Thanks to PENTA's surprising group stage run at DreamHack Winter 2014, the team secured a spot at ESL One Katowice, as well as the title of the only German team to ever make it to a major playoff.
This time around, their group is much harder, as they will have to face off against at least one of the Frenchmen, EnVyUs and Titan, after their initial match with LGB.
Spiidi and Troubley break down all things Katowice and more
1. How confident do you feel with your preparation going into ESL One Katowice? Are you having a bootcamp or only practicing online? Is there something you focused on in particular (like new maps, individual form, scouting other teams)?
ANSWER HERE. We have been practicing online for a long time now so we feel very prepared for ESL One Katowice. We have something planned for this event so i cant give any details ;)
2. What do you think about your group? Can you go through each team and tell us how you think you match-up against them? Which two teams should be advancing to playoffs out of Na`Vi, fnatic, Vox Eminor and FlipSid3?
ANSWER HERE. I think we have a good group for us. We have faced Na`Vi on lan so many times so we shouldnt be so surprised with their tactics. I have never faced Vox Eminor but i have seen them play and they have big potential to make it out of the groups. Flipsid3 is a pretty new team and i dont know what to expect from them.
3. What is the minimum placing your team will be satisfied with in Katowice? Do you feel any pressure to succeed, will you be extremely frustrated if you fail to reach your minimum goal?
ANSWER HERE. If we reach the final we have reached our goal. But as always we want to win the whole tournament. Of course i will be very frustrated if we dont reach the final but if you fail it gives you more to fight for.
4. The professional scene has probably never been as competitive as it is now going into this major, but who do you think will end up in the top4 (in no particular order)? And who do you see as the most likely surprise, whether to win it all or get out of the groups ahead of some big favorites?
ANSWER HERE. I think Virtus pro, Titan, EnVyUs and urself will be in the top 4. But i wouldnt be surprised if Flipsid3 would make it to a semi/final because they are a new team and you dont know what you get from a new team.
5. Is there a player or two in your team who you will hope to make the biggest impact in order for the team to achieve its goal (whether in terms of fragging, calling the shots, awping, motivating the rest)?
ANSWER HERE. I always enjoy when JW destroy teams. And he have so much impact on the motivation and our gameplay. I really like when pronax gets his “A-game” on calling beacuse he outsmarts everyteam and he lead the team to victory. But as my first answer i want to see JW smash his enemies.
6. After a slump at the beginning of 2015, you seem to have found your previous form recently, did you change something in particular or are the inidividual players simply performing better?
ANSWER HERE. I wouldnt say we have found our previous form but close to it. Near the end of 2014 we didnt play as we used to but for all teams it goes up and down. Me and my teammates brought our inidivual skill on the table last months and just crushed our opponents. We also did some few changes in our antieco rounds beacuse we have lost to many of them.
7. Now that things have calmed down from the last major’s “boostgate”, what do you think about how that all played out? Would you have done anything differently if you had to do it again? Do you some have hidden tactics prepared this time?
ANSWER HERE. This is a past chapter for us and were focusing on the future. A couple of new boosts maybe haha, to be serious yes we have something planned.
8. There has been an increasingly high number of online leagues and cups lately. How did participating in them affect your team, do you think it helped in preparation or damaged you somehow? And how does it affect the scene in general in your opinion?
ANSWER HERE. All the online matches have helped us for our way to Katowice. We had many victories and few losses. In our losses we have sat down after the match and went through what we did wrong and fixed them. But its from team to team how it feels with online games before a big lan tournament.
9. What does your team think about the changes to Overpass and Cobblestone? Are the changes for the better or worse? Have you practiced them?
ANSWER HERE. We all miss de_train, but its good with new maps especially now with the updates and other fixes on them. We have tried the new maps quiet a bit but theyre new so i it can go either way.
10. Do you like the current state of the pistols, Tec-9 and CZ-75 in particular? Would you make any changes to them or are they all finally balanced enough for competitive play?
ANSWER HERE. I would decrease the ammo in the tec-9. And cz-75 is taking to long to switch up. So decrease the ammo in tec-9 and speed up the switch on cz-75.
11. Reportedly the sticker money from the previous major, DHW, was split according to how many of each team’s stickers were sold. Which way would you prefer it this time, an even split between all legends/challengers or distribution per selling amount? Or perhaps you would like to see a part of it added to prizemoney?
ANSWER HERE. Im fine with how it is now but with a mix of now and a part of the money should go to the prizepool.
12. What is your stance on the current tournament system in the majors? Ever since DreamHack Winter 2013, the system has remained the same with a BO1 group stage, as well as a playoff spot securing a place in the next major. Would you change it in some way or keep it the same going forward?
