TEK9 Answered by cHoObiE and ono of ButtonBashers -

ButtonBashers Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead Chris "nreo" Mead David "ono" McConnell Declan "germaine" Elcocks Jasko "cozje" Berbic

With the event breaking away from competitive Call of Duty 4 for the day, all the top teams that managed to fight their way through the trenches and endless matches yesterday have been given a day's rest to prepare and relax. One of those teams is ButtonBashers, the British youngsters that have caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by both defeating Power Gaming and Fnatic in their first day of LAN play as a team.

To take advantage of waiting for food to arrive, I chose to message both David "ono" McConnell and Thomas "cHoObiE" Mead about how they felt about the tournament so far, what their expectations were and are and what they think will happen tomorrow.

How do you guys feel? Couldn’t possibly have started any better at your first event as a team, did you know you could do this? Even expect you would do this?

Both: We all feel pretty good with the group stages, we did what we needed to do. But we know that we're only half way there and there's a lot of work to be done. We knew we could win if we played our own game and when we faced Power Gaming on our second match of the group stages we knew we could take them head on. We did precisely that and we moved through the group stages without any hiccups. We're brimming with confidence at the moment.

People are complaining a bit about the problems with the streams from the event to outside. Obviously you cannot do anything about it, but could you tell the readers how the event has been for you, who is actually there?

ono: Well, the only real delays were the match servers which kept going down at the start of the day, but other than that there were no problems that I can personally remember, the venue was really great, with it being very close to McDonalds and the admins were amazing apart from being a bit too pushy about us being on time :D

With so many wild and unexpected results, are you the ones who profited from the other teams’ mistakes or is ButtonBashers just the best prepared team?

cHoObiE: Throughout the group stage we were mentally prepared and fully focused from the get-go. I can't personally take our fantastic performances away from us. The whole point of going to an event is to make sure you're in the right frame of mind to win. It's not our problem (nor is it at all in our control) if other team's don't arrive on time and aren't given the chance to prepare themselves (i.e. get a good night's rest) for the groupstages. All I can say is that we performed very well and that we intend to do everything in our power to keep up the good work. We'll see tomorrow just how much other teams were affected by the lack of preparation.

Could you give me your team’s take on Power Gaming? They were arguably the team that let down the most, during the Groups. Will they recover come Sunday or is this a changing of the guards?

Both: They stepped it up towards the end of the groupstage. They definitely have the ability to come back stronger than ever in the playoffs, as it really has been 'their territory' for the past year or so. But it has to be said, this LAN has been the most competitive one COD4 has seen for a while and the skill gap between the top-tier teams (fnatic, TCM, BBashers, Pwr, MS, aNimus) and the sub-top tier teams is becoming smaller and smaller. We can only wait until tomorrow to see if MondialServers knock them out or not, as the French side have displayed some real finesse in their play throughout GWC.

Although we could not see the game itself due to lagging or unable streams, there were scorebots and in the match-up against Power Gaming, paradox seemed the most dominant player of the Czech-Dutch mix. Were you having problems against him or are you confident you can hang with the best of the best, in terms of scopes?

ono: Well paradox played very well in the first half, I only remember him killing me two or three times and I'm sure I killed him more than he killed me. I've been trying to improve all aspects of my game since CIC7 and I feel I can keep up with any scope in CoD4 at the moment, online or offline.

germaine, nreo & cozje looking at TCM-Gaming's newest recruit...

How did you prepare for this event, was it extensive online preparation or did you go in without any real expectations? The element of surprise? What defined your strong opening day results?

cHoObiE: We formed as 'deaglebros' by mid-October and ever since we've been practising online (albeit on-and-off, only having practised two days in three weeks prior to arriving in Croatia), preparing for any offline events that were to pop up in 2011. We all have our own expectations I suppose, but it benefitted me personally to arrive at GWC without any real expectations of my own. I know that our team have the right balance, skillset, and frame of mind to keep progressing towards the latter stages of all events (this one included) and we intend to do our best. Our morale and friendship helped us gel quickly and really focus on the tasks ahead. All in all, our teamplay and unique gamestyle helped us place first in the groups without problems. And from this point on, impossible is nothing (c) cozje.

Who impressed you the most of all the major teams, excluding yourself of course? MYM? MondialServers? Fnatic’s new line-up?

cHoObiE: We haven't really watched much of the likes of mYm, MondialServers, or many other teams in group B. We did pay attention to TCM throughout their groupstage and they seemed to get better as the day went on (they had to face two of their strongest group opponents in their first two matches). robyYE was particularly impressive vs aNimus. MondialServers seem to do well (as they do online) and show real camarederie between them (something which can't be said about many other previous french teams in CoD4). The hardest team to play against in our groups was Power Gaming. They almost made a comeback when we were 11-7(?) up but we made sure that we got the win at the end of the day. Stevy seemed to really carry fnatic when they played against us. I must say fnatic do share a similar style of play with us but I think a lack of practice has really stunted their growth as a team. As we've said before, we can only see who's better come tomorrow evening.

What did you guys do today, did you visit Zagreb or stayed at the hotel to prepare for tomorrow?

ono: We have been travelling around Zagreb a little bit. Our tour-guide (ButtonBashers' Editor-in-Chief, Nedim Begic) told us a view with nice spots to watch. Other than that nreo showed off his great cooking skills when he baked scrambled eggs in the apartment and we bought lots of food. Did a little preparation for tomorrow and are resting now.

What are you expecting of your match against aNimus-Gaming? They had some problems against the top teams on Friday, do you think they are a weaker team now?

Both: Anything can happen in CoD4 so we can't comment on what to expect from the (first) match tomorrow. We'll go in all guns blazing and give them a real good run for their money, that's for sure. We know their playstyle and we've faced off against them before online (an ESH cup final which we won) so it'd be a lie to say we're going in unprepared. We watched them play yesterday and we're confident they haven't changed much (even if they brought in z1KoX for St!ngeR/FireflyzaR we think it was).

Just to add a golden oldie to this kind of interview...could both of you give me your TOP 3 of the tournament?

ono
TCM-Gaming
ButtonBashers
Power Gaming

cHoObiE
ButtonBashers
TCM-Gaming
Fnatic
:DDDD

That is all for now, would like to wish you a good night's rest and the best of luck for the remainder of the tournament from TEK9. Do you have someone you would like to thank or just say something?:

Both: We'd like to thank our sponsors Iiyama, YCN-Hosting, Swoosh, Els, Jamma, and everyone else involved in the ButtonBashers revolution that made it possible for us to attend this event in such a comfortable manner. Peace out!