CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
cpl day 1
interview: cpl day 1

All interviews conducted live, recorded and then transcribed.

Welcome to Counter-Strike Nation's first ever on-event coverage of the CyberAthlete Professional League! I'm Austin "Sublyme" Webb, and I'm at the event getting the nitty gritty from all the teams.


CPL Entrance.
The event started off slow this morning, as I was under the impression doors were supposed to open at 11 am, but they didn't open until 11:30. I then stood in line for probably 10 or 15 minutes until they announced that members of the press could come forward. I walked up and introduced myself to the CPL owner, Angel Munoz, and got inside. I feel bad for those who had to wait outside, as some people waited upwards of several hours to get inside. Once in, I recieved my press pass and got my computer registered and went and set-up. Pre-event while waiting, however, I was able to get interview with a few teams, namely Soby and D!E.

Interview with team Death is Eternal.

CS-Nation: I'm here with team d!e, Death is Eternal, CPL veterans and formerly CAL-I. You recently got moved down amidst a lot of controversy, care to comment on that?
Batman: Well I mean, they thought we were packeting them, but in reality we were beating them 9 to 3, so TSG|Josh went and whined to a CAL admin and we got moved down.
CS-Nation: So was that kind of a slap in the face when C9 was moved up to invite in your spot?
Batman: Who's C9? *laughs*
CS-Nation: Point taken. So what have you guys been doing to prepare for this tournament?
Batman: We've been at lethal gamers where we placed second behind Rival and ahead of Forsaken and 4DN, we've been at ultimate online gaming and practicing there, and so when we came to the lethal gamers pre-cpl bootcamp and everyone thought we were online, we proved we could do it on lan. We played the west coast powerhouse Rival and DiE took second so call us online right now.
CS-Nation: So you played some foreign teams at lethal gamers, 4DN in particular. What are your impressions of them?
Batman: Well I think they're good, they're gonna do some damage, but I think they'll be nervous and not get very far.
CS-Nation: So who do you think the darkhorses or underdogs will be of this tournament?
Batman: Maybe the russian team, M5, we played against them last night, but besides that, nobody, DiE will do the best.
CS-Nation: So you beat Forsaken to put yourselves in the finals at lethal gamers, and you guys have a bit of a history.
Batman: Yeah, they beat us online for the UGS finals, but we beat them on lan, ya know.
CS-Nation: So, for the most asked question of teams today - how do you expect to place?
CuZ: Well we're going in with probably a 17-22 seed, so if we hit a 9-12 seed we'll just beat them and take their seed and run with it, see how far we can go.
CS-Nation: So what's your view on super-hyped teams like NoA?
CuZ: They're all cocky and comp boys at home, and that's all, they get beat by teams like TSG and TSG's horrible *laughs*, so ya know I don't give any of these teams credit, they won't do as good, they'll place top 10 but they won't do anywhere as good as they did last year.
CS-Nation: So my thoughts are that SK is going to recieve the number one seed despite losing element, what's your thoughts on them - are they still the team to beat?
Batman: Yeah, they're still the top team, they're gonna win again this year, noone can probably beat them, nobody.
Interview with team So Owned But whY - CAL-Premier team, members present: maverick, gambler, shifn, instant, karma (doesn't comment).

CS-Nation: I'm here with Jack "Maverick" Giardina, leader of Soby (So Owned but whY), CAL-Main Season 10 Champions and current CAL-P team.
Maverick: That's right, I've been the leader of So Owned But whY for about 8 months now, and this is our first CPL event.
CS-Nation: Excellent - so what are you guys expecting looking into this event?
Maverick: We're coming in real optimistic, we've never competed at the CPL before, but uh, we play a lot against local team E7, they placed 6th at last summer's CPL, and we always are pretty competitive with them on lan, so we're pretty optimistic, we're aiming for top 15 or top 20.
CS-Nation: Seems you have a team of pretty talented players - what have you guys been doing to prepare?
Maverick: Well, last few weeks we've been pretty busy with work and stuff, but we just try to get on at the same time at night and get three or four scrims and just try to get our timing down. I think we all know how to play the game, but we just gotta mesh together and have a good performance and I think we'll be alright.
CS-Nation: So apart from yourselves, who are you seeing as darkhorses in this tournament?
Maverick: I think Heaven 17 from Georgia, a CAL-im team, they've been practicing pretty crazy the past month and bootcamping and I really think they can turn some heads. In terms of foreign teams, I heard there's this Japanese team called 4DN (Fourth DimeNsion) who've been beating cal-i teams at bootcamps left and right, so I'm really interested to see how they play.
CS-Nation: So let me get word with another member of Soby - Gambler, how're you doing?
Gambler: Pretty good man, yourself?
CS-Nation: I'm good, so let me ask you - tell me a little about Soby from your viewpoint, what're you expecting?
Gambler: *laughs* I say first place, top five.
CS-Nation: And Soby|Instant, your expectations?
Instant: I expect to practice hard and get out of single elimination and then just go from there.
CS-Nation: And Soby|Shifn, you've been in many teams - whatever happened with DieW (CAL-P team)?
Shifn: They were inactive, real inactive, things just happened and I drifted away.
CS-Nation: So Soby|Karma's cousin, Beerz, is a starter for E7, and you guys are rivals - is there a little tension there?
Shifn: I would have to say so, they're our biggest rivals, so yeah.
CS-Nation: Well excellent, thanks for the interview and good luck in the tournament. I'm expecting good things out of you.