H2K Gaming - News - CS:S interview at H2k

CS:S interview at H2k

By Binteh on Saturday 12 June 2010

The H2k Counter-Strike:Source team can be proud to call themselves Sweden's top team but also one of the top teams in the world. Considering the uncertain future of CS:S despite this teams success and lasting community, I took some time together with Cem to discuss the future and find out the seeds of their success.

Before entering the CSS scene, like many players, you were a CS 1.6 players, was it hard making that transition?

Well, it was very hard but because the game was so much more fun than 1.6 I had a great time during the transition so it was all worth the time. But one thing for sure is that most of the 1.6 players thinks CS:S is the easiest game to become good in, but that is not true.

You have to play ALOT and i mean ALOT to understand the games physics, how to throw grenades, flashes etc and how to move, how to burst/spray etc. Everything is completely different from 1.6. And the game is much more fast paced than 1.6 so you have to adapt to that aswell.

Is that the reason you kept your interest in CSS and not 1.6?

I was so tired of 1.6, it was slow paced and CSS was something new to me, new things to learn and my motivation for competitive gaming was so low when i played 1.6 and CSS gave me everything back. Of course the road to the top in CSS is shorter than 1.6, that was a reason to aswell and should not be ignored.

With other games appearing like COD4 and SC2 in the esports scene, are you worried at all about it overshadowing the CSS scene?

No not really, COD4 has its place in the esport scene and CSS has its place aswell, and now with the CSS Beta and CS2(Rumour) coming up the CSS scene will grow even bigger. And i dont see SC2 as a threat to these scenes since it's not an FPS game.

Being that the 1.6 scene is so popular in sweden, is it difficult being part of the CSS scene? what is the competition like and is it easy finding good players?

No I dont think it's difficult, the competition for the topspot in Sweden is not so good but there are like 20-30 players that can compete on a good level in Europe. It's pretty hard to find good players but then again when you do find a good player then it's a really good player.

There are many many many teams in Sweden that compete on a low level at www.r60.org that don't bother evolving and competing in europes low/mid/high scene, thats a shame. But I think in time when they feel that they need to play against better teams they will start looking outside of www.r60.org. There is potential!

What would you consider the "ultimate" title in CSS?

There isnt any "ULTIMATE" title at the moment like WCG or ESWC, but there are a couple of LANs that have a good reputation of having many great top teams such as; The eXperience, LAN79, Copenhagen Games, and now DSRack LAN.

Are you satisfied with the prizes and competition on these "smaller" LANs provide or are you urging for bigger LANs, such as you mentioned, WCG/ESWC for CSS?

I'm quite happy with the prizes and the LANS that there are now but it would be good for CSS to have a big MAJOR tournament to win like WCG/ESWC.

Do you get regular fans supporting you at LAN? and if so, has anything "abnormal" or "wierd" happened to you with a fan?

Not really but of course it happens that people come to you and say they like your playstyle, attitude etc. Nothing abnormal or wierd I have to say only good normal things haha. 99.99% of the fans are great towards me and my team.

Your team has been together for quite a while except for the reasonably recent retirement of your call man, cozman. So who does the calling now?

Yes we have been together longer than most teams and it feels GREAT :). Now its me with help sometimes from kaja and ptk, we are pretty open and every player in the team can come with ideas and calls. But most of the times its me that decides whats happening.

Would you say that the strength of your teams comes from the fact that you guys have been playing together for a while or just a right choice of skills mixed together?

I think its a mixture of both, we have a really strong connection to eachother and are really good friends and the mixture of playstyles and skilltype is great.

How do you feel about team mate friendships? do you believe it is important to be friends in as well as out of game?

Of course it's important, even though we dont live at so close to eachother but when we are away on lans, bootcamps we have so much fun outside of the game. It is really important, if u have fun IRL you have fun INGAME.

In a few words, can you describe your four team mates for me?

friberg: One of europes finest aimers.
kaja: Also great aimer and is one of our team's awper.
pokke: The teams second awper and his dedication to fragging makes him dangerous.
ptk: One of the best TEAMPLAYERS I have ever played with. He has a tactical mind like noone else and knows everything about the game and the teams worth knowing.

While i was doing some research before this interview, one of your team mates insisted I ask you what it feels like to be the lowfragging guy at every LAN, so how does it feel?

hahaha, I have never been the guy that makes the most frags in ecos etc etc, my playstyle is not madfragging sick aimer. It's the thinking and right decision maker playstyle ;). And I dont lowfrag at every LAN ;) We have screenshots to prove that!

The guys are just too amazed and jealous of my amazing skill and playstyle :)

I've also been told that you're a bit of a father figure for the team, a parent to the other boys, how does that feel?

Well I am the oldest and the most experienced guy in the team so I guess I have to be the "father" figure haha. The boys are young so they need me to keep their heads straight :). It feels good i dont have any problems with having that role either.

Thank you Cem for answering these questions and I am looking forward to see H2k.CSS at their next event, is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank YOU!, I wanna thank my teammates and my mom for everything they do for me and have done, and i want to thank our sponsors, ZOWIE gear, Spam, Thermaltake, ID3.net.

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