15Q to triMble

Looking through the past season, what would you say is the main reason you will be traveling to Germany to play in the offline finals of NGL-ONE?
- The main reason sure is that we had a great start into the season. After losing to MYM with a close 3-4, we took down six teams in a row, including WE.IGE, Four Kings, SK-Gaming and mousesports. In the end of the season, we began to struggle a bit, but nevertheless I think that the main reason of us traveling to Germany is the very stable season we played, and that we have really good players for each race.

Was that because of the other teams being in bad shape at that time, or was the fnatic Team really hot as hell?
- Well, I do think that the main reason was that we really played an awesome season and played some matches quite perfectly, as cocky as it might sound. On the other hand, you can't deny that for example Deadman disappearing in the match versus SK-Gaming or SaSe missing in the match versus mousesports were good for us, but I still think we deserve to be on the Finals this season.

Rotterdam once said that the NGL-ONE format fitted your team better than the regular format. Do you agree with him?
- Yes, as stated earlier, we have a very powerful roster with at least one top notch player of every race. I think that makes us perfectly flexible for the NGL system, as we can nearly counter every race on any given map.

What are Kevin's strengths and weaknesses?
- Well as perfectly known, Kevin is a really capable and strong mirror player. He has won quite every world class orc so far, and is very very strong in the particular matchup. Furthermore he is quite strong versus Nightelf on several maps and is doing really good against European Undead players. His weakness might be the matchup versus Korean Top-Undeads and as many Orc players he has a natural weakness against Human players. Another weakness might be his small addiction to poker.

While we're on the poker subject, let's move on to ElakeDuck. We haven't seen him that much in your lineup and not too seldom we see forum threads asking about the Swedish Orc player. Would you say Rotterdam is a better Orc than ElakeDuck? If so, why? If not, why don't see wee Björn more often?
- Well, despite the fact that both are orc players, I don't think that they have that much in common. Duck is really strong in the matchup versus any given Undead, but has some problems facing Humans and Nightelfs. As mentioned earlier, RotterdaM is a true powerhouse in Orc mirror, making it hard to name one of them as the better player - they both are some of the finest orc players on the world being in shape. Talking about shape, Duck had a great upswing in poker the recent months, earning as much as an average employee earns in a year, what made it kinda hard for him to switch back to WarCraft. Nevertheless, he is currently training very hard and has his entire focus laid on WarCraft, and I think he will do a good job on the NGL Finals and be an important part of the team.


Abver, ElakeDuck, elfittaja, RotterdaM, Satiini and XyLigan
With the Orc players straightened out, let's move on to your Night Elf player Satiini. Which players do you put Satiini up against? What is his weakness?
- Hard to say. Satiini is in the shape of his life, winning 6 out of 7 matches in the WC3L with a 2-0 score. He had some problems with Undead in the past, which seem to be pretty much solved due to him playing some new strategies against it. Furthermore he states to have problems in Night Elf mirrors, at least versus Korean Night Elfs, but still I think that he is really good in this matchup as well. I would probably put him up against every player attending the finals.

So will he be your first player you will put up?
- No, as always it depends on the map and which player we expect to be seeded there by the enemy team. Maybe we will abuse elfittaja as a scout on the first map in the match versus MYM though. No, okay that was a joke.

elfittaja is your latest recruit and he impressed many by taking down Soccer and TitaN in WC3L. He was a complement player to both Abver and Anty going slightly inactive. Are you satisfied with your new player?
- Yes, I am satisfied with the way he presents himself in the WC3L. It seems that he adapts more and more to the team, and the more official clan wars he gets to play, he becomes stronger and stronger it seems. Furthermore I think he is still capable to improve a lot, since he surely has the skill to do so. By that point given, I hope even the last critics will become quiet.

And XyLigan? He had a great year in 2006, ending fourth place at World Cyber Games. As your only Human player, how important is he to your team?
- XyLigan is really important for us. He is one of the best Human players and we are really happy to have him in the team. He is strong in quite every matchup, also versus Undead, and therefore is one of the core-players of the team.

And last but not least we have Abver, who saw said to be inactive, but now we see him once again in the roster. What's going on with this Russian Undead player?
- The thing with Abver is that he was quite busy with his university stuff, and spent the rest of the time with poker. We lacked a good 2on2 team for the WC3L, and therefore needed him back to play with XyLigan since all the other 2on2 experiments we had failed quite badly. In the end, he regained the motivation for playing WarCraft and I'm happy of that.

Any more news on aNty? Is he still inactive and not touching WarCraft 3?
- Yes he is totally inactive at the moment, he is very busy with his school and it is not certain if he will return playing WarCraft in the near future.

So which players will be going to the offline finals? Any problems with visa this time for the Russian players?
- We will be attending the Finals with ElakeDuck, elfittaja, RotterdaM and Satiini. Both Abver and XyLigan did not get the needed visa for different reasons. Abver signed a document for his university which doesn't allow him to leave the country within the next six months, and XyLigan just did not get the visa, as it nearly takes three months nowadays to get a visa for Germany in Russia.

What is your take on the competition? You defeated both World Elite and 4Kings in the league only losing to MeetYourMakers. What do you think of your chances winning?
- I think we have all chances to surprise on the Finals. We enter them as the clear underdog, but nevertheless I think that we are very much capable of taking down all the other teams attending. Of course we are weakened because of XyLigan not being able to attend, but I still think we can pull out some tough competition for the other teams.

This will be Satiini's first offline event. Do you think it will affect him in any way?
- Satiini had some Lan Events in Finland so far, so he is a bit used to the feeling. But of course a huge international Final is something else. We will see how much it will affect him, but I think he will still be able to present some great games.

Okay. I wish you and your team the best of luck down in Berlin at the NGL-One Finals. Any last words?
- Thanks for the interview and lets hope for an exciting competition.