Hello ave, first off congratulations for the 1st place at ESWC Masters of Paris. Could you start out by making a brief introduction about yourself?
Hi! My name is Alexander Holdt, probably better known as ave. I’ve been playing CS for around 6 years, and I’ll soon be on my third year playing for mTw/NoA. At the moment I’m playing CS fulltime, but I’ll start to study IT-engineering soon.

There should be a certain rivalry between mTw and fnatic, much since you are the two international top teams from Scandinavia. How did you feel the seconds after you won the ESWC Masters of Paris?
Of course I was happy, but I couldn’t help being a little bit annoyed because I screwed up the map-choice. When we went to pick the maps I was sure they would remove either dust2 or tuscan, so I removed train as the first map. Fnatic removed nuke and inferno, so we had to choose between tuscan or dust2. We hadn’t played either of the two maps for about three weeks, so I got kind of embarrassed I could be so stubborn. Anyways things turned out our way, so it was a great relief.

It’s the second time during a short period this year that mTw beats fnatic in the grand finale of a major event, do you think it will be a recurring occurrence?
It’s hard to tell. Fnatic is a team we practice a lot against, so we know their playing style. They are a top professional team so they’re in constant development, as we are. I guess it all comes down to who has the better day.

You managed to bring home the victory against them; can you tell us more about the match – what went wrong/right?
First of all we got lucky to start as terrorist, since it’s our better side on that map. In the pistol-round, we started off real slow and caught their offensive push on A long, which got us in a 5on4 situation. Eventually, we made a 5-man push on the B bombsite and won the round quite easily. The rest of the match we proceeded to play slow, and that way kept them from getting firstkills. I believe their aggressive CT-side did benefit us, since it didn’t have to come down to how well we executed our tactics, because we always had them outnumbered.

Your opening match was against the French team named Get2Gev where you almost lost it. Was it underestimation that took part during the match?
Hmm, I believe we closed the match at 16-14 or something like that. We kept trying to get more rounds, but we wouldn’t expose our new tactics as much, so I guess it made us lose some rounds. Besides that, we have a tendency of being a little rusty in our first match at big events, but we know this, so hopefully we’ll improve in that area.

Did the ESWC Masters of Paris live up to your expectations? If not, what should they have done better?
ESWC Masters definitely lived up to my expectations. It’s always very exciting to play on a big scene and in front of thousands of cheering people. Also, I’m very satisfied with their choice of CRT monitors instead of TFT! I have no complaints.

mTw received autoberths for the ESWC Grand Finals in San José and is your next upcoming major event. How will the preparation be like and what are your chances of winning?
We’ll start practicing again the 1st of August. Besides bootcamping, our preparation will include some tweaks and changes in tactics and also adding something new. Furthermore, a great deal of the practice is getting better individually and team play-wise. As far as our chances of winning, I believe it will come down to who has the best day between fnatic, MYM, SK, mouz, us and eSTRO – as well as who has gotten better lately.

Realistically how do you think you will do at the event?
I believe we belong to the top3. If the tournament is BO1 Single-Elimination like in Paris there would be a risk of us ending up top16 or something like that, on a bad day. Lately, we saw MYM being unlucky in the group stage of ESWC Masters, so we know we have to not get complacent early in the tournament. If we play to our full potential it would take a great team to beat us, so hopefully we’ll play some exciting matches late in the tournament!

The ESWC has a first place prize money sum of $40,000, what would you do with your share of the money if you finished first place?
Good question :P. I honestly don’t think that much about what I would do with the money. Probably save up some money for the apartment I’m going to move into it next summer, and maybe buy some new clothes and random stuff.

mTw has had some difficulties to claim a spot amongst other top teams, internationally speaking, but this year has been quite successful. What do you think is the reason for this accomplishment and how are you planning on keeping it?
The reason for our recent accomplishments is hard work and I believe we’ve been close for around a year before our breakthrough at KODE5, flying under the radar.

In my opinion it’s a lot harder to be defending champions than a one-hit-wonder. Every time you win a tournament people will tend to make you “the team to beat”, which makes it a lot harder. In peoples mind only wins will be satisfying and a loss would be an upset. It’s actually a hard status to keep, because the skill level of your team differs from day to day. We’ll keep practicing a lot and try to improve; time will tell how it turns out.

How much are individual skill, team play and tactics in general important for the professional Counter-Strike gaming scene?
I believe all three aspects are very important to be a successful team. Being a professional team you certainly weigh the different aspects differently. In my mind I find team play most important since the game is so fast and you need to be on the same page as your teammates, for example for timing the re-take of a bombspot or being placed properly in an after-plant situation. I see a lot of teams who probably has better individual skills than some professional teams, but they aren’t close to having the same kind of teamplay, which makes their skill insignificant.

What advice would you give semi-professional players to take their game to the next level?
I would advise them to be patient with their game. Great skill doesn’t come over night, so don’t be too hard on yourself. I also find it really important to always focus on improving. If you think about what you could do better in certain situations each time you mess up or die, I believe you’ll improve.

What does a normal day consist of for you? How many hours a day do you actually spend on playing Counter-Strike?
It differs a lot. When there’s no tournament in sight for the next two or three weeks I only play for the fun of it, which is about 2 hours a day I believe. If there’s a tournament closing in, I add more playing time with a lot more focus on getting better, which includes my team and our practice. I suppose it totals around 5-8 hours a day.

What do your family and friends think about your gaming?
Most of my friends find it pretty cool I can travel so much and also earn some coins, though it’s kind of frustrating at times, because I’m out of the country or need to stay home for practice. But they understand so they support me most of the time anyways :)

My siblings believe I’m lucky to have the opportunity, so they also support me, whereas my parents are kind of old-fashioned and believe I should focus on my long-term career and education.

You’ll soon turn 20 – what do you see yourself doing in the next 5-10 years?
I’ll probably keep playing competitively as long I keep finding it entertaining and challenging. Also, I believe I’ll only be playing as long I contribute the team, so if I get too slow or sloppy I’ll rather quit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to educate myself meanwhile and start to settle down when I’m in my late twenties!

We have reached the end of this interview, so thanks for your time ave and as always you will be given a chance to say the last words.
I would like to thank all of our supporters! Thanks to all of our sponsors such as AMD, ATI and FOXCONN for making this possible for mortal Team work – go visit www.mymTw.com!

Pictures from myMTW.com