After news of the top CSS team switching to 1.6, it only made sense to talk to Team-Archaic captain, Scott 'Boomser' Bednarski. I spoke to him about the team and how the changes led him back to 1.6.

I didn't ask Boomser to introduce himself - he needs no introduction. However for those who haven't followed the scene long enough to know about Boomser, he has been a part of the Australian CS scene since the year 2000. His achievements include a number of podium finishes at large scale national events both in 1.6 and CSS, but it wasn't until he pursued CSS full time that he was really able to hone his skills. He was subsequently drafted into the CGS franchise team Sydney Underground to represent Australia. As for the events during the aftermath of CGS' demise, I'll allow the interview to explain.

The interview

Since taking up Counter-Strike Source full time, when was the last 1.6 event you attended?

The last event I attended was withe ENCORE in Sydney. It was a qualifier for KODE5 with the team being Otis, Miles, Apoc, Steel and myself. This was 2 weeks after the situation happened with Steel being accused of cheating for the ESAU Razer Event. I drove to Sydney to bootcamp with the team and drove Steel up there with me, on the way he admitted to cheating. We got a new 5th and some things lead to another which saw me quitting to try and focus on other things. We ended up placing 1st and qualifying against XG in the grand final. Other than that, my last Nationals I played was AINC 2007 which we ended up winning against XcN 16-3.

What influenced you to direct your focus towards CSS instead of Counter-Strike 1.6?

I really can't remember. I think there was CEVO and Cyber-Gamer coming up with a bunch of other events much like what's happening now in CSS there was and is now about 6-7 events to compete for this year. So I made the team Morals with Apoc, Rory, Havoc, Topgun and myself. We stayed together for about 8 weeks but Rory and Apoc went to qualify for WCG 2009 which they ended up winning. Before that we dropped out of CEVO due to too many forfeits from all the players in the team. We ended up winning Cyber Gamer Invite vs Team Immunity and this kick started me wanting to go back to CSS competitively.

Archaic seems to have accomplished a lot in the little amount of time it's been around, can you give us an insight into how it was formed?

Well I said I couldn't play CSS without going full out. I realised with Morals that we weren't putting in the effort but had the skill to be just as good as Sydney Underground if only we committed and could possibly win everything in that year. Pandan and my brother wanted to make an organisation with the CSS team of Apoc, Havoc, Stv, Topgun and myself. We had personal funding from Pandan and he also set a goal to send a team overseas and especially that lineup we had which still to this day I believe is possibly the BEST 5 players you can make in CSS. So we made plans on attending the overseas trip thanks to Pandan alone and our sponsors, but two weeks out Apoc was removed and Topgun encountered personal problems with already half the trip paid and registered for. I think we felt like we could still go over and put up decent results. We had 4 events to perform at but the day we arrived, 2 events got cancelled and one more soon followed which turned the whole 1 month trip for just 1 event. We managed to enter an online competition against some average teams but fell out against the top3 German team 16-14 on Nuke placing 3rd out of 128 teams. Then of course we finished 7th losing to the best Swedish team in TRIPLE overtime on dust2. It was a very painful trip tbh, but ended up turning out as a good experience and holiday.

Archaic have expanded from a CSS only team to incorporate other titles, are there any more foreign tours of duty planned for any of your divisions?

The Europe trip ended up lasting for a month which took out a lot of funds, but MSI and Soundblaster have expressed complete support for the organisation. We are very lucky to have these big name brands backing Archaic and I'm sure Pandan isn't sitting around for something to happen as he usually does everything he can to make Archaic an Australian brand that's known internationally. One example is an event held by 4SeasonsGaming, the 1st prize is a 6 month contract in Archaic and a trip overseas to Texas to compete in the Quakecon event. So archaic is always growing and has probably done more as an organisation in 2 months than any other organisation in Australia.

The Archaic 1.6 team on paper is very strong, how did the discussion begin for you when putting together the team?

Well the discussion started with only really me and Apoc interested in staying with the source team. We literally went through all types of lineups but none of them could be made without poaching or killing multiple teams in Australia. We felt it was just easier to come back to 1.6 and allow Pandan to recruit an already established team for the MSi Cup as it's just around the corner. Pandan expressed that himself and sponsors had an interest in 1.6 and felt that since me and Apoc have a long standing relationship, that it would be best if we started a team under Archaic. Before we knew it, Pandan had organised everything for us including attending the qualifier in Sydney this weekend. As I stated Pandan doesn't sit around and wait for things to happen, he just does them. I mean this was all organised within the hour. Soren, Emir and Apoc are currently staying together under the same roof. Me and Apoc joked around about playing with messi [MSE] again as we both have good memories of playing with him. I like the fact this team is built around chemistry and old friendship. There was talks between us about missing the event [ECN] but after speaking with Pandan, he expressed it would be best to use ECN to break the ice back into 1.6 for the old vets =p.

Speaking of poaching players, were you aware messi was a part of Qlimax whom had been competing in the Brisbane Qualifier?

Yes we did, but also Soren and Apoc was planning on attending the event with TZi. When we first planned on making this team it wasn't made in the interest of competing in the upcoming ECN event, but after talks with Pandan it was clear that it was in the teams best interest to attend the competition and get back into 1.6 asap.

The 1.6 online scene here in Australia certainly isn't as large as the source. What will the new 1.6 team do during the offseason, will they also be competing in CSS tournaments?

I can see me and Apoc creating a team to play in the odd CSS event. I play where the competition is at really, but my main focus will be 1.6.

Thanks for your time Boomser. Good luck in the upcoming qualifier and I'm sure a lot of us can't wait to see you guys play. Are there any final words or shoutouts you'd like to make?

Yeah big thank-you to Archaic sponsors MSi and Soundblaster. Even a bigger shoutout to Archaic manager Pandan.

You can see Archaic in action this Sunday at the final ECN Qualifier for Sydney.