Perhaps more than any team, hoorai has been through rough times. Their star player Elfi held out with a contract running and joined Gravitas Gaming leaving them in dire straights and since then organizational trouble has crippled the organization. Through all of this the players of hoorai have been fighting through. I asked Mars how he and his players have coped with the situation.

hoorai\Mars

How has your team been since being knocked out of WC3L qualifiers? How is the morale?

The team has been pretty knocked out itself, the players wanted to stay in WC3L so much, they even had high hopes after the somewhat unlucky loss against Gravitas where we were up 2:0 and 1:0 in the 3rd sub-match.
But then losing to a team we would have never expected to be a strong enough competitor just felt so wrong, that on the one side everybody was down to Earth again, but on the other they've been hiding behind the next bush for the last few weeks. Results such as losing 0:4 to LiilD.C alone - who improved a lot, but actually should not be able to take out all our four players - show how the morale in the team developed after the Millenium war.

Are you going to participate in any other leagues instead of WC3L?

Right now we are playing the NGL ONE and the WPL, which both are the second best choices right after the WC3L. We are not planning on attending a 3rd league in the very near future.

Were you satisfied with your results in WPL?

Not at all, but as we experienced with lineups there a little and even had a harsh time when Elfi left us suddenly to gather 4 or 5 players for the wars there, I can see we did "decent". Actually before the season we were aiming for a top 4 position, but one thing led to another. And I got to admit, and I think WPL admins will understand, the players put the least effort into the WPL and were focusing on NGL and WC3L.

You have done well considering the situation with Elfi, do you have any plans to add another player?

If I had the money, I would have added players when Elfi was still part of the team, so he would not have needed to leave the team. As you may know there were several players on the market who would have fit just too well into our lineup, but Hoorai wasn't able to afford them, because other companies had the higher offers for them.

Do you feel you can get back into WC3L with your current roster?

As our match vs Gravitas showed, we could have handled any of the non-Asian competitors. Nowadays there's this huge lack of motivation, also players such as Bro, Diesel and Sein began or are beginning to study and with the 4 guys left it's very hard to slip back in there, especially considering other teams have higher budgets to buy "better" players. The possibilities have been there, Hoorai has missed them all.

In Season 13 qualifiers you made a great run into WC3L, but had a somewhat disappointing run this season; what do you need to do to get back into WC3L and start to win at that level?

Losing to sCa (Last Season, now Attax) felt somewhat unexpected, but it was the same thing I experienced just too often with those guys. Partly being nervous, partly giving 1:0-leads away for whatever reasons they had, partly just playing arrogant.
Nevertheless I am proud those guys made my dream come true: getting into WC3L and somehow repairing my reputation i got after the cheating incident in the WC3L Qualifier 3 years ago (old-schoolers will remember).

The season itself had some good moments (5:0 vs srs) and a lot of bad ones. (getting def loses vs SK for actually won matches because of a disconnect; losing to wicked with a 0-5 score, even losing to PGS and alternate is something I consider unnecessary)

I think we would need 5-6 active players who could play on the same level as the likes of Alternate, Gravitas, PGS. We currently only have four to five (whereas two are hardly active) and can not afford more players. So I guess, when we are going to start winning at that level again. (Sidenote: those four still managed to beat MYM, har har ^^)

You are 1 of 2 teams in NGL-One that are not in WC3L (Delta is the other). What do you feel is the biggest obstacle for you two that kept you out this time? Do you think smaller organizations like you two can compete with the MYMs and SKs now or in the future?

I can only speak for the hoorai team: With their current budget, they can't keep up with the big teams such as MYM and SK, also some wars proved otherwise, in longterm, they'll end up losing. (BTW. we aren't out yet). I don't think there was a certain obstacle, but several happenings that led one to another: Elfi refusing to play against Gravitas two hours before the war - making me unable to find a substitute - him leaving the team sheet shortly after - although having a running contract and at least two friends in the team he's been leaving behind - and yet again a lack of motivation and luck. Although the management made quite some mistakes, like agreeing to matchdates were key players were unavailable or being unlucky with the next map and player choices.