ANSWER HERE. Its almost random in every BO1 so i would like to see BO3 in the groupstage. I mean if you loose both pistolrounds its kind of hard to win, and pistolrounds are very random.
13. Since the start of 2015 the prize money in most tournaments started rising fast. Although no single tournament “outweighs” the majors yet, do you think that time will come? ESL One Katowice will be a huge event nevertheless - do you expect the viewership record will be broken? How many do you estimate will watch the grand final this time (record is around 500,000 from DHW)?
ANSWER HERE. I think this year will be the biggest for CSGO so definitely it will come a bigger tournament with more prizemoney than 250,000$. I think it will be round 6-700,000k viewers. Thank you for the interview!
1. How confident do you feel with your preparation going into ESL One Katowice? Are you having a bootcamp or only practicing online? Is there something you focused on in particular (like new maps, individual form, scouting other teams)?
Spiidi: Due to our recent lineup change, there was only few time for a bootcamp. We met online though and practised almost every day. Overall the atmosphere within the team is very good, which is always a good sign for a strong team. Of course I won’t publish any of our focuses in particular.
2. What do you think about your group? Can you go through each team and tell us how you think you match-up against them? Which two teams should be advancing to playoffs out of EnVyUs, PENTA, LGB, Titan?
Spiidi: We have a very tough group with Titan as a "Challenger-Team" but as we're at a Major tournament , there is no easy group at all. Also there is nothing to say about EnVyUs, as they won the last major, so they can be called the best team in the world right now, at least until ESL One Katowice is over. If kennyS is on fire it's hardly possible to beat Titan but we already played against them on LAN, so we're aware of their strengthnes. I'm excited to play against LGB, because our last matches against them were full of technical issues.
3. What is the minimum placing your team will be satisfied with in Katowice? Do you feel any pressure to succeed, will you be extremely frustrated if you fail to reach your minimum goal?
Spiidi: Our main objective is to get out of the groups again. I'm an very ambitious person but for me I don’t feel much pressure anymore, since I already played several tournaments until now and gained a lot of experience up until now. I would be very disappointed if my team and me won’t manage advancing to playoffs.
4. The professional scene has probably never been as competitive as it is now going into this major, but who do you think will end up in the top4 (in no particular order)? And who do you see as the most likely surprise, whether to win it all or get out of the groups ahead of some big favorites?
Spiidi: In my opinion fnatic, NiP, EnVyUs and Virtus.Pro are the favorites contesting for the title. I'm excited to see how Keyd and CLG will perform. I think one of them may be able to reach the playoffs since they're in the same group.
5. Is there a player or two in your team who you will hope to make the biggest impact in order for the team to achieve its goal (whether in terms of fragging, calling the shots, awping, motivating the rest)?
Spiidi: We just have a chance if everyone shows his A-Game and thats what I expect from everyone, especially from myself. In my opinion we have 5 players, who are able to turn a round singlehandedly although we may be in a slightly disadvantagous situation in this particular round. If I need to name a player it would be kRYSTAL. He’s our AWPer
whereas he also provides outstanding calls and ideas which are very important for our game. If he manages to get us crucial firstfrags we have chances against any team.
6. What kind of differences did you have with strux1, which he noted as the reason for his departure? Who is calling the shots now?
Spiidi: With strux1 as a caller, we had a strict structure within our gameplay, where we couldn’t show our real strengths. Now, calling is mainly up to Troubley. He tries to use our individual skills more than the basic strategies which we created in our practise.
7. There has been an increasingly high number of online leagues and cups lately. How did participating in them affect your team, do you think it helped in preparation or damaged you somehow? And how does it affect the scene in general in your opinion?
Troubley: Official matches are only in one way a good preparation. We somehow managed to find enough time to prepare as best as we possibly could have done. We spoke about the theoretical ways of our gameplay and immediately afterwards we were able to play those stratigies in important official matches. Personally, I would’ve liked less official matches in order to prepare even more tactics. In the recent official matches, we more or less played by impulsive plays of everyone besides only my calls. Overall we found a good balance, because we were able to reschedule a lot of matches.
8. What does your team think about the changes to Overpass and Cobblestone? Are the changes for the better or worse? Have you practiced them?
Troubley: In our recent matches we already showed that we can do damage on these new maps. Cobblestone is still not perfect. There are way to less possibilities in executing tactics. It’s too easy getting punished by the Counter-Terrorists. On the other side, the CTs still are able to show a strong stronghold.
The changes to Overpass are not new, and personally I like the map very much. Recent changes really developed the way the map is played. I won’t go into detail, but I can say that for example entrances are larger and there are more ways to execute your tactics.
9. Do you like the current state of the pistols, Tec-9 and CZ-75 in particular? Would you make any changes to them or are they all finally balanced enough for competitive play?
