nreo at OOF3. Picture courtesy of ButtonBashers.com

TEK9 sits down with Chris "nreo" Mead of Team Dignitas to discuss their recent changes, the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7 and Call of Duty 4 in general.

In addition, Chris talks about his time in the Netherlands, his past teams and explains the situation they were faced with the beginning of this year.

Thanks for joining me Chris. For starters, could you tell everyone a little about yourself and your history?

"Hey everyone. Well my name is Chris Mead, I graduated from the university of Utrecht last June. Since then I've been a bit of a bum, but I'm starting a new job at TomTom next week (22nd) as well as planning on doing a Masters in New Media at the University of Amsterdam next year. I've gamed for so long now, I guess I'm an oldie, but my first fps was CoD:uo, which remains my favourite game to date."

In CoD4 I made a quick name for myself in h2o and then Reason. Since then I’ve played for pretty much the same teams but a few different orgs like the old Crack Clan, Fatgames and more recently ButtonBashers."

You are currently residing in the Netherlands. What made you decide to go abroad in the first place?

"We moved over here because of my Dad's work...seems like forever now. I went through secondary school here doing the IB system, after which I decided that because of all my friends in NL, I would try and study here. Luckily there are some top English speaking Universities over here and I got into the University College of Utrecht. Holland does have its benefits though and the quality of life here is great."

How has the experience been so far? And if you compare the Netherlands to the UK, looking at both the country itself as well as the inhabitants, what are the differences?

"Great really. There's a reason why I've decided to stay here for so long now. Well in terms of the people, it really depends on the area. I've lived in 't Gooi for most of my time in the Netherlands, and some parts are really 'posh'. Most people think very highly of themselves, probably a bit cocky at times. I had a good chat with a local the other day and he says for a lot of Dutch people that try and make it, that it's all about how expensive your car is, how big your house is and how many 'friends' you're perceived to have. Many of these Dutch guys, he says, are lonely in their later life haha.

Overall though most of the Dutch people that I've got to know are great and I've got plenty of Dutch friends. Quality of life is also better in Holland, but I'd say there are more beautiful places to visit in the UK. Overall they both have their ups and downs, but I'm happy here."

Switching over to your current team: Dignitas. You were already a part of Dignitas back in September 2008, only to leave the team three weeks later due to problems with your university internet connection. Was this the sole reason?

"Haha yea, thats a funny old story people keep reminding me of. Honestly yea it really was purely down to my uni connection. I started my 3rd year and on campus we move rooms every semester. No ports were opened so I had to do without net while I fought with the uni officials. I got them open 3 weeks later but they had already replaced me by then. I guess my only annoyance was that I was replaced so soon, but I quickly got over it and it was great to rejoin them."

Button Bashers in the winning mood at Outpost on Fire 3. From left to right: dUffER, nreo, Davy and L-KiNG

Looking back at your time in Button Bashers. Do you feel the performance of Button Bashers at the Summer LAN’s was below average and in your eyes what are the main reasons things did not work out?

"Ah yea for sure. We were disappointed, mainly with The Experience as we had the best support from Pii and all of Buttonbashers, so we wanted to do well for them and for ourselves. To get knocked out early at TeX was a disappointment. Looking back though we lost to Esuba and it could have gone either way, they did well in the end and knocked out some other big teams like Dignitas, so we were just unlucky to meet them early on in my opinion.

At Outpost on Fire we had a good tournament and really should have beat Dignitas if they hadn’t changed it up and put raz on A. We were 10-5 up and just couldn’t break them down after they adapted. I wouldn’t call our results below average though, as we did come 4th at oof. At the end of the day tournaments are won and lost by the tightest of margins."

There has been lots of criticism regarding large organizations paying out prize purses and apparently a few of the Button Bashers players are still experiencing problems with their ESL EPS season 1 money. Could you clear this up for us?

"Well with myself and Duffer we played season 1 with Juszn and Fatgames. I shouldn’t really comment at all, but there have been problems with Juszn apparently not receiving the 650 pounds. Although ESL claim otherwise, its really something that has to be cleared up between themselves, though every other team has received their season 1 money.

The season 2 money looks to be paid okay, as most parties involved know about. Overall the EPS is a great tournament and is fantastically run, I’d hate to see prize payments ruin what was a great experience for everyone and what is really needed for CoD4."

Before you joined Dignitas in October last year, did you ever consider playing with your brother (Thomas "ChoObiE" Mead) again?

"Yea all the time. We played together in UO and that was great, I taught him everything I knew and he loved the game. We then started CoD4 together and built a really fun hardworking team with nightwalker, pjie, oberto and ourselves. I’d definitely want to play with him again at some point before we both quit."

Switching back to Team Dignitas. After rumors had already been circling for some time, in the first week of January Robin "robyYE" Swaters was brought in to replace Chris "blackmane" Kinnair. Could you shed some more light on the situation the team was in and why blackmane had to go?

