Alchemists le nouveau n°1

First player who had accepted to answer our questions, Gunnar "zEn" Eng is a pleasant  and talkative person, he is ready to tell us everything about the new project Alchemists. Passionate of eSport and particularly the game Counter-Strike, he is an old player from the Norwegian scene, perhaps unknown for many people but with a big potential (he has finished top 16 of the Qpad Tour) and with the desire to overcome. We are going to meet Gunnar, he is 25 years old and live near Oslo. He is an available student who has accepted to talk about his new squad :

Team aAa : How long do you play for Alchemists ? Before it was a mix, and for now it's a real team. Why those changes ?
Gunnar "zEn" Eng : We have started to play together before the Gathering in the middle of march. It's true that at the beginning we used to play as a mix, anyway we have won the Gathering by this way. But after the victory we have decided to take it further with a real team.

And so the second question. Why have you changed your line-up whereas you had won this tournament ? And why did you choose Thomas "Vertigo" Andresen as fifth player, he was against you only somedays before during the Gathering final ?
Well, after the Gathering we didn't wish to continue with the same crew. This is the mean reason about our changes. The chemistry wasn't good at all and you know that is important in a team if you wanna get some place. About Vertigo, we played in the Final  excello, and we have beaten them. After that he left excello and then we took him in since we did not have any 5`th player to play with us

About the chemistry problem, during an interview svikeN (one of the leaving player) didn't talk about that, he was speaking about is motivation to play hard everyday for a team, is it true ? And now with this new squad, do you think you are strong enough to go further and win some tournaments, or you have in your ideas to changed some players soon ?SvikeN is true. He didn't wished to play at 100% for us, in fact the mean problem was with Jonas "pb" Petterson, one of those swedish players. SvikeN thought we were crazy, he didn't have the motivation to follow us and play hard to be better on this wonderful game. About the changes, we will see in the futur. We did an okay figure at the ESWC but we`re not satisfied. We know what we need to do to get to the top and we`re willing to do that. So only time will tell us.

Just about ESWC, what is your opinion about this event ? It was your first travel in a major tournament for all of you.
It was great. Our first big event together. We had a lot of fun in Cheonan, it was very professional. Some lates but the admins had done an excellent job. I am very glad to have been one of the player in there and I think we should make more tournaments in Asia.
Do you think in some weeks your work on CS will be done and you could be the Norwegian come back into the world of top teams ?
I think it will be really better for us in two weeks. The Dreamhack will be our first test. I hope we wil make a good result in there, but I can't really say if we can be at this time with the top european teams, for that we need to play harder and stabilised our results. We made a good figure at ESWC but we don't want to blow it out of purpose.

What is your opinion about G7 ? You are just coming into this ranking (they are 11th), do you think you deserve it or was it too hurry ?
Yes, I am. We were really surprised to learn that. Off course it`s really fun, there was a long time that a Norwegian team have been there. I hope so that we can do better and I believe we can, with a lot of practice and dedication our team can get far.

What is your opinion about eSport in Norway ? It is not like before and you have been the first to be at the top since a long time...
The eSport in Norway is on it`s way up again. I hope at least seeing one more team competing on international level. I`m hopeing excello stick together and do good to, and travels to some big events with us. But the Norwegian eSport scene has a long way to go even now, but there coming

A last word to say ?
I just want to thank my teammates and all in Alchemists. Of course thank you to our sponsors Komplett, Qpad and nextgentel.


The interview is done, now you know more than everyone this team and their goals. Maybe the flag of Norway will be back at the top of Europe, we hope that for them, and good luck to you Alchemists. Now let's see what is the opinion of the rest of this crew. After all those explanations from zEn, we are going to ask to the other members of the squad. The swedish player Christian "floreNz" Shahan was the first who was interesting to interrogate. We wanted to know why this player, who had played beside GeT_RiGhT, FYRR73 or threat, had chosed to be a part of Alchemists for a while :

Christian "floreNz" Shahan : « We played mix on the Gathering and we won it,  then we have wanted to be a team after that. I don't really know I have chosed this team, we played good at the gathering and I wanna try to play with Norway team insdeed of Swedish team, and try if is it better »

So Chirstian is an opportunist, he has always tried to be the best as he can in Sweden, but in is own country I had never been a part of a team in an international event. In Norway he can realized this part of his dream and it is possible with the Alchemists. So he prefer to have good results than to play in his born country. After that we are going to meet Thomas "Vertigo" Andresen, after is swith from excello to Alchemists, we didn't know the reason of this change after the defeat of his old teammates during the Gathering :

Thomas "Vertigo" Andresen : « I got kicked from excello, due to communication problems. At least that's the reason I got from the team... I love to play for Alchemists, it is like a new start for me after such a long time in excello. We have a good chemistry inside the team and all of us love to play CS. »

So is it an excellent news for our players, Vertigo is one of the most known players in Norway, he was playing for a long time in excello and now his experience of high level and tournament is totally for their new teammates. Because Alchemists before him, it was just a concentration of skill and not really something who could be a team for a long time. But give us to them the time to be better, their first test will be the Dreamhack Oslo at the end of May, we hope they will win and will be qualified for the Dreamhack Summer, like that they could fight again the best European team, and why not take their revenge.