AEF: Interview with SL Trigger - Article

Team SPEEDLINK are a side that seem to be quietly respected in the scene without managing to generate the usual hype you hear about teams with potential. Perhaps it's something to do with being German, perhaps it's because a cynical community aren't ready to believe in the power of the underdog, or maybe it's simply because while they are good most know they aren't quite good enough. Whatever camp you're in it's safe to say the players aren't with you. Topping their group and playing their games with an air of stoic calm, they have looked confident and collected as they have made their way through the tournament.

Next up for them will be an encounter with H2K (by the time you read this) who have just come out of a mentally draining game against Reason Gaming. I spoke to CoD2 legend and good friend Michael "Trigger" Sowa who is certainly keeping the faith, regardless of what people say.

So, you’ve beaten TCM. Were you confident in that game? Did it come easy or was it a tough match?

Before we start, we thought it was going to be easy because we know how they play. We played them on Crash on LAN, actually they were pretty good on crash so we know they are good. But, in the end the game was really tough, their attack was very strong and every round was hard fought. In the end, we had some sick clutches and had some good team play as well. It was much better than online, we didn’t play much online but it worked really well.

A lot of people have talked of TCM being a team with potential for the future. Speedlink, however, are respected on the basis of past results, but no one has really talked about you coming into this event. Why do you think that is?

The changes of the lineup were hard times for the team. After Reflexor left, and a really strong SMG left and neon and me came in. It wasn’t really working very well. I didn’t join properly to start with as I told them I couldn’t commit with my schedule being busy. We didn’t have much time to play and if they played us we didn’t play that strong as we’re still in the trying phase. Trying to sort tactics, which we didn’t get down until the bootcamp the other day.

The last time we saw you in action with a real team was with Reason at SEC. I thought 4th place was a decent showing for a first time out. But then almost immediately you were out of the team. Why was that? You guys seemed to have a good chemistry, were you happy in Reason?

I was quite happy; they’re nice guys of course. I like them. But, there was always some bitching. To me, that is typical UK attitude – in game bitching and whining from Diablo and Danny. Diablo is the most whiney person I know, but hes a cool guy. In the end, that whiney stuff, and the problem with Duffer quitting the game and only playing for fun because of the baby coming. So I wasn’t sure that the team was still playing and I just didn’t want to miss this event. Speedlink was asking me every day if I wanted to join.

I always rejected because I was happy with Reason, but when the problems were there I asked them “please make a decision”. But the way they did it was more like they were holding the decision back. So I gave them a deadline because I needed to play with Speedlink to see if would work out. It was a bit of a difficult story then, I was released from the contract as I wanted to try with Speedlink and I thought the team was quitting as Duffer thought so. After that, Nreo joined so for me it was a bit behind the back. But it’s all fine now, I’ve got my team at Speedlink and I can play, and that’s all I want to do. It’s also good to have a German team, and I can speak German now.

Speedlink are one of the great esports organisations in terms of their history. Esports in Germany is a completely different world compared to the rest of Europe. Do you feel more settled and more relaxed being in a German team?

Yeah. Germans and the UKs are different in terms of how they act and how they speak, that makes difficult. I think Reflexor in Dignitas works out because they are mixing nationalities. But if it’s a full UK line up with just one German, it’s really hard. Speedlink is my old home; I was in Speedlink for over two years since the glory days of Speedlink. Of course, I like to be in Speedlink again. It’s the name I made big. It’s the best German team as well, so the best German players in one team. So that’s a good mix and we’re coming along well. So yeah, it’s definitely a good decision.

I think Speedlink get quite a bit of respect. In contrast, MTW don’t get a lot of respect. What do you think the difference is?

The difference is that people have been in the community a long time and they aren’t flamers, they’ve earned their respect. With MTW, some of the stuff in their pasts haven’t been that good. So the people think differently about them. I think it’s also to do with respect for the Speedlink name. Because Speedlink was the name and Speedlink is a good organisation so they have more respect in Call of Duty than MTW. But they’re not flaming, they’re playing their stuff and doing a good job. Of course, the MTW guys are also nice guys, but it’s to do with how you present yourself and how you treat people and with Plotch its hard.

When you’ve come into this kind of event, I imagine, you’ve come together as a team and discussed targets. What are the minimum targets you have set yourselves?

Of course, we always want to go as far as possible. But with the problems we had online, and the lack of time to play – maybe 2 hours for 2 or 3 nights a week. Ahead of a LAN event, that’s not a lot. And, as I said, until yesterday we hadn’t even gone over all the maps. So, we just want to get as far as possible. The first goal was to get out of the groups in a good position, and we did that. Then when I’m looking at the bracket it looks like we got the nice section of the draw. It’s not ideal having Power in our bracket, but we played well today with some good team play. It worked really well and our team spirit is up. I think we can go far if every works well on the maps. But it depends on which map you play against who. We’ve seen some upsets already though, like Dignitas, but everything is possible and I can see us in the finals. To motivate ourselves our goal is the final but ideally a top 3 position would be good.

So if you do make it to the final. Who do you think will be waiting for you?

That’s a hard one. There are lots of good teams here, like Fnatic who have won like every LAN.

You say that, but everyone I’ve been talking to has been saying that Fnatic can’t do it. They haven’t been practising etc.

Yeah, but they used to do it all the time. The less you play online the better you play offline. Also, Fnatic don’t play a lot but when they do play its really effective. No one really knows how they play. I think they are professional, but I think at Gamersject they weren’t that serious about it because the conditions were terrible. If you see the scores here, like at SEC, they don’t start that hard in the groups as they don’t show their tactics. If you saw them play the other seed in that group, they smashed them. Back on point though, I think Reason will go far and Dignitas will put their poor start behind them. But I can only really see Reason or Fnatic in the final, with maybe H2k going to have a small chance.

What about the teams that were going to come and surprise people. Are there any teams you think are going to be a surprise package now the brackets are here?

I think YoYoTech did really well in the games they played. But, I’m not sure how far they can go, when the harder games come with more pressure I don’t know how their team spirit will hold up. I think the rage teams are playing well with one team going through in first and one team in second. So they can be happy with how it’s going so far. Cubesports will be disappointed a bit. Their individual skill is good, but the team play hasn’t been too good. Obviously, the Dignitas games were a surprise, and Annexis got a draw against H2K but they, unfortunately, out.

Apart from winning the tournament, if you could do one thing at this LAN, what would it be and why?

Whats that for a question? Haha. Drinking Sambuca with you.

Maybe you have a particular team or person you want to beat?

In the end, maybe I can drop a 30 in the finals. Haha. But the time when I was that good is maybe over. Winning would be great, but looking forward to the event I was looking forward to coming here and having a party. So maybe we can win and then have a big party on Sunday night with lots of Sambuca.