natu: "First goal is to advance"

Leppänen's team has struggled with roster changes for quite some time, and travel to Jönköping with an untested fifth in Marko "makke" Mattila, who debuted with the team in the online qualifier.

Despite not even having an official fifth yet, ENCE took the new SK Gaming roster to double overtime last week, before ultimately falling short. Read on to hear Leppänen's thoughts on the upcoming event.

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?

natu: Considering the timeframe we are working with, a bootcamp is unfortunately not an option for us. We could have used one considering our circumstances with (another) player change recently.

Basically we have been renewing our strategies since makke started playing with us map by map. That's what we're going to continue doing up until the event besides the usual practice regime for most of the days before heading to Sweden. Also once we know who we share our group with, we'll make sure to have an idea of what to expect.

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?

natu: I don't see the break from LAN competition being anything special from the past to be honest, this has been quite a typical pace for my teams for the past years. We haven't actually played many officials between Copenhagen Games and now either, so we've mostly been in the shadows.

I think most of the teams out there know how each of them likes to play the game, so you might want to have an ace or two up your sleeve for the bigger tournaments - but everyone will know what your general approach and tendencies are going to be.

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?

natu: I think it will be the usual suspects for the most part doing what we expect of them. From what I have seen and experienced myself, Virtus.pro is a team you want to avoid. It's simply astonishing when these guys get their game going. It's a combination of extreme individual skill bundled with well executed strategies that you can be sure to have your hands full with. I have felt ever since before Katowice that they became the best oiled machine.

I don't really think there's that many "dark horses" even participating in the tournament, but if I had to name one I'd give the honor to our Norwegian friends of London Conspiracy. They've got plenty of individual skill and if they can get things to click, you don't want to underestimate them.

But there's always the "if" that needs to change - kind of similar to ourselves to be honest :). Also I would not disregard fnatic either, with how they've been bootcamping for some weeks together. They have a very solid track record at DreamHack so you better remember to respect that fact.

Player	Age	Rating
Aleksi "allu" Jalli	22	1.17
Taneli "disturbed" Veikkola	21	1.00
Marko "makke" Mattila	24	0.92
Joona "natu" Leppänen	29	0.89
Jonas "ScurK" Finnilä	24	0.83

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?

natu: I honestly have absolutely no idea. Since up until just a couple of days ago our next event was looming two months away, so we weren't exactly training intensively at this stage. Our practice result-wise hasn't been something I would consider very impressive, but at end of the day tournament victories are not given on practice servers. I think we are the type of team that has the potential to give anyone a run for their money, but it's a matter of pieces falling into the right places for sparkles to fly.

First goal is to advance into the playoffs, then we'll probably be considered an underdog against anyone at this time. All it would take is just a couple of upsets and the world of Counter-Strike would seem very different from a Finnish perspective. There's honestly no extra pressure for us to perform at this event. We give ourselves the pressure of finally getting a decent result with how the past year or so has been.

You’ve struggled in trying to keep a steady roster since the beginning of CS:GO and despite some close matches against top teams struggle breaking the top ten. How do you stay motivated to continue trying to improve?

natu: I don't think it takes a degree in psychology to understand it's been a struggle. For the team and for myself aswell. The thing that keeps me going is that I know from having played CS for like 15 years when there are the ingredients for success. 

The team and also the players previously involved have all made mistakes in judging things which has led to this catastrophe that we've been through. Imagine spending several hours a day together practicing and focusing - especially when most of these guys are in their early twenties. Sometimes it's like taming wild horses :)

Besides more practice, what is it that you are lacking that is stopping you from competing with some of the teams you were neck and neck with in the beginning of CS:GO? Why have they surpassed you in development while you lag behind?

natu: Early on in the game we learned to master the mid-game situations and keeping our heads cool and kept winning a handful of coin flip situations. That's what it simply comes down to most of the time. Then we had players retire and all sorts of shenanigans, as you all know, happened in our previous Curse team. We simply lost some of that and have struggled finding that key again.

Also considering none of us is what you'd consider a professional gamer, as most of us work and have other commitments, we have to and we've had to work with less hours, simply put. As an example, an extreme amount of hours for the past 2 weeks for me is 70. That's some 50 less to what you can do when you can focus "100%" on gaming :). Let's put all this rant into a couple of words: We need to get our crap together. Period.

Coming up next will be an interview with Virtus.pro's Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, with many more scheduled for the next week or so before DreamHack Summer 2014 kicks off on June 14.