hey everyone

I don't think its been many weeks since I made my last blog entry, but alot have happened during those weeks.

First of all we played those onlinematches in ICSC tournament and we won every match pretty easy so we ended up with the 1st place in our group. Then we attended the Swedish WCG Qualifier in Stockholm, and we already knew that we were gonna play Lions in a possible semifinal. We knew the match against Lions would be a tough one cuz they are a respected and good team, but we managed to win 2-0 in maps, the first map was dust2 and I think it was the most intense match I ever played in a very long time. I love playing those long matches which end up in overtime or 16-14 etc, its one of the reasons why I play CS.

After the WCG qualifier, Delpan told us he wanted to go and play with SK and I think we needed some changes in our team cuz we haven't really performed lately. I don't really want to talk so much about the Delpan situation.

Anyway, after Delpan "left" us, we talked some about a possible 5th member and I have always wanted to play with Gux, and he wanted to play with us since Lions havent performed that good in 2011. I think Gux is one of the best players in the world, if not the best, without a doubt.

Then we started to talk some more and we agreed that we would need a raw madfragger, someone that could defend a bombsite by himself, in order to compete with the other topteams out there. We talked about alot of players, but after a while we all agreed to bring in manne. Sadly that meant that Faruk had to step down, he is a good player and a good friend but we felt that these changes were needed.

Manne is really, really good... I have played with and against him quite alot actually, some mixes and gathers etc. His aim is just incredible.. I really don't understand why Lions or SK didn't acquire him earlier when they needed players, I guess it's their loss :)

I just love our new lineup.. first of all, its SO MUCH more fun to pracc now.. and everyone is dedicated to the game and everyone have the same goals, we get so much more done during pracc then we did with the old lineup. After we won IEM in Kiev, I didn't enjoy praccing at all... At some point I almost felt like quiting because it was such a pain. I am pretty dedicated to the game and when I'm playing with some people thats not taking it as serious and almost every day is late to practice, and always tab out to chat on facebook etc during matches.. stuff like that, made it very boring and annoying to play. That is probably the main reason why we performed so poorly and why I have been performing so poorly individually from my POV..

Anyways, now I am looking forward to pracc and CS havent been this fun in a real long time.
I love our new gamestyle as well, everyone is so good individually and easy to play with. With our old lineup, we had to adapt our gamestyle around Delpans AWP, and if he didn't hit his shots, we would lose.
I have almost forgot how it feels to win a tournament, and I really want to get back being the top1 team.

It's so HOT here in Umeå lately, its been ~25-30 C the past few days and clear blue sky all day long. So I am just enjoying the awesome weather and playing alot of CS in the evening.

Dreamhack next, cu there people!

// rich