LAN79: H2k vazy interview

With the LAN79 Call of Duty 4 competition kicking off tomorrow morning, I managed to catch up with one of the most recognized names from the French scene: Marc "vazy" Berthold.

Marc has been a part of a variety of top European teams over the past years, including Reason Gaming and TEK9, and currently represents H2k Gaming, who are seeded 7th at LAN79.


Hey Marc, thanks for joining me. For starters, could you tell us a little about yourself and your history?

"Hi, I’m Marc Berthold, 20 years old and living in Alsace, where I study Marketing and Trade. I play video games for such a long time that I don’t really remember when I’ve started, but I began playing in a MoHAA team and then switched to cod1, where I played for teams such as DarkElf and inXtremis.

When cod1 died, I switched to cod2, where I played for European teams such as flameinstinct, tek9 and reason gaming for like a year, before switching back to a all French line-up with xG. Finally, in cod4, I started with oXmoze and joined H2k-gaming approximately a year ago."

After getting off to a great start with victories over ZelLion, iCon and Love! (Giants), making it to the Gamers Assembly Grand Finals, H2k lost to oXmoze in two maps. What went wrong? And was it a good learning experience?

"Indeed, we really had a good tournament without any map losses until the final. We managed to take down all our strongest opponents such as Icon gaming, who were able to defeat us online 2 weeks ago, and Love! (now Giants). As for the final, I guess that some of my teammates were a bit nervous, as it was the first final for 2 of our members and the first stage match for 3 of us, so I’m sure you know how hard it is. On top of that, I might have to add that the spectators were clearly against us and it’s pretty hard to play at this level when you have the spectators against you. However, I have to admit that oXmoze were strong and really confident, and that’s why we lost 2-0 during that final.

Anyway, it was a really good experience for us, and a strong practice for the upcoming events (lan79, OOF3 and the Experience). Here you have an example of the general mood of the final (link)."

Monstro99 (the player that took over the scope role from yourself) has been critisised after the Gamers Assembly LAN, where he is claimed to have not performed up to standards for your team, being deemed as an "onliner". What's your opinion on this?

"Hmm, if people suggest that monstro didn’t perform as well as he does online at the Gamers Assembly, then they clearly didn’t watch him play. With an amount of 216 frags and 116 death (ratio of 1,86), I guess monstro performed really well. Moreover, he was top or second fragger in 6 out of 9 playoff matches. I know he’s a great player and really believe in him both online and offline. I’m sure he’ll do a great job again at lan79."

One of the new faces in the H2k team is risky, who replaced karko earlier this year. Could you tell us a little about him, his history and why karko is no longer a part of the team?

"Risky is a long time cod series player, who started to play at the end of cod1 in a rather unknown team. He played for underdog teams during cod2 and cod4 until we decided to give him a chance in H2k-gaming. We decided to replace karko because he wasn’t fitting in the team anymore, causing a lot of troubles with other members and missing some trainings. That’s the reason why we decided to take risky instead of him."

Switching to the upcoming LAN79 event this weekend. Being placed in possibly the toughest group, together with Team CoolerMaster and Giants. What are your expectations and how have the preparations been?

"As usual, we are in one of the toughest group of the event (I believe I’ve always been placed in the worse groups haha). However, we have been training actively for the past 2 months and we’ll do our best to defeat our opponents. A top 2 in our group would be great, and a top 4 placing in the final standings is our objective."

The event itself has been criticized for decreasing the prize purse on such late notice and this even lead to two teams (Button Bashers and fnatic) cancelling their attendance. What is your take on this?

"When lan79 announced the prize pot, they also said that was only in case of enough participants. Unfortunately, some teams thought it would be nice to wait with their payments and didn’t confirm their attendance so they are the only ones to blame ...

Even if lan79 told everyone the prizepot wasn’t guaranteed, it’s a shame to reduce the prize pot 2 weeks before the event, but it’s also a shame not to attend it because of that. We’re not professional players and we’re still playing to prove who’s best, not only to earn money."

Your top3 for the event?

1. Team Dignitas
2. YoYoTech Dragons
3. Reason Gaming

What are the team’s plans for this summer? Is the team attending the Outpost on Fire 3, The Experience 2009 and possibly i37?

"We’ll go to OoF3 and The Experience, but probably not to i37 as it is BYOC, and its a week after both events, that would be a bit too much."

Thanks again for your time Marc and goodluck at LAN79. Any last words?

"Thanks to H2k-gaming, all our sponsors (thermaltake, spam, i3D,  roccat, plantronics, bouncer4you, lowpings and second-vision), and naturally my father, who follows us everywhere, manages us and keeps the team together when our moral goes down."