THOR Open: Group A interviews

With THOR Open coming up in just two days, we have caught up with a member of each team placed in group A at the upcoming event to see what they think of their chances in the event.

Group A features the reigning world champions Ninjas in Pyjamas, recent 5-8th placers from DreamHack Winter 2012 in Copenhagen Wolves, as well as the former Hawks team now known as Curse, and Swedes gosu.

As only the top two teams will advance to the single elimination best-of-three playoffs, two teams are bound to go home disappointed. Who will they be? Read on to find out what the teams themselves think.

How has your team prepared for THOR Open specifically? Have you bootcamped or only practiced online? Have you watched demos or streams of your opponents playing to prepare for them?

NiP-Xizt-: We have only been playing online for THOR Open, we decided it would be best not to bootcamp since we have so many events in a short amount of time. We usually don't try to anti strat teams since that isn't our style, I believe it's better to focus more on yourself than your opponents. We already know how most teams are playing in general, we know what tactics works against who etc. I would say our biggest strength is adapting in the middle of a match, if we are losing 0-8 we can easily turn that around once we've figured out how the opponents are playing. 

Copenhagen Wolves gla1ve: We havent prepared for THOR at all. We havent played a single time because i have been on holidays for a week and when i came home i had some family issues. I didnt touch CS:GO a single time after Dreamhack (was ingame half an hour today though)

Curse natu: Since we didn't know about our attendance untill just a couple of days ago we haven't done any special preparations, but just practiced normally online as we have had plenty of online games in various leagues. Same goes for scouting our opponents, we've only been aware of the group for a "few hours" so nothing special yet there either. I'm sure we'll have a look leading upto the event and have a gameplan ready once games go live.

gosu cayzer: We play with a stand-in for THOR open and has only played with major in one week now so our preparation panels for THOR open are not the ultimate but we'll do the best we can! Unfortunately, we have only practiced online then waver chose to leave us and we now go with stand-in.

Can Xizt's NiP stay undefeated throughout the entire 2012? 

How do you think your team will realistically do, given the group draw and tournament format? Is there anyone who you think will surprise or disappoint from what many might expect from them?

NiP-Xizt-: Everyone is expecting us to win, our sponsors, our management, ourselves and all of our fans so we have alot of pressure. I think this could be one of the hardest events we will attend so far since we will mostly be facing Swedish teams and I think it's difficult for us playing local teams. I can't name a specific team that I think will surprise or disappoint since I have no clue really. Anyone could win and we will have to work extra hard to come out on top.

Copenhagen Wolves gla1ve: We got without a doubt the hardest group to win. We can end 2nd but we need to play our best and it will be hard without any pracctice at all. We will just play standard and trying to do some calls ingame but we will have a hard time beating all the teams in our group.

Curse natu: I think we should have all the assets to make into top2 this time, but anything can always happen. I really like our group, I'm looking forward to facing NiP as it's always the best part of gaming to face the ones that are considered best. The other two teams are capable of doing damage so we have to play our best to make sure no funny business happens. You know I'm not sure if there's anyone particular I think will do exceptionally well or bad - but I'm looking forward to see how Lemondogs fare.

gosu cayzer: We are the underdogs in our group and have nothing to lose and I think that is to our advantage, because we are in a very tough group. I think that Copenhagen Wolves could surprise NiP and give a real good game. We have practiced against them and even played in the same group as them at Dreamhack and they're a really good team.

Copenhagen Wolves' preparation has been troublesome 

Can you tell us what you think about each team in your group? Who do you think is going to be your toughest opponent and which match are you looking forward to the most?

NiP-Xizt-: We have a pretty tough group. All of them have been performing alright on previous tournaments except gosu who I don't know so much about. I think we will have some tough matches vs the Finnish and Danish team and maybe gosu can surprise me. I'm looking forward playing all of them so I can't really give out a favorite!

Copenhagen Wolves gla1ve: Everyone know who will be the toughest opponent for us, and it will of course be NiP. I hope we can get some rounds against them and maybe show that if we played a bit more we could do heavy damage to them. I saw on facebook how much Hawks searched for pracctice almost every day (without friday and saturday ofcourse) and they should do damage to NiP with so much pracctice. Gosu is the match i am looking forward to most because we won last time and i hope we can get a victory in the group this time aswell.

