on who to look out for in 2006?

Your team 4kings was on the team list for the recent shgopen tournament until pretty much the tournament started, what reasons did the team have for not attending and what will be your next definite event?

natu: We weren't able to attend the event because one of our players had a personal commitment on the very same weekend and couldn't get away from it unfortunately. We'll be starting off the year by attending WEG Masters 2006 from the beginning of April in China.

4kings is a team which has a long history of underachieving for whatever reasons (lack of motivation, negative attitudes, inability to practice when it's required etc) This new 4k lineup has already shown signs of potential with a victory over SK.swe at the CPL UK stop and your recent 8th at CPL Winter, what makes you sure this team won't suffer the same problems as the other 4k incarnations?

natu: I can't really say anything about the former lineups and what they did wrong and so forth but it always seemed as though there was a lack of determination for whatever reason. Ever since I joined the team and when the lineup was completed by Thomas/DaY we've been practicing regularily and I think the two of us have brought not only our talent but also our ambition and a tight practice regime that we were used to in our former teams.
When we first started practicing I remember Mangiacapra saying that was the first time in two years he's actually practiced online seriously so haha...what can I say ;]

There still seems to be a mixed feeling in the competitve community about how much merit to give placings at the WEG tournaments, what with the established teams not placing as highly as one would have expected at the past 2 events and dark horse teams like Begrip and wnv winning. As someone who has attended a full season of WEG what is your take on the tournament, its structure and how winning a WEG weighs up against say winning a CPL or an ESWC?

natu: I think the main difference is that CPL/ESWC is played within a couple of days where WEG is a month long full season with like a week inbetween games where u can practice the maps your playing on the next playday and so forth. A WEG season is mentally very hard because you're in a totally different envirement and culture for such a long time and you may feel homesick and don't play up your par.
I would say just because of its history CPL is the most prestigious tournament to win right now followed by ESWC and then WEG. But nothing away from NoA, Begrip or wNv - they did everything exactly right and are worthy of every penny they won from WEG.

As you've already stated 4kings will be attending the upcoming WEG masters tournament which as we all known is invite only (unlucky for wings) Do you think the significant increase in prize money and the invite only nature of this tournament is going to have an impact on how it plays out or do you think in this day and age people give every tournament game 100% as one would expect from any established sport?

natu: I think they're starting things off this year with an invitational tournament once again because some teams just have more media appeal than others, that's the way it rolls. Names like 4Kings, compLexity and NoA are huge in the Asian market and will give them more viewers than a team skillwise just as good as any of the teams mentioned but without as much "mediasexyness".
I don't think it will affect anything, every team is gonna give 100% on each and every game considering it's shown on the TV and only the winners are to be remembered. That's how it's always been and will be!

After Dsky's 4th place at CPL Summer 04 and astralis' brief teases that they might break into the top 8 at a major event it seems as though the Finnish scene has been in a gradual downswing ever since. Can this solely be attributed to certain players leaving the top flight (tico, coali, alfa etc) or did we overestimate the potential the Finnish scene had to compete in major LAN tournaments?

natu: It obviously had an effect to a certain extent when these aformentioned fellows stopped playing but we've got plenty of skill and talent in Finland without them as well. Especially Serious Gaming/Wings has won a considerable amount of winnings as of late from various events and have done pretty well on the international scale. What will the future hold? I don't know, but I'm sure both astralis and Serious will be contenders in any event they're attending.

It seems as though as more major events appear and more different teams attend them more players get hailed as top players or world class. At a rough estimate how many players in the world could realistically lay claim to being at the very peak of CS talent at this moment in time?

natu: I'd say the teams and players who are consantly able to pull off a top 5 finish should be pretty satisfied with their abilities. But it's nearly impossible to determine this. There are just as many opinnions as there are people.

element's move to last year's most consistent team mouz has been a topic on the minds of many people throughout the first part of 2006. With their recent online domination do you see this as being the missing key mouz needed to win major events where in the past with one notable exception they've always fallen at the last hurdle? How would you assess element's impact on their team?

natu: Element has an impact on any team he plays for as long as he moves his lazy ass and does what he does best - leads the team. From all I know he is very motivated right now and enjoys his time in Germany so I have no reason to doubt Mouz's abilities in 2006. Ola contributes not only as a leader but as a player whole alot. Should be good for them!

With every year that passes the Counter-Strike world seems to get more and more competitive at the top. After all is said and done with the myriad of roster shakeups and team changes which 5 teams would you name as your 5 to watch out for in 2006 at this stage?

natu: Fnatic - a lineup full of extreme talent and fraggers but it will be interesting to see if they have enough leadership and creativity to pull it off. After mr. Archi stated they could be the SK of 2003 in 2006 everyone should expect nothing but a victory from any event they go to.. then again that already fell short at SHG heh.

Catch - I think Catch was the team who had most positive impact from all the roster shakeups after pickin up Naikon late last year and then adding those two fellas Oops and REAL from Team9. I think they have a shot at doing real well even if they have BSL playing for them ;]

NoA - Danes and Norwegians in same team has got to be interesting. If I'm totally honest personally I didn't give them too much hope but winning the "Best European BYOC team" title at SHG has to be sign of good things. NoA is NoA, always interesting =P

compLexity - Everyone knows they're good, no question about it. But if you ask me coL is very dependent on Frod's performances. If Frod has a good year this year, so will coL. Interesting to see if Mr. Montaner can pull it off!