"I think Phan summed it up pretty well in an interview he did the other week. We owe alot to BM as he brought myself and Phan in, but we were warned by the rest of the guys that his temper can bring the team morale down. He’s always been a big player for Dignitas and while he can motivate players, he can also bring them down, which doesn’t help anybody.

It really wasn’t an easy decision to make but we all agreed it would be better for us in the long term, we needed a change. Finding a suitable scope at the time wasn’t easy, there was one we really would have liked, but that didn’t come off. Luckily for us Robye expressed an interest, as his team folded and we got the right man in the end."

Mark "mark" Horner left the line up a week later and was replaced by Declan "germaine" Elcocks. Were you expectating to keep the lineup as it is when adding Robin, or was the team already in search of a replacement for mark?

"Haha, no that really came out of the blue. We were happy to start moving forward with the line up we had then, but Mark randomly tells us he's off to Cyprus to work for an old MYM friend. Honestly I thought it was a classic case of ‘bait’, as I didn’t believe him until about 10 minutes into the conversation when he mentioned way too many details for it to be one. Ultimately he wanted a change in his life and there is no better way then moving abroad, gaining work experience and exploring a Mediterranean country. Simply put, we all understood his decision as it was an offer he really couldn’t refuse."

You mentioned you had another scope in mind. Could you tell us what other players were considered to replace both blackmane and mark?

"We only really had one other scope in mind bar Robye and it would be a bit disrespectful to his current teammates if I publicly mentioned him and everything else I feel. I’m sure people know who I’m talking about, but all I’m gonna say is he's a top scope and will go very far in CoD4.

In terms of Mark we really didn't consider anyone but Germaine, everyone knew him, his capabalities and his teamwork ethic, so we jumped at the chance of picking him up instantly. Same goes with Robye honestly, we wanted him but knew we couldn't have him as TCM were doing well with their new line-up, so when the opportunity arose we snapped him up."

Team Dignitas seem to be in very good shape as of late. How are the new additions fitting in and how far is the team in their preparations for the Crossfire Intel Challenge 7?

"We’re definitely trying. We know the expectations that come with the Team Dignitas tag and we want to fulfil them. But, at the same time we’re realistic, still gelling, and honestly, we’re still very much a new team. So while 3 of us have played together for a while we really had to start from the beginning in mixing and matching different playstyles to try and work towards compatibility.

"If you don't aim for something or put goals in place and look to what areas you need to improve - you won't improve, no matter how much time you play"

We’ve been labelled TCMnitas far too many times I feel but the team is very different in how we go about things when playing. Just because 3 players have played together before doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a spawn of Vasquez or Raz is a duplicate of Twist. We’re all different players and thats what makes this team unique.

We’d ideally like more time to prepare but I’m sure that's the case with every team. At the end of the day there's only so much you can do or know before you start forgetting or over complicating things. We’ll just keep playing the way we do and hope that the hard work pays off."

You were recently ranked second in Europe, behind Powergaming. A good reflection of the current state of the European scene or do you feel you deserve the top spot at the moment?

"The rankings were a bit confusing and for the most part in everyone’s eyes flawed. Of course personally I may see my team as being up there, but at the time we had only just finalised the line up and only played an official match some 2 weeks after the rankings were announced. Cadred just need to clarify how their top 10 works. At the moment if you would say it aims to reward the most active competitive teams with the top spots (Power Gaming), but then you see us as 2nd, when we were just as inactive as Fnatic at the time. So maybe the whole voting system should be reviewed.

Personally I’d like to see it purely based on online and offline activity. If you’re not active, you shouldn’t get a vote. We’ve been seeing a lot of it now, so the rankings will be more representative of where teams are after CIC7."

What does the team’s practise schedule look like for the coming three weeks?

"Really just playing as much as we can together whenever we can. A lot of players and teams I talk to may complain about how little time they had or have, but honestly it’s not about how much time, its about how you use your time. I’ve been in teams where we really just zombied about the server for hours on end, or elected to play war after war, and considered it practice. If you don’t aim for something or put goals in place and look to what areas you need to improve – you won’t improve, no matter how much time you play."

Which teams and players do you expect will impress at CIC7, judging from your recent practise games?

"So many, CoD4 has changed since last summer. Team play, discipline and little tricks or spots all play bigger roles than before. I can see Fnatic doing well as expected, Zenith is a strong pickup, but I'm also sure they'll play slightly differently compared to their last outing.

I can see H2k going far, qli and miracle will be big players for them. Power will also be up there, but they'll have to
be careful they don’t slip up against lesser opposition on their weaker maps. They’ve been undone rather quickly online and lost a map to a mix at LAN. Despite that though, they’ll do well as they’ve gelled together throughout this time and learnt from their mistakes. On their day teams like NCE and Corgz can also perform, but I expect NCE to surprise people."