hooch: "Underdogs in this group"

Dmitri "hooch" Bogdanov from UNiTED found time to speak with us prior to attending Arbalet Cup Europe this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden.

UNiTED qualified to Arbalet Cup Europe with a third place finish at Arbalet Cup CIS, which have put them in with the best teams of the world, in a three-day battle at Inferno Online.

The team recently brought in two new faces, Andrew "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy from DTS.chatrix and the free agent Eduard "ed1k" Ivanov. First test with the two new resolved in the mentioned third place at Arbalet Cup CIS but the team will this weekend be facing a different level of teams, when playing Arbalet Cup Europe.

Bogdanov speaks about the arrival of the two new members and how things changed, but also what he is expecting of the tournament, in this exclusive interview with HLTV.org

Your latest campaign was at Arbalet Cup CIS, where you managed a third place finish with this new lineup. What has changed since the roster-shakeup, allowing you to grab one of the three spots for Arbalet Cup Europe.

We had a really big changes there, no I am no longer in-game leader of the team so our tactics changed almost completely , we pracced only 2 days before event and we were really happy to win this spot.

At the event you eliminated Na´Vi, a team who as of recently have had the upper-hand against almost every team and even went to beat you guys 5-0 in the Best of Four tournament. How come UNiTED all of a sudden went to defeat Na´Vi? Do teams have them figured out by now or what was the key for your team to succeed?

Yeah, it was our 8th game versus them, and all past 7 we were defeated by them , so it was awesome to beat them. I think they weren't as motivated before playing this event and us for example, but still we showed some nice moments and managed to beat them.

When you brought B1ad3 and ed1k into the team, what aspects did the two change in the team?

B1ad3 is our captain and ingame-leader now and ed1k doing damage with awp, me and ROMJkE used to play with awp before ed1k joined, so these two guys brought a lot of new things to our team.

This weekend you will travel to Stockholm, competing in Arbalet Cup Europe, what are your thoughts and expectations about the tournament?

I think it's going be a really great event, with all best worlds team and we are really happy that we have a chance to play there. The place [Inferno Online] is just great, PC’s are good so I can’t think something can make this tournament bad.

You have been placed in group c with SK Gaming, WeMadeFOX and Evil Geniuses. How would you rate your chances of advancing in what many call the toughest group of the four?

We are underdogs in this group, but I thinks it's for the better. SK and EG played semi-finals at IEM so they are the favorites in our group, WeMadeFox weren’t so good at past events , but now with changes I think they can do some damage.

Since your latest show at Arbalet Cup CIS, how have you as a team and an individual been preparing for Arbalet Cup Europe?

We had 2 days rest after Arbalet Cup CIS, after that we played every day from our training base in Moscow.  We went through the maps and tried to practice them as much as possible, also everyone was playing a lot CS recently, csdm, bots and really a lot of gathers at IHL.cs.

The field at Arbalet Cup Europe is absolutely stunning, gathering the best teams of the world to fight it out for big prizes. What are you as a player looking forward to in this particular tournament?

I want my team and me to play our best and beat some good teams at this event and go as far as we can, the opportunity to play the best teams in the world is generating a lot of motivation for us.

At least three teams are quite unknown to many of the European teams (Evil Geniuses, compLexity and WeMade FOX), how do you see the chances of these teams are they possible candidates to go far in the tournament, or should we be keeping an eye on other teams as a dark horse?

EG is really strong team, placing 3rd at last Arbalet Cup Europe and 4th at IEM, so I don't think they are pretty unknown for European teams. compLexity, well no one really knows how good these guys are, but beating EG 16-5 and 16-3 says something. As I said, changes for WeMade FOX can be really good and they can get back to world top.

You and your team have been picked as candidates for e-Stars Seoul 2010, currently taking third place on the poll. Should the numbers keep going in your way, do you think the results can back you up and grant you a spot, or do you see your chances of attending slim?

It feels really nice that we have such nice fans and we were really surprised when we saw how many votes we had. I think the final decision will be brought by organizers, so it’s all up to them who is going to attend. For me it would be really nice to visit Korea, I have never been there before.

When Arbalet Cup Europe finalizes this Sunday, what will be the next event where we can expect UNiTED to show up, and what are the plans of the team in terms of attending events this summer?

After this cup we will have a little break and play ASUS CUP which is going to be a ESWC pre-qualifier, if we manage to secure one of two spots, we will play the final in June, that is our main goal at the moment, maybe we will attend some major events in Summer.