Hej og god dag Mathis, hvordan har du det?

I am doing all right, thanks!

Okay, I have to admit that my Danish isn’t as good as making a Scandinavian interview, much less a Norwegian chat. Let’s start with the basics: Who is LnK? What does he do? And where lives he?

I'm Mathis Edel and I live in Southern Norway. I'm the team manager of the German team TBH.eSports, who just attended the ESL Pro Series Finals. I'm still going to school and working a bit when I have time.

So you are living in Norway, how do you manage to travel abroad for your team? How to cope traveling hundreds of kilometers with your real life?

It's really cool to attend events in other countries like Germany, Denmark or whatever. I like to travel around and see and meet new people, so yeah, I like it! My teachers aren't the most enthusiastic about it, because it means I have to take some time from school when I attend international events.

You are the youngest team-manager in the EPS by far, your roots spread also in your homeland being manager of Team Norway in the European Nations Championship, as well assistant manager in NoA. Do you think it was a special situation for oneself to have the opportunity to start into the business young aged? Do you and have you gained a lot of experience in those three gaming teams or do you think that management is always the same?

My friends ask me how I chose to fill the team manager's spot, and not try to play myself and attempt to reach the top as a player, but I have to say that I really like to organise and manage my team. Of course it's important that we all are friends, if that had not been the case, I would not use as much time with these things. I'm still young, but I don't think that means anything, nor does it play a huge role as in other working areas. I really love my job, and I'm doing everything to help my team. I and the other Managers are all working together, so I hope they are satisfied with my work, like I am with their work.

Besides, you are nominated for EPS’ best team-manager award – How important do you think this honor is to all involved? What chances of winning the do you think you have?

All team managers have done a really great job, so I don't expect that I have a greater chance than the other managers. But of course, I hope that I am going to leave for home with the manager award tonight.

Do you like the location? How do you see the venue out of the eyes of a manager and in contract out of spectator’s eyes? What would you improve the next time?

The new system with "Playing on the stage", hasn't worked as well as I hoped it would. I saw the system already with the Sennheiser headsets and the players on a stage in front of all the specctators at the ESWC last year. So I thought it should work like that, but it didn't. It was more like the other way round - we had a lot of problems with the headsets, due to the fact that the sound wasn't the same as playing with a "normal" headset. It was more like a helicopter headset, with bad quality. I hope they are going back to the old setting, with Gaming Rooms and normal headsets. In addition, another improvement would be to seperate the the commentators from the players and their stage.

Back to the competition and your team – Team Bavarian Heaven (TBH). The team improved as a unit season to season from a weak eleventh place over to sixth and then now third at the moment. In addition, your organization was the only one, not undergoing roster changes. Do you think a team needs more than a season to develop itself and to improve? Buoyancy could have been detected already in your second season (EPS X), however, would you ever have dreamed of such a boost or did the everlasting process of fellowship and improvement makes this happen?

If the team improves steadily, then we are doing everything right, like we have done the last three seasons. If we are placing eleventh again the next season, then we are doing something wrong, and have to undergo changes.

Just minutes ago you lost 05:16 to Team Xilence in the lower bracket round 1, now you are out of the tourney and have to leave with a fourth placement. How does it feel to suffer defeat against the company's team and what do you have to say about the team’s performance?

Our aim is to be one of the four best teams in Germany, and attend the EPS Finals, and we have just reached that goal, so I'm glad that we achieved this goal, to be one of the four best teams. We didn't play that well this weekend, as the audience expected, but it was our first EPS Finals, so we didn't expect to place first. Next time we are here, I'm sure we will do better!

There are some rumours that came up after the press-conference hold by TBH that gerdi will leave his organization and joins in another German EPS team. Can you introduce us into details?

I haven't heard something about that, and I don't think that is going to happen. As far as I know, the team is going to stay together the next season, too.

TBH already participated in the GameGune 2007 LAN event surprising a lot of International top-teams, how does the squad’s future look like on an International level next year?

Our goal is to be one of the best teams in Germany, but of course it is important to visit some International events as well. I think we are going to try to visit as many International events in Europe as possible.

Mousesports is considered by a broad range of the community to be this time’s favorite; they went through the whole season without losing a single match – after fifteen playweeks the squad got fortyfive points credited to their account. However, before the current season, the team did huge changes within its lineup replacing silver and Blizzard with gob and cyx; even though the division looked strong on paper, they haven’t played Germany’s best. Their skill and talent combined with the ability to integrate oneself in a team – a working team – is extremely rare to follow. In the end mouz did it and wears the tag of Germany’s powerhouse. What factors play an important role concerning mousesports’ course, in your opinion?

Mouz did really well for themselves when they signed cyx and gob, who both are considered to be some of the best players in Germany without a doubt. They built a stable and really good team, who performed well this season. I think the way mouz built up their team could not be topped at first, it was almost perfect.

How do you like the ESL Pro Series league format in general and if needed, what needs to be fixed?

The ESL Pro Series is the best online/offline league by far. They have done really well to develope eSports in Germany to the level that it is today, and they are still working to get eSports to the same level as other big sports.

Thanks for taking time Mathis, the best of luck to you and your team!