Melbourne WCG Teams & Coverage

With the World Cyber Games (WCG) National Finals only a few sleeps away, dice caught up with some of the teams that will be representing Melbourne to share their thoughts on WCG and CS Counter-Strike (CS) in general.

Quick facts

Qualified Melbourne Teams: Snatch, DICE, aShock, iNvy
Qualified Teams Eligible for Kitty Pool: Snatch, DICE, aShock [$500 per team]
Qualified Interstate Teams: K9D [c0ke, kram, jac], Immunity [benor, gazr, destiny]
For All Interstate Teams: Our friends [VP] have recommended the following Sydney attractions: Sublime Nightclub, Dardreams @ The Hunter Bar, Taronga Zoo, Chinatown & all the obvious landmarks like the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Tower etc - Thanks to al[vp] & pingu[vp].

Dice will be attempting to bring you fragbite style video coverage of the WCG Nationals 2008 and in particular following the progress of Melbourne teams day by day. Bookmark us

afterShock Gaming

devour, jimeh, teddyt, nezza, rickeh

Can you tell us in your own words why jnsie was replaced for nezza and did nezza bridging the requirements for the WCG invite influence your decision at all?
- aShock|teddyt: Basically we started this team just to have some laughs and wars now and again, and of course being in a team with jnsie it eventually gets to the point where you would rather jump off a cliff than play on the same side as him. To cut the story short: too much rage in the team, and it was all because of him. Nezza was always an option for us as we considered both himself and Rickeh prior to forming and in the end we just wanted to become a more serious team again after noticing how good our chemistry was. Having said that I was originally going on a family holiday during the WCG period and only found out a few days after that our holiday was cancelled, so we asked dippa if we would still take the KING invite.

With forum banter aside, how well do you really think aShock will do coming into WCG? Are you guys taking this seriously or just seeing it as a good opportunity to meet some people new people?
- aShock|teddyt: Well we’re not going into it expecting too much but we will take this seriously and treat any result as experience. I’d hope to come top 8 but we will see what happens. This is the 2nd time all 5 of us will be playing in a competition together with not much practice at all so this will also be a good time to prepare the team for future events like KODE5 and the ESAU nationals at the end of this year / next year. As for meeting new people, I wouldnt like to meet anyone because I hate everyone.

With the WCG format for CS now being double-elimination instead of the preferred group stages, has this change had an affect on aShock in terms of team expectations (e.g. making it out of groups)?
- aShock|teddyt: I would of preferred it to be group stages just so we play more guaranteed games as a team.

clubdice vip

bui, tnyvo, spectre, rumeboy,eck0

Knowing you guys don’t prac, any expectations coming into WCG?
- dice|bui: Yeah I’m expecting to lose consecutive matches with me donuting at least twice and rumeboy to ride some VP cock =D
- dice|tnyvo: As for me, I’m expecting a free graphics card from the WCG raffle if any, but yes I would like to win some games of CS too

With dice originally planning to receive half the kitty money, what was the general reaction when news broke that a 3rd team were suddenly eligible for the kitty money?
- dice|tnyvo: WHO ARE THEY? HOW MUCH ARE THEY GETTING? WTF IS THIS BS! SIGH ITS TEDDYT

Do you see a competative dice team in the future - one that pracs?
- dice|bui: No one here has the time, everyone either works or studies so theres not much time left to sit around and prac
- dice|tnyvo: Hmm.. Definitely! We’ll have a set salary, sponsors that would go out of their way to support us, a media crew that will cover every aspect of our lives and of course fans from all over the world to meet and greet us at competitions

With the quality of teams dropping rapidly, do you think clubs like dice/vp are to blame for the casual style play?
- dice|tnyvo: On the contrary I think clubs like ours are doing nothing but keeping cs more competitive if anything. If there’s one thing I’d blame it’s source.

What are dice’s predictions on how Melbourne teams will do at WCG? Being good friends with VP, who will come further at WCG?
- dice|tnyvo: Melbourne won’t do too well, quite frankly our gameplay won’t match up to other states atm. We might get lucky though and between and us and VP? DICE’2G’

And finally, how do you think sharing an apartment with Invy will pan out?
- dice|bui: Bad. I tend to fart excessively, I will cause a few asthmatic problems.
- dice|tnyvo: Same as last year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YmU2SEYBHY&feature=related

iNvy

kevin, bl4nk, beedee, jastone, nameci

 For those who don’t know you, can you give us a brief introduction about how you got started in CS?
- iNvy Kevin: My names Kevin, 20 years of age. I started CS around the end of 2001. I knew c0ke from high school and through that I went to my first local LAN tourney with a couple of friends at school. Surprisingly our schools’ network admin played and we asked him to play with us LOL. From there it just got to the point where I was in c0kes’ teams private channel, which was fade during the time. At that point, I never really enjoyed playing CS and it was until a few months after that I begin to play more and more. From there it went to v300(kram) and then iM(jac). At first I didn’t like it and even now I don’t but it’s the competitive scene that keeps me playing.

Being the ingame leader of Invy and having played with the core of v300/sg/k9d for so long, do you think the experience has helped your calling and decision making abilities as a leader?
- iNvy Kevin: Playing with the likes of jac/kram/c0ke definitely boosts your level even in scrims against slut teams. There’s enough rage and tension for anyone taking into reflect their own ability/observation and listening skills.

After StensGamings breakup, Melbourne is now without a true dominant CS team (that’s completely Melbourne based), what kind of an impact will this have on the Melbourne CS scene in your opinion?
- iNvy Kevin: Everyone in Melbourne will try to claim being #1 but that doesn’t do anything on a national stage. Teams will be shuffling here and there after WCG and while most Melbourne teams will try to claim #1 in the state, the competitiveness of the upper teams will only improve.

Being in arguably one of the best Melbourne based CS teams, are you worried it is a potential poaching ground for Immunity/K9D if these two teams have a bad WCG campaign and want to switch back to an all Melbourne based team?
- iNvy Kevin: I don’t see K9D disbanding - the core 3 from Melbourne jac/kram/c0ke will just go back to forming slut teams for Melbourne comps. Immunity on the other hand may look into getting bl4nk (Craig) as a replacement for deStiny as I believe he doesn’t have time to play.

On the topic of WCG, how do you measure up Invy’s chances going into WCG?
- iNvy Kevin: We’ve had a steady prac routine but as of late we haven’t prac’d as much as wanted to. I’d say every team is beatable and hopefully we will break into top4.

Thanks for your time. Finally, how do you feel about sharing an apartment with dice?
- iNvy Kevin: It’d be alright as long as they don’t disturb my sleep and I’m pretty sure Liam (rumeboy) will be sleeping on the floor so sucks to be him.