Hello Mathieu 'R!Go-' Bridet. First of all, please could you introduce yourself to our readers.
Hello Albert and thanks for the interview. So I'm Mathieu 'RiGo' Bridet, 23 years old and studying computer engineering. In Counter-Strike, I'm oXmoze's leader, built on the famous old emuLate! with as MaT- & mSx, added with the very talented loduN and drizzer

oXmoze placed 3rd in Group B and 6th of the final placements at IEM Season 4 Europe, what do you think of your performance in Germany and are you satisfied with the result?
We could both answer yes and no. Looking at the youth of our squad and the length of our preparation, and the fact that it's the first time that I've been leading in an international event, we could say yes. Although I've got lots of things to fix, and so do the players. So yes, in a way lots of teams can be dreaming of a top 6 for a first event.
But in another way, we're not really convinced by that result. We definetly have regrets looking back at the match against Ravens, especially on nuke. We made so many huge mistakes... We're so able to do the best, but also the worst!
 
Are there any regrets for you? You managed to take down mTw in your opening game and really surprised your fans, however, you could not keep your winning streak, why?
Why? Because after mTw, it was aTTax! Being really happy of that victory against mTw, we had some troubles focusing on the match against aTTax, which are really our phobia on dust2. We always had so many troubles fighting against their agressivity and reactivity

You have been drawn in Group A with defending champions fnatic, mousesports, mTw, EG and UMX at Global Finals. What do you think of the group and what are your chances and what are your goals at this event?
In opposition to what is said globally, I don't think that Group A is the 'death group'. Both groups are really tough, and it will be a huge tournament. In these kind of groups, everything can change untill the last match and everybody can get their chances. Hopefully, we'll try to get the third place, but to manage it we'll have to beat one of the favorite teams. Time will tell!
Our goal is to get at least a third place in the group stage. The playoffs are another story we'll have to fix as soon as we're out of the groups, if we do get out! *smiles*

Which team do you want to face the most and which team do you want to face the least at Global Finals and why?
The team we want to face the most is Ravens, to get our revenge of that last match we want to have, even more if they want it too! The team we want to play the least is SK-Gaming, because no matter what team they have against us, they play their own game not considering the game of their opponent. It's hard not to suffer against them. Last time we played them, we lead them 8-0 and they beat us. How mad.

You made yourself known to the world at the WCG 2007 Grand Finals, where you won the title following your impressive performance. However, you never won a big title after that, why?
Beside that event, we had some good results before and after. The trouble was that our former structure always gave us plenty of paroles but we never got what we expected. We won a major event but despite that our playing conditions didn't change.
As a result of this, we started to train less and less to focus on our studies. We didn't even train much individually, as not having any regular salary and better gaming conditions. We even lost our motivation and our ambitions of results. Moreover after the trouble we had against MYM during the ESWC, where French referees did some poor things.
Actually if you want to realize, during the season where we won the WCG, we attended eleven international tournaments. The next year we only went to 2 or 3 for some different reasons (money troubles, exams, whatever). So it was impossible to keep on playing the same level and even hoping a second title in such conditions.

Your lineup was quite stable until last October, when Michael 'HaRts' Zanatta and Jeremy 'ioRek' Vuillermet were replaced by Remi 'loduN' Colas and Benjamin 'drizzer' Charnet. What led to this decision and why did you choose them from eSports-Eu?
We didn't want to slug this way, looking us slumping into shit waiting something that would never happen. We were not motivated enough to keep the same line up in order to win. We tried oXmoze because we had some past glory, and we had the hope to come back stronger all together.
Sadly, it didn't work this way and we struggled against the same problems we had before French ESWC, or ShokLAN.
When we saw lots of international teams trying to grab some new blood, we thought it was time for us to come back on track. Little by little, we're going back there. Let's hope it lasts.

Rarely have you been seen at the international events expect for the invited/qualified events such as WCG and DreamHack, could you tell us the reasons?
Simply the lack of money. French structures don't have enough money, that's it.

What do you think of the French CS scene compared with Germany or Europe in general?
It's not going better. We have loads of small LANS but not enough huge events with show such as the German ESL. It brings low cash price (like 500€ into the LANS for the first whereas the French EPS gives us 1000€). Moreover, French teams struggle to become the best French ones, and not the best internationals. You could compare it to the German EPS where everybody fights just to beat mouz & aTTax instead of the other teams. The only difference is that in Germany, it can be justified by the huge amount of money that you could win into the EPS

According to exciting news, the ESWC will be back on track, taking place from the 30th of June to the 4th of July in Paris, France, with a prize pool of $63,000 for CS tournament. What are your expectations for the event and will it improve your national CS scene?
Sadly, Stephane Cosse, the one that takes (runs? owns?) the ESWC, is more famous in France because he didn't give the cash prize of his events, such as "click arena". He also organized ghost events. So personally, I'm not expecting anything special but I really wish it to become the best for the French scene, praying that she grows always more. His turn to make us all lie!

If you manage to qualify for ESWC 2010, what kind of result could satisfy you considering your home team advantages?
Haha, hopefully first, yeah! It works every year with Mouz!

Good luck in the future and thanks for your time. Any shoutouts?
We'd like to thanks our sponsors, www.esportdesigners.com and also VeryGames. I'd also like to thank BoZo for his amazing work day and night. Thank to MonsteR, to Casiii and to uNk for everything they give us.

Image courtesy of esportsfrance.com

The next interviewee for our IEM Pre-interview Series will be  Roman 'roman' Ausserdorfer, who was the lasted addtion to the German powerhouse mousesports and helped the team to win IEM Europe with his outstanding performance. Stay tuned!