CPL Winter: 69°N-28°E warming up!

Unfortunately, 69°N-28°E missed their chance to show the Finnish flag at last weeks WSVG Finals in New York, but now, they're in Dallas to prepare for the CPL Winter Championship Finals, where they will be playing against the best Counter-Strike teams you could imagine, many believe that lurppis, contE, toNppa, ruuit and their stand-in barrack will have a great shot at a top position among the 64 teams, let's hear what lurppis has to say!

• Introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Tomi Kovanen, I'm 18 years old and I'm playing for 69°N-28°E along with contE naSu ruuit & toNppa. However, due to CPL's age restriction naSu won't be able to play here so we brought barrack with us instead.

• How has the team prepared for the upcoming CPL Winter Finals?

We didn't have any practice after CPL Nordic before coming here (Pre-CPL Lethal Gamers bootcamp) where we've been getting in a lot of practice on last days so we're not as prepared as we should be but we also have a last minute chance at CPL BYOC to practice.

• Do you feel that it was perhaps unfair that the true winners of WSVG UK were not allowed to attend at the WSVG finals?

We didn't actually win, Pentagram did :P. Anyways, of course it's unfair, I don't want to get into this again because I've explained the situation 100 times but naturally we would have liked to attend WSVG Finals as well.

• The CPL will be one of the first events where you are playing under you new tag: 69°N-28°E. Does this add any extra pressure on the team to do well?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't bother anyone at all, we've all been playing long enough to be able to forget about things like that when it's time to play.

• How much of a problem is it that one of your players is only 16 and due to restrictions is unable to compete in some events like the CPL?

It's a performance drop for sure, but how much it weakens us, depends on how well we get our game going with barrack. Right now we're not in nearly as good shape as we were prior to KODE5/WSVG UK/WCG but we're working hard to get there.

• What is your Top 3 for the CPL Finals?

Excluding us, NiP, fnatic and coL.

• These events can be considered as the closing events of 2006. In your eyes are your happy with your 2006 performance and what changes would you like to see in 2007?

Our first half of 2006 basically went to waste so for me, CS wise, the year didn't really begin until July when we formed hoorai. After that it has been pretty good, could have been better but I suppose I'm fairly satisfied with our results.

• Any last words?

Thanks to all of our fans for the support and thank you for this interview.

That's all from lurppis, HLTV.org wishes 69°N-28°E the best of luck!

Remember, stay tuned on HLTV.org for all your needs and wants for live coverage of the CPL Finals. We will be bringing you HLTV, demos on demand and all results and updates as it all happens!