NiP - After a controversial 2005 they have lots to prove in 2006. The new guys zet and ins have grown into superstars now and should be good ingredients for a winning team. But if NiP is gonna win more than just Gamegune this year is to be seen, definitely something people will be following closely

Asians (wNv/Project/Lunatic-Hai) - Last year was definitely the entrance year of Asian CS skills. I think it was just a matter of time untill our fellow asians became some of the best in the world and the time has come now. wNv could dominate all of 2006 if you ask me, they've got some of the craziest players I've seen all my life and the Koreans aren't too far from that either. Interesting to see if the Asians will continue improving and finally dominate the CS scene aswell.

If history has shown anything in esports it's that change is a slow and gradual thing, with the exception perhaps of WEG which sprang up from nowhere. In light of this what do you think of the recently announced World Series of Video Games? Marketting ploy or something which will actually raise esports to a higher level?

natu: Definitely a positive sign of good things to come but noone should get ahead of themselves. Time will tell if this is THE thing to break e-Sports into a mainstream thing. But anything with Intel behind it is always promising ;]

With pretty much all the past greats like tico, coali, mysse, zet0r etc retired or not playing on a competitive level anymore it seems like you're the easy pick for best Finnish CS player nowadays. Aside from yourself who would you pinpoint as the single greatest talent in Finland people should be aware of now?

natu: All of astralis and Serious Gaming are talented but everyone knows that by now right? But to single out one player I'd say wonderkid Ruuit has potential to be one of the best in the world. Yeah, a lot of people (Hi pracctime) says he's craziest thing they've seen online but this kid is the zid of Finland hahaha.

After winning CPL Summer 05, which had about as much competition as a LAN in my basement would have, SK.swe faultered at CPL UK losing to your team 4kings but then went on to win CPL Winter outright and put the SK name back on top after many thought it was dead and buried with the Nip players leaving. What do you think of the current SK.swe team and do you expect them to be able to maintain the same level of play they displayed at CPL Winter?

natu: Definitely! I mean their skills wouldn't just vanish anywhere now would it? Guys like SpawN, Snajdan and ahl are some of the best players this game has seen a team with these guys will always be a contender no matter what. SK will be ONE of the best teams in 2006 no doubt, but they won't be dominating because of where CS has gone these past couple of years. Competition on the top is very thight and there's plenty of teams with the talent to win events. Even if it was a surprise to many people that they won CPL Winter it really wasn't for me. It's all the bandwagoners that lost their faith in these guys.

It has been more than 2 years since heaton and potti won a CPL, do you think in the current climate of CS with rising salaries and so many events to attend NiP can withstand another year without CPL success or is there enough going on aside from CPL to make up for it?

natu: As far as I know those guys are enjoying a pretty fat paycheck every month regardless of how many CPL's they're winning. Mentally it probably is pretty frustrating to these two fellas who've used to winning every CPL they go to not being able to win one for such a long period. Problem for them is that they're not the only two who can spray or play sneaky anymore!

With any event which has a lot of top teams attending there will be big and small upsets and less well known teams will make an impact. What do you think of the recent shgopen results with idle.ee from estonia placing 4th, mibr placing 13th etc?

natu: First of all I think results at SHG should be looked with a certain critisism considering that it was a BYOC tournament and god knows what people COULD have on their PC's. I'm not saying anyone did but it's always a possibility when people play from their very own PC's. It's different playing on tournament PC's with strict rules compared to BYOC where u can 16bit and talk untill your lungs die. But it's good for teams like idle.ee I guess, they've been under heavy fire and accusations of being cheaters and online superstars.
Mibr then again.... is anyone actually surprised they underperfomed? I mean they pretty much always do, unfortunatily. I like these brazilian fellows so it's heartbreaking to see it happen time after time. I think the most surprising fact at SHG is NoA winning it. Why? Because I just didn't see their mixture of Danes and Norwegians working. Why? Just a feeling I had. But I was proven wrong, what a shocker!

With the great variety of different playing styles on display in CS which players do you personally find most exciting to watch?

natu: I personally like watching pure fraggers like say Method of 3D or f0rest of Fnatic (hate him tho!) Crazy aiming and solid movement has always been appealing to me and is something I at least try to do myself. I gotta mention elemeNt has always been one of my favourites too for his useage of brains while playing.

Your CS movie, featuring frags from throughout your career has just been released, do you have anything to say about it for potential viewers?

natu: The movie is a statement that a frag movie doesn't always have to be wannabe hollywood "one man one desire one opportunity" crap or flashy effects to be enjoyable. It defines me pretty well - it's pure, focused, intense and insane. Oh and thanks to bsl, for always believing in me.

natu currently plays for 4kings and would like to thank his sponsors: Intel, ATi, Steel series and Shuttle. You can see him in action in his new movie T01_natu or at the WEG masters tournament in April where he'll be competing for a first place of $70,000!