Trademark Gamers

I’m proud to present to you the first of many interviews with star names and players within the gaming community. Today, our focus is placed upon two opposites; Sandor “proph[v]” De Munck, frankly a Counter-Strike: Source legend. His reign within the highly renowned and regarded fnatic.css team throughout 2007 has definitely earned himself a place in the CSS hall of fame, in my opinion having the tightest grip around the scene for the longest period of time - only truly rivalled by Dignitas. Contrasting Sandor to our other guest, Nick “Vizzion“De Vreught – the newly placed manager of LowLandLions.css, having experience within the management  of 4Kings and h2k respectively – he has a point to prove within the scene and has the perfect team to mould his reputation with.

Greetings Sandor and Nick, to get the ball rolling – who do you feel are the current “top-dogs” of CSS?

Nick: In my opinion VeryGames are the number 1 team at the moment in css. They have had some very good online and offline results so it’s obvious that they are currently at the top of css, but we’ll have to wait and see if they can keep that spot. 

The announcement of the Source team was truly huge news – has being such a popular topic of debate had any negative repercussions to your game, being expected to pull out consistent, big results etc?

Sandor:  We’re quite used to being in the spotlights now for a pretty long while, joining this great organization didn’t make a difference, we still go out there to prove ourselves to the scene that we still belong to the top. Unfortunately we didn’t have great preparation but this decent result at the ICY BOX event still showed everyone that we can still compete with the best of ‘em.

After your impressive showing at the Icybox competition – do you feel you were underprepared at the event, or are you happy with a 4th place finish?

Sandor:  I don’t really feel it was an impressive showing; we were very unprepared so a 4th place did come as a bit of a surprise, we didn’t expect to beat any of the other 4 top teams that attended. However a 4th place finish beating Dignitas 16-0 was a quite satisfying result. Though we would have liked to have finished within the top3.

                                           Proph enthralled in the action, mid-game.

Your game against Dignitas shocked many in the source community. Were you expecting a game which had such gargantuan stakes, the first lan-clash of two of the biggest teams in the history of Source - to be taken so comfortably by your team?

Sandor:  No of course we don’t expect such a big win over such a decorated team, especially on a quite evenly balanced map like dust2, but we were pretty much on top of our game against them.

What is your view on Dignitas.css currently? Do you feel they are just going through a rough patch or have genuinely lost interest in the game now that their salaries and large prize pots have been removed?

Sandor:  I don’t think they’ve lost interest. They just figured that they could pull through with minimal practise which is often a mistake teams that have been on top for a while make, but teams that are consistently practicing will give the established top teams a run for their money every time. With some practise they’ll be competing for first places in no time.

Do you feel that this will the year of LowLandLions? Are there any goals you have set for yourself or your team that need to be achieved by the end of 2009?

Nick: Well I hope it especially for our CounterStrike: Source team and also the organisation! Yes I think every team manager wants that his team to win every big event. However, there is a lot of work to do so we will just have to wait and see what will happen.

Do you feel that the closure of the CGS has had a fatal impact on the source scene? Or do you feel that the future is now brighter for the source scene, with less administration and segregation -stopping teams from attending events?

Sandor: I don’t think it really changed that much besides some CGS players joining back with old undrafted mcnaab teammates, like myself.

Mostly we have found that there are some new teams forming, people forming teams with people that actually want to play together.

For the rest there is still the same amount of tournaments as far as I know and still great some great competitions to be played.

Which is the next event we will be able to see LowLandLions.css in action?

Nick: The next event will be FOM (Frag-o-matic) it’s an event in Belgium, where our Counter Strike: Source team will show what they’ve got. I think I can speak for everyone in team when I say that we are going to make the best of it and hope that we are going home with only first place!

Do you feel many Source/CoD teams will be inclined to their current organisations in search of British-based ones, purely to play within the uKeSa?

Nick: To be quite honest I have no idea. I think some teams will search for a British organisation yes, but I don’t think that there will be many. We will have to wait to answer that question and see what will happen.

Managing such a esteemed squad must be quite an honour for you, what is it that you strive to achieve now you are near the pinnacle of source-teams?

Nick: Yes of course it’s a very good chance for me to prove myself as a manager, managing such a great CounterStrike team. I hope that the team is behind me in every way!

Thank you for answering these questions, is there anything either of you would like to add?

Nick: I want to thank all the members from LowLandLions especially Birger and Filip that have given me this chance, big thanks to my team and a special thanks to our sponsors Asus, Sennheiser, Geil and Hostbasket!

Thank you for the interview

Peace x