The ExtremeMasters III Continental Finals will kick off on Tuesday. To kill thewaiting time, we have caught up with a few teams, getting an idea ofhow the teams are prepared for the festivities in Hannover, Germany –First up we have the man controlling the red-dot at mTw, Christoffer"Sunde" Sunde.

TheExtreme Masters III has reached the Continental Finals Europe. Youexecuted the Main Round perfect, with 7 wins, out of 7 possible. Willthe constant winning continue at the Continental Finals or is there ateam that will stop you?

Onpaper our group looks manageable and the weaker of the two. With thatsaid we have to step cautiously, I don't doubt that every team has madea strong effort to prepare well for the finals. The only world classteam in our group is fnatic and my guess is that we will be fightingthem for the 1st place in our group.


Therehave been quite a few changes when it comes to lineups the last coupleof months. How do you see the newly formed fnatic and mibr, will theybe a bigger or lesser danger than with their lineups?

Lookingat mibr's line up (red. cogu, BTT, nak, KIKOOO, spacca), I wouldconsider their old line up (red. cogu, BTT, nak, fnx, bit) stronger.KIKOOO was a good player, but coming back from such a long break fromCS is definitely tough. spacca is an unknown player to me, so I don'twant to comment on him. fnx and bit are two good players, which theyhave proved several times. To sum up, I would regard mibr a weakenedteam.

fnaticon the other hand is a lot more difficult to place, they have had theirold superstar lineup, that have shined for them for ages, but latelyhave seemed a bit off track. And now they are here with twosubstitutions (ins->Get_Right & archi->gux). Once in awhilethings have to be changed to keep a good engine running and that's myguess of what fnatic have been doing. They've taken in two players witha lot of motivation and commitment, which might be just what they'velacked. Although things are changing, and hopefully for the better,they have only had short time with their new lineup, and I can't helpwondering if they will be fully prepared for this upcoming event.

We,being a team that have had a good read on fnatic, and often beatingthem, will not think of fnatic as a weaker opponent. Though they mightlack a bit of organization, they will gain a lot of unpredictability.
All in all I think fnatic will be harder for us to play, but might have a harder time playing the mediocre top-team.



Cominginto the Global Finals, Evil Geniuses received a spot after wNv beingunable to show up. Are you ready to take on the Americans and are theAmericans ready to mess with the Europeans after the switch from CGSand Counter-Strike: Source?

Fromwhat I've read and heard, they think they're going to make a comebackas an international top team, and that might not be a lie. Personally Ithink we Europeans might be a bit more humble, and I cannot help hopingthey will stumble a bit on their road to comeback. Having said that,I'm not the kind to hate based on "what I've heard", and I wish themgood luck no matter what. I have never had the chance to play the oldcoL team, so I don't know what to expect from them, coming back from avacation in Counter-Strike: Source. My guess is that they will have ahard time playing against the European teams, and we will of course beready to take on the American legends, should we make it to the globalfinals.


Aftera victory at Kwazq #2, you guys have been bootcamping for a week. Whatwas the goal with this bootcamp? Did you feel too rusty, in the need ofnew tactics or simply just eager to prepare best possible prior to thisevent? In an interview with readmore, solo said that WeMade FOXcurrently practice 12 hours a day. Is this the key to success or canyou simply play too much CS that it will make you vomit?

Wesimply bootcamp to prepare the best possible way, going into a bigtournament like Extreme Masters III. We always strive to update andchange our tactics, to stay less readable, both when practicing fromhome and bootcamping. I'm sure that 12 hours CS a day would make ushate playing pretty fast, and for sure not being the key to success, atleast not for us.



Beingthe team to beat in 2008, mTw are a team which other teams have wellstudied. How are you guys prepared to counter being read, any fancytricks or moves up your sleeves?

Ithink we have a good idea of which teams might know us well, and wealways consider how big the chances are of being read, before doing anold tactic. As mentioned above we update, change around and make newtactics. Also we can use very well known tactics to throw an easy fake.


Youfind yourself in a group without your biggest nemesis’ MYM, Crack Clanand emuLate. You do however group up with fnatic and XLBet.Mirror, willthis group be harder than most expect, looking at the teams in group b?

Iwould not consider MYM our nemesis anymore, but we sure landed in theright group in my opinion. I'm looking forward to see what will happenin group B.



Your expectations for the Continental Finals Europe, who will be the team(s) to watch, top 3 and where will mTw end up?

IfI was a spectator I would watch matches with mouz, fnatic and of courseus. I feel that we are really well prepared for this event; going intothis feeling we have no worst map.
Puttingus in top3: mTw, mouz & SK. Without us in top3: mouz, SK &(fnatic or MYM) - CS being a bit of a day-to-day game I won't putnumbers on the top3.

mTw consist of following five:

Alexander "ave" Holdt
Muhamed "MJE" Eid
Christoffer "Sunde" Sunde
Danny "zonic" Sørensen
Jonas "whimp" Svendsen

If you like to read more about the mTw preparations, then drop by the newly written blog by MJE and whimp.

Makesure to tuned in on Tuesday to watch mTw as they will be playing theirfirst match at the Extreme Masters III Continental Finals Europe,against n!faculty at 10:00CET.