Troubley: Tec-9 is honestly just ridiculiously strong and should get nerfed as soon as possible. Too many bullets in one clip and a very high fire rate making the weapon way too dangerous.
CZ-75 is, unfortunately, way underused. It is a strong weapon in some certain situations and positions on several maps. In comparison (as T), you are able to pickup either Tec-9 or CZ-75, so why should I pickup CZ-75 if the slightly overpowered Tec-9 is available.
10. Reportedly the sticker money from the previous major, DHW, was split according to how many of each team’s stickers were sold. Which way would you prefer it this time, an even split between all legends/challengers or distribution per selling amount? Or perhaps you would like to see a part of it added to prizemoney?
Troubley: This is up to Valve. First of all we should be thankful that they support us with these awesome tournaments. For “Lower Ranked” teams, of course, it is better, sharing the amount evenly. The “World-Elite” teams though, who are almost guaranteed to place in the top standings of the tournaments, lack some money then, but, as they might be placing in Top 5 within the tournament, they get a higher amount of pricemoney in comparison. So it would just be fair to even it more out in order to satisfy every participant even more.
11. What is your stance on the current tournament system in the majors? Ever since DreamHack Winter 2013, the system has remained the same with a BO1 group stage, as well as a playoff spot securing a place in the next major. Would you change it in some way or keep it the same going forward?
Troubley: Honestly, the system in the major tournaments is just fine. Only the random-third-map in best-of-threes matches allows ways to argument against. The system is always exploidable and always will be.
12. Since the start of 2015 the prize money in most tournaments started rising fast. Although no single tournament “outweighs” the majors yet, do you think that time will come? ESL One Katowice will be a huge event nevertheless - do you expect the viewership record will be broken? How many do you estimate will watch the grand final this time (record is around 500,000 from DHW)?
Troubley: Thats for sure. One can already see that the playercount ingame is rising frequently. Now its up to Valve to implement other tournaments into the game itself, so that they get more attention by a “casual” players. If this happens, we will see new viewer records, hopefully.
It would just be awesome to see “single tournaments” outweighting the Majors. So we would have more frequent hightier tournaments besides the Valve’ sponsored ones to watch. Who wouldn’t like that?
13. Any last words to your fans or sponsors (e.g.)?
Spiidi: I want to thank all our fans who assist us even if we couldn’t bring up nice results the latest weeks. Of course I want to thank PENTA and all our sponsors making this possible for us.
Troubley: Shoutout to all our supporters, PENTA and our sponsors QPAD, G2A and Antec, assisting us as best as they can.
How confident do you feel with your preparation going into ESL One Katowice? Are you having a bootcamp or only practicing online? Is there something you focused on in particular?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: Due to our recent lineup change, there was only little time for a bootcamp. We met online though and practised almost every day. Overall the atmosphere within the team is very good, which is always a good sign for a strong team. Of course I won't publish any of our focuses in particular.
What do you think about your group? Can you go through each team and tell us how you think you match-up against them? Which two teams should be advancing to playoffs out of EnVyUs, PENTA, LGB, Titan?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: We have a very tough group with Titan as a "Challenger team" but as we're at a major tournament, there is no easy group at all. Also there is nothing to say about EnVyUs, as they won the last major, so they can be called the best team in the world right now, at least until ESL One Katowice is over. If kennyS is on fire it's hardly possible to beat Titan but we already played against them on LAN, so we're aware of their strengths. I'm excited to play against LGB, because our last matches against them were full of technical issues.
What is the minimum placing your team will be satisfied with in Katowice? Do you feel any pressure to succeed, will you be extremely frustrated if you fail to reach your minimum goal?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: Our main objective is to get out of the groups again. I'm a very ambitious person, but for me I don't feel much pressure anymore, since I already played several tournaments until now and gained a lot of experience up until now. I would be very disappointed if my team and me won't manage to advance to playoffs.
The professional scene has probably never been as competitive as it is now going into this major, but who do you think will end up in the top four? And who do you see as the most likely surprise, whether to win it all or get out of the groups ahead of some big favorites?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: In my opinion fnatic, NiP, EnVyUs and Virtus.Pro are the favorites contesting for the title. I'm excited to see how Keyd and CLG will perform. I think one of them may be able to reach the playoffs since they're in the same group.
Is there a player or two in your team who you will hope to make the biggest impact in order for the team to achieve its goal?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: We just have a chance if everyone shows their A-game and that's what I expect from everyone, especially from myself. In my opinion we have 5 players who are able to turn a round single-handedly, although we may be in a slightly disadvantageous situation in this particular round. If I need to name a player it would be kRYSTAL. He's our AWPer, while he also provides outstanding calls and ideas which are very important for our game. If he manages to get us crucial first frags, we have chances against any team.
