Your next big event is 011 in Norrköping, Sweden. In what ways do you think it will be different from CPL, where you weren’t exactly popular among the crowd? Does the cheering and support mean anything when playing Counter-strike?

The crowd always hates those who are the best, by pure jealousy. So now we’ll be supported by the fans, and EYE will get all the booing. ;).

Have you accepted EYE as the favourites now? And what do you think has made you lose the last games to them?

Of course EYE are the favourites after beating us in two straight games at the latest CPL.

The reasons for us losing is that we had lost the hunger to win after all the success – we’ve got that hunger back now – as well as the fact that we had a bad tournament and EYE had a bloody good one.

Has EYE become something of a mind ghost for you, after the CPL and CXG-losses? That’s at least what Hyper claims...

Mind ghost? I don’t think so… You can’t really count CXG, because of the special circumstances there, and before that we did win like 10 or 15 straight games against them. They had a great tournament last time, but we’ll see for how long it lasts. It’s easy to get to the top, but very difficult to stay there.

What do you think about always hanging around with the same four guys – year in and year out. Describe how you, the players in SK, are able to cope with that without ripping eachother apart.

Of course it's sometimes annoying to be with the same guys 24/7 all year around. We have a really good team-spirit and our morale is very high. I believe that’s one of the reasons we've had such great success.

Do you think this works the other way too? Has there been any more sad faces and irritation in the team after a few losses?

People in the team certainly do get annoyed when losing, but that’s nothing that affects us directly. We just move on over it and get back on track.

Describe what you do on that track. What does your practice schedule before WCG-finals and 011 look like right now?

We’ve been free now since our trip to China, and are going to start practising again in a few days. Then it’s going to be practising 6 days a week and bootcamps before the tournaments, just as usual.

Do you have any teams in mind for bootcamping with?

I believe that we’re just going to bootcamp with other teams over the Internet. But nothing’s decided yet.

In some previous tournaments you’ve hidden your tactics – i.e. the ESWC-qualifiers. Does the pricemoney at 011 motivate you to show all your tricks?

I suppose we’ll do our best and show it all, unless the the opponents are too easy –which they surely won’t be.

Could you in a situation of crisis be able to pull a two years old tactic to surprise the opponents? Completely untrained, just coming from the back of your head?

I don’t believe we could. The tactics we have are very well timed and well practised, so it’d be very difficult to switch to one that we haven’t practised for a while.

If you’d run into one of the teams you expect to meet in a final at i.e. 011 or the WCG at a PCW/scrimm, would you then play by the tactics you’re going to use on that map in the tournament, or would you play some old stuff to hide the new ones?

We might not show them our very best tricks, but we’ll probably play our most regular tactics.

How do you think you’ve evolved as a person – and player – since the NiP-days? What do you wish to improve in your gamepaly?

I’ve become more mature as a person, probably the age... As a player I am pretty much the same as then – aggressive and eager on the frags. That’s also what I want to improve in my gameplay, to get more patience.

Who do you think is the best CS-player on the scene right now and which of his skills would you like to have?

I think Potti is the best – as he always has been – just by his enormous routine and ability to read the game. I’d like to learn that from him!

Who’s second best then?

Oh, well... It’s very difficult to say. Fisker or SpawN.

What is it that has made EYE able to beat you, if you have the 3 best players in the world?

Their teamplay, tactics, the hunger to win, plus that they have a really skilled person managing the team in game. The last is something we really lack in SK.

What made you win before. Did you have another ingame captain? Somethings have obviously not been right over the last months..

Right and right. ESWC was the worst tournament ever with about 40 fps and chopper headphones on the stage, in which you couldn’t hear shit. Then that we finished second at the last CPL is a part of what I wrote before – that EYE had a good tournament and we a bad.

What will you change at the WCG and 011 – something that you failed to do at the ESWC? Have you identified any specific problem?

Well, we are foremost very eager to take the #1 spot back. At the ESWC there wasn’t very much to do, but some things from the CPL will be changed.

Have you tried Counter-strike: Source? What’s your opinion on it, and what do you believe will be the biggest change when it takes the place of CS 1.6?

I’ve tried it quite a bit. The AWP is all too good, and AK-47 and Colt m4a1 suck. That could have something to do with the FPS, but spraying is absolutely impossible. I think it feels quite strange, but it’s just a beta so far... the expectations shouldn’t be too high.

I don’t really know what the biggest change will be, except that the netcode is flawless and the game is almost free from bugs.

Do you think that SK will stay on top in the new game? Is it that similar to 1.6?

I have no idea how similar it’ll be, but if it’s close enough I suppose we’ll continue dominating.

Will you continue playing once CS: S is the number one game at tournaments and competitions, or will you quit?

That depends on how good the game is.

Can we exclude that you quit?

Well, if the game is a real flop and I don’t think it’s any fun to play I’ll quit. Even if the future competitions will be played with CS: S.

If we return to the dawn of Counter-strike as we know it today. How did you come up with the now so famous "HeatoN-spray"

It was during the time of the CO rules, when it often came to fast attacks with alot of players. You didn’t really have the time to burst 5 enemies down back then. So I got an idea of how the recoil worked and started holding the button. I noticed that it worked really well, and since then it’s just gone from there.

We play by MR-rules nowadays. CPL recently changed their rules a little bit. What’s your opinion on that, and do you think that 011 and other events should follow CPL’s lead?

Absolutely. The pistolrounds are far too random to have that kind of impact on the game. 10 000 startmoney would be nice in regular games too, and not only in the overtime.

Shorter roundtime makes the game faster, and in that way more of a spectatorsport. All they need to do now is to up the speed a bit. That’d make it perfect :)

Do you have any special rituals you go through before each important competition game?

Hehe. No, not really. I just try to drink a lot of water to stay focused.

What are you planning to do when you quit CS?

Hopefully something gaming-related when I start to get too old for this. I’ll try to play as long as I can, and then when I quit I’ve always got a job in the family business waiting for me. It’s really nothing I’m worrying about.

Do you believe that you will be able to look back on your youth as a happy time, or will you think that you wasted it all on a useless computer game?

A really happy time of my life. Get to see the world and work with the things I love the most. Just great!

What made you take the decision to visit 011?

The price money, and that it’s a big and nice LAN in Sweden. Pretty close trips etc.

What’s your view on a new, gamingfocused event in Sweden? Do you think there’s a future for such events in a small country such as Sweden?

I think it’s really positive. Sweden has alot of great gamers, and alot of great teams. We need more big and well organized tournaments here for the e-Sport to evolve over here too.

What’s important for you at a big competition-event?

Good computers, good servers, a good playing schedule and a nice tournament area. By the last I mean the air quality and not sitting next to the opponents.

Nollelva have been working pretty hard to make this a good gaming-LAN and so far it looks as if both sponsors and most elite clans – Swedish and foreign – see the possibilites with a big gamingevent in Sweden. What do you have to say yo all those doubting going there?

All the good teams and players will be there, and it’ll be the best and biggest gaming-LAN in Sweden ever. If you like CS it’s the event to visit this year. I want to see you all there!

I want to thank Hispanic for really fixing this event, and say that Feisty is Swedens best CS-player. See you at 011!

Last but not least I'd like to thank our generous sponsors: INTEL, NVIDIA, Shuttle, Sennheiser, Steelpad, Inferno Online and LeadTek. Please visit SK-Gaming.com.