We've recently featured our newest addition in the interview chair, yet now its time for a more traditional chat box with Patrik 'cArn' Sattermon ahead of the upcoming European Extreme Masters, due to kick-off tomorrow in Bruhl, Germany. Since he's been spending his winter celebrations over in...
We've recently featured our newest addition in the interview chair, yet now its time for a more traditional chat box with Patrik 'cArn' Sattermon ahead of the upcoming European Extreme Masters, due to kick-off tomorrow in Bruhl, Germany. Since he's been spending his winter celebrations over in China, we also touch on that chapter for a bit and then going on towards the traditional expectations prior to what can be considered a more relaxed event for our very own FnaticMSI.CS team.
Although we're looking at the opening event of 2010 in terms of Counter-Strike and obviously enough people say that the way you start your new year, that's how it will be for the rest of it, our players are confident and focused. A victory in Bruhl will offer them a mental advantage, rather than some actual tangible benefits, given that they're already qualified for the upcoming Global Finals.
Their group B seems easier on paper, than its sister group, yet one cannot be misleaded by false impressions. mTw, Alternate Attax, oXmoze or n!faculty, you cannot really pick and choose. Additionally, with all the team alterations going on for the beginning of the year period, one cannot know what to expect from new compositions. Esports has moved towards a direction were teams are closer to each other performance-wise, at least in European terms, so any match in an event of EM's magnitude is a hard one to call.
Last year it didn't go as well as we would have wanted with a nothing-out-of-ordinary fourth spot in the European finals; and well, that is simply more than a perfect catalyst for
FnaticMSI to make it up in 2010, at the fourth edition of the EM. Last year they found themselves in an equally tricky group amongst the likes of mTw, n!faculty or Millenium. Back then the Danes were the only ones who managed to take them down, putting
FnaticMSI forward to play-offs from the second spot. That brought the Swedes towards a difficult elimination dispute in front of what was back then, an on the wave German side, Attax.
A backwards evolution to the lower bracket made the Swedes lose valuable momentum, something which showed in the second consecutive loss in front of Polish side, Meet Your Makers. But the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't far ahead, as
FnaticMSI picked back up and went strongly into the Global Finals, which followed right after the European ones. The rest is history as our boys kept on wining, cashing in at the end of 2009 on a valuable achievements board with 6 major titles, more than any other Counter-Strike team managed to do before.
But enough chit-chat, let's hear from Patrik for the first time this year. Just turn the page and keep on reading.
Photos courtesy of HLTV.org
Well we've managed to talk to Bjorn and obviously enough now its your time to sit in the interview chair. Before we get on to the IEM questions, let's talk a bit about China, a place you like a lot as we know. Apart from the event, matches and wining once again, were there any other highlights, because it just seemed like you were isolated in a suburb somewhere for two weeks?
WEM lodged us in a suburb to the Hangzhou city which is a bit of a development area rising after their economic boom. Unfortunately all those conveniences such as 7 eleven, Mc Donalds and nightlife had not reached this part of the city, so being at WEM got a bit frustrating. But to be fair, having little to do outside the tournament was good for us since we had a new player and got many hours of practise between the matches which could have helped us wining our very first title in China.
How difficult was it for you guys to concentrate on your a-game considering the in-event area low temperature plus the computers setup which just crashed all the time?
This is nothing new to us, we have been to so many events and we know how to adapt to those conditions. For example we bought ourselves gloves to protect ourselves from the coolness in the stadium. And you are totally right, WEM had many computer issues.
Anyway, it was probably nice to manage and take 1st spot on Chinese land, a place where you've got such a huge fan-base. What rocketed you towards your comfort zone, back into the strong play-style which consecrated FnaticMSI in 2009, following your doubtful group-stage evolution?
I think we got some new energy bringing Threat in, which was necessary after a busy year with so many events and its easy to start relaxed after being quite successful.
After travelling so many times to the Asian continent, would you say that China is quite an ideal place for any esports event to happen? Wouldn't it be nice for like FnaticMSI to bootcamp there for a couple of months every year?
It's great for E-sport in terms of audience and streaming audience since their population is huge. But, one of the reasons Scandinavian teams are successful is because of the quality of our internet connections. This is something that lacks in China and Asia overall, plus its hard to find enough good teams to practise against under good circumstances.
And more importantly, is esports in China big, massive, or just everything is China like that, due to the demographics?
Its very hard to answer that question just due to the size of their population. I have noticed however that people recognize your face when you are out shopping or eating or whatever, stuff like that is always appreciated and it's nice to be recognized for something you put efforts into.
What followed after WEM, since you've spent a lot of time in China. A personal curiosity of mine is what's traditional Chinese Christmas food like.
There's nothing really interesting to say. Chinese don't really celebrate Christmas as we do in the Western world so the closest Christmas food you get is to go to IKEA and eat Swedish meatballs.
Now you're back in Sweden, doing the usual bootcamp at Chris's place. How are the team preparations going in the new year?
Some of the guys have been participating in smaller events in Sweden while some of us have just enjoyed the time off Counter-Strike. We just took up our team practise this week and hopefully we will be ready by Thursday when IEM Europe kicks-off. The good news for us is that we are already qualified for the World Finals later on this spring so we can go into this match fully relax and just do our very best.
How's Bjorn settling in? I mean we've seen him play, we've talked over and over again how his in-game play-style fits into FnaticMSI, but what about the rest, as we all know all of the CS members are good friends in real life as well. Does he manage to bring a plus of optimism with his never disappearing smile?
He certainly does, he brings a lot of joy and motivation something I mentioned earlier. Having a guy such as Bjorn is something every team would ask for, its perfect.
Last year the IEM didn't go that well, with you getting off the upper bracket following a close loss to Alternate. You're in the same group with them now, what do you expect to happen knowing FnaticMSI is a slow-burner in the group-stages?
I haven't seen much from Attax lately and I think they were better with Roman in their team but of course they are having home-soil advantage and the match will be played on one map only so we'd better watch out.
What about the other names in the group? In comparison to what's going on in sister group A, I'd say you've managed to tackle the important matches in the group-stage.
With our situation, having a long break behind us and with the addition of Threat, we are really happy with our group since we have an history always struggling in group-stages.
Well Bjorn said that better than wining 6 titles is gaining 7 this year. Let's say you'd take this one, you'd be down to 6 more and WCG is a must I guess since it still needs to be ticked on your list. What else follows shortly after IEM?
At the moment we have only scheduled IEM Europe and the final later on at the CEBIT exhibition. Except that I guess we can assume E-stars is coming up along with the Kode5 qualifiers. It will also be interesting to know if ESWC will come back, that would be fun for sure.
Wanna send a final warning to rivals prior to IEM? *smiles*
Nah I'd better send some love to our sponsors MSI , Steelseries , Bigfoot networks and UGame.net. Stay tuned on fnatic.com for all the action from IEM Europe starting this Thursday. ADIOS!
Photos courtesy of HLTV.org, zotob.org
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