MSL: "We learn a lot each day"

Former Western Wolves member Lauridsen teamed up with the current Reason Gaming roster in time for the closed DreamHack qualifier, and bested both k1ck and SK Gaming to qualify.

We caught up with him to find out how he feels about his team's recent roster changes, their preparation and their chances at making noise at DreamHack Summer, and more.

How have you prepared for DreamHack Summer; do you feel ready for the event? Have you only practiced online or also bootcamped? How do you plan on spending the remaining time before the event kicks off?

MSL: The first game we played together was actually in the first qualifier to DreamHack which we won. After that qualifier we have practised every day to be ready for the final qualifier and a local Danish LAN we attended. So we have practised a lot in a short time and we will keep practising every single day up until DreamHack starts. Unfortunately we can't bootcamp because of exams and work.

We don't have much teamplay yet, but it feels like we learn a lot and get a lot better each day. If we can get a lot out of the last 11 days of practise, I think we will do some damage and surprise everyone!

Do you believe the lengthy break from LAN competition since Copenhagen Games will affect the results at DreamHack in any way, or does constantly playing official matches online make up for it? Are you afraid of giving up your game plan too much online?

MSL: I think it will affect the results at DreamHack for some teams, the teams that use a lot of time on planning new things and making new tactics all the time. But in the end, people know each other's gameplan, so its all about timing and who is hitting their shots at the right time. fnatic have always been good at DreamHack and with a long bootcamp and not any LAN in a month or so, I think they will be one of the teams to affect the results based on that question!

We haven´t been playing anything online other than the DreamHack qualifier, so there is not much to give up. We constantly change tactics, make new things and I hope that will be our force at DreamHack, people not knowing what we do! :)

Who do you think will be your toughest opponents at DreamHack? Any potential dark horses who have seemed particularly strong lately that you think might surpass everyone’s expectations in Jönköping? Anyone who might disappoint?

MSL: At this moment I feel like the top contenders are so close to each other at least when we practise them. There's no one where I think "they will win for sure", so I think it's all about who hits their shots on the day as said earlier. But our toughest opponents at DreamHack would be Virtus.pro, Na`Vi and NiP, since I don't like playing those three teams. I like playing against Titan and had always liked playing against them, so I actually hope to meet them.

If there is one to surprise I think it will be fnatic, they have done it each time, or at least they have surprised me each time at DreamHack playing insanely good! If I should take someone who might disappoint, it would be Titan; I don't believe in the new lineup or old one as you can say!

Player	Age		Rating
Mathias "PnX" Pedersen	18		1.04
Nichlas "Nille" Busk	18		1.00
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen	19		1.00
Casper "cadiaN" Møller	18		0.96
Nicolaj "EXR" Therkildsen	20		0.95

What do you make of your chances at DreamHack? What would be a realistic goal for your team, and what would you be ok settling at? Is there any extra pressure for you to perform well at this particular event?

MSL: There are big chances at this Dreamhack since LDLC, Dignitas, leftovers and some others are not there. This is the event I think we have the biggest chance of doing any damage! It's all about who we face in the group, but a realistic goal would be going through to quarter-finals.

That's a goal I really hope will happen since last time it happened for me was in Western Wolves, IT'S TIME! We will not be happy ending up at a 9-12th place once again. There's no extra pressure other than from ourselves, we really want to perform this time and show people that we can win versus the best teams.

You have recently lost two strong players in aizy and Pimp right after announcing your new roster and picked up the duo of cadiaN and PnX. How do the two new players compare to the better known aizy and Pimp who departed the team?

MSL: Pimp and aizy have of course more experienced than cadiaN and PnX, but I actually think that we are better with this lineup due to more motivation and people wanting to learn. cadiaN is a really good awper, better than Pimp was at that time. PnX reminds me a lot of aizy, both huge talents with sick aim, who just need to learn the last bits of teamplay and communication.

I actually think we got two players that are really close to the two players that left, but Pimp and aizy have of course more experience and have learned the things that PnX and cadiaN still need to learn! That said, I really like playing with PnX and cadiaN because they are motivated and really good :).

You overcame k1ck and SK Gaming in the DreamHack qualifier right after changing two players. How much of a factor were these wins and qualifying for DreamHack in deciding to recruit cadiaN and PnX?

MSL: It was the most important thing to qualify for DreamHack, but we would have recruited them no matter what, because we felt that we played sick together. PnX is an aimstar and cadiaN shoots a lot with the AWP, so after Pimp and aizy left, we quickly found out that we wanted to play with those two.

Qualifying for DreamHack just made our team come quicker to life! But the victories against k1ck and SK Gaming helped get us much more motivated and made us think that after some months we can really do some damage, because beating them was with only one week practising! :)

DreamHack Summer will kick off on June 14 in Jönköping, Sweden. We will continue releasing interviews on a daily basis leading up to the $30,000 tournament HLTV.org will be covering on-site.