BS: What was the atmosphere like inside AEF? Were there a lot of spectators? What was the venue like?

w!$eGuY: It was a fun atmosphere, not too intense unless you were playing. The (QUADV) shoutcasters did a good job of getting the crowd involved. The venue was basically a big room with a tournament area next the spectator's lounge. It was a bit hot for the most part so there was a lot of unpleasant smells.

BS: I noticed that some of the players, I think it may have been some Polish gamers, were camped out on the floor? Did some of the guys actually sleep inside the facility?

w!$eGuY:  I'm not sure if they slept there, I would assume that they got kicked out when it got late.

 

BS: The first match on Saturday came against the Polish DLink crew. Did you expect a tough match against them. In the end, it became a titanic struggle, with EG winning it in O/T: 16-12.

 

How were the team's nerves during that match?

w!$eGuY: We definitely expected them to be an easy match but clearly that wasn't the case. Our attitude during the match was 'we shouldn't be losing to these guys, let's get the win and move on.'

BS: Your match against the LowLandLions went 13-6 and seemed like you were finally hitting all cylinders. Do you remember any highlights from this match?

w!$eGuY: We played them on Backlot and really cruised to victory in this one from the get-go. The reason for the large victory was everyone on our team felt very comfortable on Backlot playing against their style.

 

BS: Blackmane and the crew from Dignitas came up big against you at AEF on District. You were down early on on offence...then you started to reduce the gap slowly, only to see it slip away by the half at which time it was 8-4 for them, were you happy with that score and did you think you could come back at them in the second half?

 

w!$eGuY: We weren't particularly happy about the score because we blew multiple rounds by making careless mistakes. It could have been a huge half for us but the CoD Gods were on the other side for this one. We still thought we could pull it off in the second half but again we lost too many close rounds which killed us all game.

 

BS: Dignitas is somewhat known for a slow push, especially with Sko playing on their team again, did they do anything unexpected?  Was the pace of the game to your liking?

w!$eGuY: They played the way we thought they would. The difference was we didn't get it done when it mattered, which is in 2v2 of 1v1 situations. If you lose that many clutch opportunities it takes the wind out of your sails and cripples you.

BS: In the second half, Rob's sniping just didn't allow him to get into the game. Not only that, but when he'd switch over to the deagle he became fairly ineffective. IMO the map's just too big for deagling.

 

In the end, you guys seemed too far apart to support each other. Though there were some amazing 1v1 action, NTT and Wombat teamed up for a nice comeback after being down 2v4 one round for instance; however, while I thought you matched up well against them on skills level, I didn't think EG play as a unit in the second half.
  

Would you agree with that assessment?

 

w!$eGuY: Yes, I do agree. Our intensity level just wasn't there in this match and to make communication matters worse for both teams, we were seated beside eachother so we tried not to talk too loudly.

 

BS: In the end you lost to Dignitas 7-13. With blackmane finishing off the game with a frag. What did you think of the skill of the individuals on that team? Do they live up to their formidable reputation?

w!$eGuY: They're a top team and deserve all the hype they get. 

 

BS:  I saw this game and thought you played well, especially in the second half. Did you have any 1v1's that were memorable for you? I'm thinking of a few encounters you had where you knocked heads with Zenith especially.

 

w!$eGuY:  I can only remember the ones I lost :(. It was a pretty depressing game in hindsight.

 

BS: If you had a second chance at Dignitas (and you will in Denmark at The eXperience) what would you have done differently.

w!$eGuY:  We'd have to just play EG style and not try to emulate these other teams. That's what has made us successful and we can't just switch to slow strats after months of playing aggressive.

BS: There was some talk by the European observers that Rob should have been using the SMG not the sniper.  It seemed that when he picked up the SMG he was completely dominating, especially Friday night.
 

Did you talk about this after the Dignitas loss? I know we talked about it during our webcast together...

w!$eGuY: Rob hasn't gotten used to the new sniper yet, but when he does he'll dominate as always.

 

BS: Why didn't Rob switch over to an AK sooner than he did? The number of kills he gets with an SMG or the assault weapons has got to overshadow any benefit you get from having a sniper, no?

w!$eGuY: Yes it helps to have him SMG, but in some situations a sniper is a better choice.

BS: Do you think that Rob will be picking up an AK more often at TeX, esp. if the sniping strat isn't working?

 

w!$eGuY: You'll probably see him running around with an AK74 like we're all used to.