Curse natu: Kinda answered this in the previous question but I'm definitely looking forwad to meeting NiP. They are considered a level above everyone so of course I want to test myself and my team against them and see what happens. To be the best you gotta play with the best! Copenhagen Wolves is not to be underestimated either, eventhough we just beat them quite big in SLTV, there were loads of situations that could've gone their way and made the game thighter. Gosu I know the least about but I'm sure they're going to be pumped up and ready so we gotta stay sharp.

gosu cayzer: NiP and CPH Wolves're obviously favorites in our group. NiP is currently the world's best CS: GO team so it will be a very difficult match but also a lot of fun, I know both Friberg and Fifflaren from source and it is really nice guys! And as I wrote earlier, CPH Wolves a really good team. The Hawks or Curse as they're called now, I have no track at all, I only know about the team is that they have good 1.6 players.

natu's Curse are hoping to improve on their DreamHack showing 

Is there something specific you have been working on as a team since your last tournament that you think will help push you over the top?

NiP-Xizt-: Not really, we will just continue as we have previously done. I think it's important for everyone of us not to get ahead of ourselves and keep working hard. We can not underestimate any team and we have to focus 100% all the time.

Copenhagen Wolves gla1ve: Haha, i actually already answered this question. But yes there actually is a few things i worked on with my self. Nothing that i have shown to the other players of the team but i will at the hotel. When we arrive to the hotel i will just show them some gunrounds and Anti-ecos and ecos. That is the only thing we have time to change right now.

Curse natu: We've studied our games from DreamHack and acknowledged the mistakes we did and I think our midroundplay both sides has been awful. That's where these games are decided so our focus has been on making small adjustements, better communication and basically just improving on playing well as a unit. If and should we keep the level we've had as of late in those particular aspects - I'm 100% sure we're going to be a tough opponent for anyone out there.

gosu cayzer: We have learned a lot since Dreamhack, we should calm down in stressful situations, that's what we've been working mostly with.

cayzer & co are in a tough situation heading into THOR Open 

Do you think it's dangerous to attend so many events in such a short amount of time with DreamHack, AMD Sapphire Invitationl, THOR Open and then NorthCon? Are you afraid you could need some more practice or will you be able to stay undefeated throughout the rest of 2012?

NiP-Xizt-: Yes, it could affect our performance but I don't think so. It could have been worse but we are only traveling in the EU so the flights aren't so long and we are only staying 2-4 days max each trip so we have alot of free time to go home, relax and practice as usual. 

I'd like to give a big thanks to our awesome partners who make everything possible for us: Telia, Steelseries, BenQ and CDON! Also I'd like to give a shoutout to all of our fans, you are awesome too! 

Many expected you to put up a fight against mousesports at DreamHack, if not win. Is there any specific reason why you might think your team didn't perform as well as expected in playoffs? If so, what have you done to make sure it doesn't happen again?

Copenhagen Wolves gla1ve:I know the reason about the mousesports game and i dont want to tell why we lost. Of course they played really good and i wont take anything away from them. But we could have won that match if we did some other things (not only ingame).

You came close to beating VeryGames at DreamHack and then fell short against Absolute Legends. Do you think that was at all a mental issue after throwing away the first game? What have you done to avoid that at THOR Open?

Curse natu: Been around for 10+ years and played a dozen of events - I could feel the lack of adrenaline when we played against Absolute Legends. Like I said in the previous answer, our midroundplay was just horrible and inability to adjust according to their gameplan cost us big time. VeryGames match I didn't really get too bothered personally, I felt we had that game but we couldn't close it out. I guess my teammates were more bummed about it. We've talked about it and we will make sure similiar mental issues aren't an issue next time around.

Your team struggled at DreamHack Winter as you only scored a tie against Curse, and have since then lost your statistically strongest player, Anton "waver" Wiberg. How does Andreas "major" Major differ from Wiberg, and what does he bring that can help you do better this time around?

gosu cayzer: Anton was obviously a very good player and it is sad that he left, but good luck to him in the future and to his new home in Western Wolves. Major brings a lot of experience to our team, and that's exactly what we need and he is also a very good player individually so he was the perfect choice.

THOR Open kicks off at 11:00 on Saturday, with NiP taking on Curse and gosu facing off against Copenhagen Wolves. HLTV.org's pre-event coverage will continue before we travel on-site for full coverage of the event.