You and dsn played together since xP.se, in both Begrip and EYEBALLERS. Was is a natural move for you to join fnatic and how did you get in touch with the rest of the team?
fnatic\cArn: "I said before I´ve met a lot of nice people during my career, Harley (dsn) is definitely one of them, as you stated. we having a long history together in this scene.
About joining fnatic, I turned inactive for a while during 2005 when Harley was picked up by fnatic, however, that team wasn’t that successful and when it turned 2006 I was asked to join, since we knew each other and he maybe believed I would still have the skill to be playing for them.
And here we are today, 22 month later with lots of victories and memories, I feel nostalgic just even thinking about it, I feel lucky.
Fnatic has had two amazing years (2006/2007), finishing top3 at almost each event the team attended and recently coming out victories at the ESL Extreme Masters in L.A.
Is it easy to keep your focus and motivation to play the game, having played it for years and years?
fnatic\cArn: Since we are one of the most successful teams around, it´s just natural that people try to adapt to our game, watching our demos and learning from our strategies. For us this means we have to put a lot of time into tactics and really use our brains when planning our game. My view about motivation, is that I really need to put a lot of time into the game to be able to do what I’m doing, I considering this as a job, which I don’t wanna lose.
What does the team do to keep their focus, concentration and basically to play your best game when it counts? Do you and the team focus much on what they eat, getting a good night sleep and does fnatic play a role in keeping the team sharp?
fnatic\cArn: The most important factor for our achievements is that we get along well together, travelling and practising together can really mess up the relationship, you get really close social-wise when you spend a lot of time together.
Though, this is not a big problem for us, we are all social and respect each-other, and that is, like I said one of the keys to get successful.
Food and sleep is important, but I wouldn´t say we think too much of this.
Outside our part of the story (the team), fnatic as organization is doing a great job for us, everything goes smoothly and our relationship is very professional but still, also very friendly, I really like playing for fnatic and try my best to make them proud.
How does the team handle all the pressure and expectations that come with playing at the top and being expected to perform?
fnatic\cArn: It´s feel natural to play I’d like to say, fnatic put trust in us and we in them. Of course you get nervous time to time during the intensive games, but that´s the charm of it too, without it wouldn’t be the same.
How does the team continue to come up with innovative tactics / the best individual play each time, even when you are the team to beat?
fnatic\cArn: I think CS is more of a mind game rather than tactics, of course, the team should use several tactics, but more important is how to use it and when, if you are able to read your opponent and play out tactics depending on many factors such as economy and spawn positions is more important than having advanced flash tactics. What I’m trying to say, you should rely more on individual skill, the player’s capacity and teamwork instead of making advanced tactics.
Reflecting on the past, in what way do you feel the addition of ins has influenced the team, its performances and tactical play in comparison to playing with Tentpole.
fnatic\cArn: Well, first of all, both are great players, but that would be a boring answer. So I say, we are better now, but I think the reason for that is that the team is older, the other four of us have played about 22 month together by now.
Success is usually followed by attention, and in the last two years, you and the rest of the team were used in several promotional activities, including a three week Asia tour in 2006 (Beijing, Singapore, and Chengdu) and a one week trip to India the end of January this year. How did you experience all the media attention over the past years and how does the team handle all the media attention?
fnatic\cArn: It´s very fun, doing this kind of stuffs, you just have to face the fact that if you wanna do this on the level we are, you should be able to take care of the media/fan attention.
Of course, it felt very weird at the beginning, but you just have to be open and give something back to the fans that actually support you, I´m just happy we have fans.
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