Spiidi thinks kRYSTAL's form will be fundamental for PENTA to succeed
What kind of differences did you have with strux1, which he noted as the reason for his departure? Who is calling the shots now?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: With strux1 as a caller, we had a strict structure within our gameplay, where we couldn't show our real strengths. Now, calling is mainly up to Troubley. He tries to use our individual skill more than the basic strategies which we created in our practice.
There has been an increasingly high number of online leagues and cups lately. How did participating in them affect your team, do you think it helped in preparation or damaged you somehow? And how does it affect the scene in general in your opinion?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: Official matches are only in one way a good preparation. We somehow managed to find enough time to prepare as best as we possibly could have. We spoke about the theoretical ways of our gameplay and immediately afterwards we were able to play those strategies in important official matches. Personally, I would've liked less official matches in order to prepare even more tactics. In the recent official matches, we more or less played with impulsive plays of everyone besides only my calls. Overall we found a good balance, because we were able to reschedule a lot of matches.
What does your team think about the changes to Overpass and Cobblestone? Are the changes for the better or worse? Have you practiced them?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: In our recent matches we already showed that we can do damage on these new maps. Cobblestone is still not perfect. There are way too few possibilities in executing tactics. It's too easy getting punished by the Counter-Terrorists. On the other side, the CTs still are able to show a strong stronghold. The changes to Overpass are not new, and personally, I like the map very much. Recent changes really developed the way the map is played. I won't go into detail, but I can say that for example entrances are larger and there are more ways to execute your tactics.
Do you like the current state of the pistols, Tec-9 and CZ-75 in particular? Would you make any changes to them or are they all finally balanced enough for competitive play?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: Tec-9 is honestly just ridiculously strong and should get nerfed as soon as possible. Too many bullets in one clip and a very high fire rate, making the weapon way too dangerous. CZ-75 is, unfortunately, way too underused. It is a strong weapon in certain situations and positions on several maps. In comparison (as T), you are able to pick up either Tec-9 or CZ-75, so why should I pick CZ-75 up if the slightly overpowered Tec-9 is available.
Reportedly the sticker money from the previous major, DHW, was split according to how many of each team's stickers were sold. Which way would you prefer it this time, an even split between all legends/challengers or distribution per selling amount? Or perhaps you would like to see a part of it added to prizemoney?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: This is up to Valve. First of all we should be thankful that they support us with these awesome tournaments. For "lower ranked" teams, of course, it is better to share the amount evenly. The "world elite" teams though, who are almost guaranteed to place in the top standings of the tournaments, lack some money then, but as they might be placing in the top5 within the tournament, they get a higher amount of prizemoney in comparison. So it would just be fair to even it more out in order to satisfy every participant even more.
Troubley believes the system in majors is fine as it is
What is your stance on the current tournament system in the majors? Ever since DreamHack Winter 2013, the system has remained the same with a BO1 group stage, as well as a playoff spot securing a place in the next major. Would you change it in some way or keep it the same going forward?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: Honestly, the system in the major tournaments is just fine. Only the random third map in BO3 matches allows ways to argument against it. The system is always exploitable and always will be.
Since the start of 2015 the prize money in most tournaments started rising fast. Although no single tournament "outweighs" the majors yet, do you think that time will come? ESL One Katowice will be a huge event nevertheless - do you expect the viewership record will be broken? How many do you estimate will watch the grand final this time?
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: Thats for sure. One can already see that the player count in-game is rising frequently. Now it's up to Valve to implement other tournaments into the game itself, so that they get more attention by "casual" players. If this happens, we will see new viewer records, hopefully. It would just be awesome to see "single tournaments" outweighting the majors. So we would have more frequent high-tier tournaments besides the Valve sponsored ones to watch. Who wouldn't like that?
Any last words to your fans or sponsors?
Timo "Spiidi" Richter: I want to thank all our fans who assist us even if we couldn't bring up nice results the latest weeks. Of course I want to thank PENTA and all our sponsors making this possible for us.
Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert: Shoutout to all our supporters, PENTA and our sponsors QPAD, G2A and Antec, assisting us as well as they can.
We expect to release three more pre-interviews throughout the day, most likely including TSM, Virtus.pro and Na`Vi, as well as the ESL One Katowice preview.
really hope penta makes it our of groups.
they have shown some of their potential lately online and if titan doesnt bring their a-game it might as well be nV and Penta advancing
2015-03-10 18:25
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ESL One Katowice 2015
Vox Eminor: 
Morten 'zEVES' Vollan Christensen
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r4jkkYNWA
hdrss
Pipifax
Ksh666
I_like_to_throw
KirokiMax
globott
7angry
swag-rip-
Allu Akhbar
FRIEDRICH WILHELM
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xander_007
Peruno
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Rogerduterter
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dracø
todor ;)
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piter5
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