UKTerrorist

Wright: Pretty gutted, alosers getting the team we beat 13-2 to get them to 4th just made it feel worse. Really disappointed we didn’t to better vs. 3D and after a 6-6 CT half losing the pistol round on d2, we should really have done better on dust2 vs. team 9. That said, if you'd asked before we went, would have sounded pretty good

Xenon: Agreed, we were aiming for top 8. But looking back now we could have gone so much further, top 4/top 3 at least.

Xenon: We were pretty unlucky when it came to the seeding, the 2 teams we lost to, 3d and 9, we met relatively early on when compared to other top teams that placed in the final 6. We also met them on what could be regarded their home maps (dust2 for 9, mill for 3d)

Wright: All our hard matches on one day sucks too but same for everyone I guess

Xenon: Well, everyone didnt have a double overtime and fall into the loser bracker right after but its true.

Xenon: Most of the European teams noticed that the servers felt a bit weird. Shots didn’t register and such. Nevertheless everyone had the same conditions and I think the tournament was run excellently.

Wright: Yer no complaints here, except they could do with 1 more day perhaps

Xenon: Or perhaps more pcs so the top 64 and top 32 matches could be played early on, and the latter matches stretched out. Playing 2 matches in 3 days then 3 matches+ in one day is a tad difficult

Wright: At first a little pissed off as it was just someone pulling the wire out when they were tidying up… but once it became clear that the rules said match restart if there’s a crash in the first 4 rounds, and team9 raged about it, we were pretty happy :) Sadly it seemed to make them play better instead of worse

Xenon: I was annoyed myself. It feels as if we lost momentum after that and couldn’t win a single round as t on dust2. The way we played as ct we should have taken at least 7 on that t-sided map. We seemed to stop communicating amongst ourselves. If you watch the demo you can see that we just run in on our own when we attack bomb spots rather than going together with our teammates. I guess we were tired after having played since 0900 that morning (the match was played at 0100).

Wright: Uber exciting, it got so much attention form people around us/them. People in spectator area, people in byoc, and all the cameras… every time we had a sort of huddle to sort out tactics for the next pistol round boom mics would drop in from above. One of my most enjoyed matches ever.

Xenon: I wanted it to be over with. Had bad flashbacks of SK vs. AAA in Cpl cologne. We had a quadruple overtime in the loser bracket final. We lost that one too :)

Wright: You should have been there :) I think gamer.tv have some footage of it.

Xenon: The good part is we realized our potential, next time we wont be losing 3on1's.

Xenon: Yes, definitely

Wright: More stuff to do! More things around the event, better spectator area that sort of thing. I think their new venue will help them a lot.

Xenon: Perhaps a bit more time in between the important matches, and less wait in between the early matches in the tournament. Summer 2004 looks very promising. Loads of prize money too.

Xenon: Not very much. Just a bit :) I do understand we can expect more cpl events around the world.

Xenon: Not that I know of. I have heard rumors about the next wcg being in the USA or UK though.

Xenon: Wouldn’t be called rumours if they were from a reliable source, but it is possible they are true. I hope not at least, Korea > USA.

Xenon: Hard to say, I haven’t been to very many UK LANs but teams feel more friendly at bigger events. Players mingle more in between teams.

Wright: Yer that’s pretty much the impression I get too, everyone talks to us at CPL but just seems to be people we already know at UK events. Guess it’s perhaps more to do with all staying in the same hotel… more opportunity for socialising compared to 12 hours at ukt3.

Wright: The women from TSN probably ( and harvey too of course)… Larson from TSG was wulllllll cool, and lots of Americans who were in our room at cpl were very nice too. paul from gamersX as well.

Xenon: Izn0 is always a laugh too

Wright: There’s lots :)

Wright: I read it briefly and was entirely unimpressed, they are a really good idea and on the whole very high quality. But I don’t think ours was great or particularly accurate, maybe every team thinks that about their own.

Xenon: Well written but totally wrong. I don’t think any of us agreed with most of the stuff that was written. Then again it’s hard to analyse a team from looking at a few hltv demos from ESWC.

Wright: He's welllllll leet, not fraggy, top quality player who I hope will be with us for years to come :)

Xenon: I think we are improving as we get used to each others playing style.

Wright: Hard to say, I'm sure we're still improving, everyone else is so you have to if you want to be one of the top teams in the world which I'd like to think we are :)

Xenon: Hard to say without sounding arrogant. I would like to think top 5. We placed 5th at the last 2 major events, featuring the best teams from around the world.

Wright: Dunno, I don’t think there’s anyone we cant beat but I would say probably 5-8th perhaps

Xenon: Don’t be humble Doug :)

Wright: ok then 5th is probably about right, seems to be all we ever
place anywhere ever… But not for long :)

Xenon: Funnily enough, no team ever comes top 2 twice in a row at any major cpl :)

Xenon: except for Gol actually ...hmm nevermind

Xenon: It was important to incorporate dark into the team in a good way. While I believe we did that, I do think that 1 more week would have given us that much more in terms of teamplay. If there was anything we lacked at this cpl it wasn’t aim it was teamplay.

Wright: For me it was a real confidence booster in that it was the first time I found out we could really compete with the Swedish teams, we didn’t get the drubbing I feared we might. The only bad thing was not having the CPL 5 there for very long. We only managed 1 day with Stu there, the rest PB played… The HLO cafe was great too, very nice people.

Xenon: Yeah.

Xenon: Perhaps before the next major event such as CXG or cpl winter. If CXG ever actually happens that is :)

Wright: Perhaps not in Sweden anytime soon but I hope we'll manage something before the upcoming UK events.

Wright: Biting. Though I don’t agree or I wouldn’t be here :)

Xenon: Agreed. If I had to name a played who played excellent vs 3d it would be Wright.

Xenon: Winning important 1on1's and 1on2's numerous rounds. People that don’t understand anything will always talk shit. What they have to realise is that cs and clan games are not about individual players, they are about teamplay and how well a team gels. It seems that the only people who notice the scoreboard and say stupid stuff like that are the newbies themselves.

Xenon: I knew about 4kings back in 97/98. QW days.

Xenon: Obviously we went pro when xenon joined...

Wright: Some clans shoot to the top, others stay steady so I dunno, we managed 5/6th's a year ago and we're still doing it now if that answers your question

Xenon: Hopefully next big cpl. In my opinion we should have done it at this event. We had the potential and the skill anyhow. Next time though :)

Xenon: It feels as if most of the country is jealous of us to be honest. I see a lot of shit talking about us from UK people. I never see any Swedes talking badly about 9 or sk :)

Wright: When we go to big events people get behind us because there isnt anyone else, maybe we'd see less support with other UK teams there but I doubt it, unless of course we met the other uk team.

Wright: Not entirely sure why they used the ies name but im happy to see them back I think they'll be well good too. If they are dedicated/stick together they will do very well.

Xenon: Could become a very powerful team.

Wright: Probably the big corporates like Intel who are putting serious money into gaming for the long term are the people that practically guaranteeing there will be a huge online gaming community in the future

Xenon: Definitely the sponsors that make it possible for gamers to compete in serious events with cash prizes.