Assemblyihin on jäljellä enää vain 3 päivää ja kilpapelaajat odottavatkin innolla pelaamiselle pyhitettyä Suomen ykköstapahtumaa, vuosikymmenen ensimmäistä 'kokoontumista', eli tietysti Assembly Winter 2010:tä. Kazeshini sai kopin Team Dignitaksen Erik 'appe' Karlssonista ja kyseli hieman tunnelmia, kun h-hetki lähestyy.





Gaming.fi: Could you introduce yourself and your team to our readers.

Moi moi! I'm appe and I play Team Fortress 2 for Team Dignitas along with two fellow swedes and three finns. I've always loved playing online games competitivly, and currently Team Fortress 2 is the game that gives me the most satisfaction on the market.

Gaming.fi: Tell us about your own clanhistory and gaming experience

I started my online career with Team Fortress Classic when I was in my early teens. I went on to play Battlefield 1942, and actually competed against Team Dignitas when the team was newly formed :). I later switched to Call of Duty and had some success on different ladders, before going on to World of Warcraft sadly! I've always played the different Quake games, but only on the side since I've always been busy with other games/teams. I joined up with Fracture in Team Fortress 2 and reached the finals of the ETF2L cup, causing a huge upset. Then I teamed up with some swedes to form Excello's TF2 squad. When that team folded, me and two other Excello guys teamed up with clan Knights to form Übersexuals, and went on to win the third season of ETF2L league. Then I teamed up with my current squad, and here I still am after one year!

Gaming.fi: How have you prepared for the tournament?

We've had a small christmas break since we attended Dreamhack Winter 09 and recently started practising sunday to thursday, at least two games a day. We've been trying to reinforce our old tactics and invent some new that will hopefully suprise our opponents at Assembly. Everyone in the team seems pretty excited about this event, since all the current top teams from Europe will attend.

Gaming.fi: Who do you think is your toughest opponent?

TCM-Gaming is the toughest right now. Their scouts will be even stronger on LAN, and their portugese players will also improve alot going from their standard 80 ping to LAN ping. Power Gaming is always stronger on LAN than online, and they actually beat us last Assembly. The Übersexuals mix shouldn't be underestimated either, and with some luck they could cause an upset in their group. And of course illegal, who have improved a lot since the last event.

Gaming.fi: You attended last year's Summer Assembly, how was it?

It was great! Easily the most professionally run tournament I've been to. The admins were great at taking care of any problem we had. Unlike Dreamhack, who is supposed to be the "THE lan", the Assembly crew took great care of us and it was a real pleasure. I'm looking forward to our return, and I think it'll be even better this time.

Gaming.fi: Your prediction of the top 3?

1. Team Dignitas 2. TCM-Gaming 3. illegal. I expect us and TCM-Gaming to win our groups and reach the final, while illegal will defeat Power Gaming for the bronze.

Gaming.fi: What LAN's will you attend this year?

We'll try to attend all major lans with Team Fortress 2. i39 in April comes to mind. There's also been some gossip about Team Fortress 2 tournaments in France which we'd gladly attend. And hopefully Dreamhack Summer+Winter and later this year Assembly Summer! If there's a lan in America with enough prize money, we'd love to attend that too.

Gaming.fi: What are your goals?

To win the tournament, nothing less. Anything else would be a dissapointment. Aside from the tournament, my goal is also to have a great time and meet all the awesome people from the Team Fortress 2 community!

Gaming.fi: What is the current status of TF2 in eSports?

Team Fortress 2 is sadly still a very underrated game. It deserves so much more than the esport community is willing to give. I'm not really sure why, perhaps people don't take the cartoony graphics and joke weapons seriously? TF2 requires more teamplay than any other esport on the market right now. It's very spectator friendly compared to games like DotA and WoW, and anyone who ever played an FPS can easily follow the action. I'm still hoping that one day TF2 will be recognized by the major tournaments, and thanks to Assemblys faith in the game that might come true one day.

Gaming.fi: Thanks for the interview appe.

Thank you! And a big thanks to Assembly for continuing their support for Team Fortress 2!

Gaming.fi wishes gl hf for appe and his team at Assembly Winter 2010, cu there!