Esportsfrance.com : What are your main setup and your partners going to be? Have you planned to use some other setups?
[M]Tsoukie : For our main setup, we are going to play Warrior/Warlock/Druid with Blagouz and Sealeen. We have also planned to be able to use several setups, since we all can play several classes. So we will be able to play Rogue/Warlock/Druid with me as Rogue, and other setups we are going to think about, but it will be easier when we are on the server of the tournament, since we will be able to create directly level 70 characters.

SK|Neilyo : I wouldn't want to answer that in detail, but indirectly sure, because i wouldn't want everyone to know our strategies and what teams we use because thay can then use that knowledge at LAN tournaments in the future against us and make an assumption we will use the same comps. We plan for our main team to be the one which we have the most experiance with, and our alternative teams will be teams used to counter comps that our main team has a very hard time with, and on top of that, having another team or two are in general strong against common compositions that appear high in the ladder. The flaw with the system is the forst team that gets lucky enough to counter-comp the other team almost automatically gets a free win.

Pandemic-Kinttlol : We haven't decided yet. The gear setup on the tournament realm is much different then on live, so we are still experimenting there to see what we like most.

[aAa]Anelit : We are hesitating between two compositions, we will probably use both. The first one is Rogue/Mage/Priest, rather classic, with Hiss and Loyd, and the second one is rather unusual, Druid/Priest/Warlock, with which we are first on Cataclysm, unless I'm mistaken. The players are Enigmz, Malheur and me.

N|Cherez : Principal setup will be the setup we are most comfortable with, Hunter/Druid/Warlock. But there's a lot of Two melee + healer teams around recently, so probably going to be running something uncoventional to counter our counter as such.


What are your objectives for this tournament?
[M]Tsoukie : The first objective is clearly to reach the regional finals. Of course, we would like to go as far as possible, and if we could qualify for the live event, during the Blizzcon in the USA, it would be really great. But a place for the regional finals would already be good.

SK|Neilyo : Our objective going into the tournament is to be comfortable with 2-3 all around strong line ups, swapping them in when applicable, to compensate for
the weaknesses of each.

Pandemic-Kinttlol : Our team has pretty much all agreed that the most difficult part of the tournament is qualifying for the live event. We're just going to give it our best shot, and hope we manage to make it through the ladder bracket. That's our goal at the moment.

[aAa]Anelit : The first objective, I think, is to qualify, which will probably be the hardest part, since there is a strong opposition. If we are qualified, we will do our best to win the tournament.

N|Cherez : Other than to obviously try to win, I see it as an opportunity to get to know a wider range of top players, players from Europe who haven't xfered to Cyclone and that I've never played against before. Basically, it's going to be a lot of fun and a chance to try new things against new people. It should be great.

Are you going to train in a particular way, and if yes, how?
[M]Tsoukie : Not really, we are trying to play as many 3v3 as possible since the tournament has been announced, in order to have reliable strategies against all compositions. We have thought about moving to Cyclone to train against the best European teams, and all the more so since the cooldown for the transfer was set to 1 month. But in the end it's rather complicated and we don't think about it anymore.

SK|Neilyo : There is no real way to train for a ladder style tournament other than queueing on ladder with whatever teams you plan to use. Yet another flaw in the game as a competitive sport, the nature of counter comping and tremendous luck factor destroys confidence, even if one team is clearly more experienced.

Pandemic-Kinttlol : Lemley's been talking about having some people stay at his place for a while to do some promo work, so I think some people might head there for a few weeks as well. I won't be personally going though.

[aAa]Anelit : We are already doing our best to play in the top of our battlegroup, it is the best training for us.

N|Cherez : Not really, of course we plan to do a lot of arena and to try alot of new things, which we have been doing so far. However, as soon as you begin pushing
yourself and forcing yourself and team-mates to play, you begin loosing interest in the game.


Are there teams you fear?
[M]Tsoukie : On Cataclysme, we don't have a lot of problems. The setups we have the greatest difficulties with are well-played RMPs (Rogue/Mage/Priest) and some top teams like Millenium Dream. We do rather well usually, even if the fights versus RMPs are quite random.

At the european level, I don't really know the 3v3 teams, but the top teams of Cyclone must be stronger, I think. It is hard to guess without playing them, it will be easier when we are on the server of the tournament. Finally, if we reach the regional finals or even the final at the Blizzcon, I think the teams we will have to fear are the ones able to play several setups and the ones who have offline experience, like Pandemic.

SK|Neilyo : I'm not in a position to say since I have never played against Euro teams. The team that has the largest number of compositions to play comfortably, allowing them to have the largest arsenal of counter comps, but then again simply alternating teams at random will make it almost impossible to counter comp consistently and it just comes down to luck, in that who has the upper hand comp wise.

Pandemic-Kinttlol : Nah, while I do have some thoughts on who I see doing well on the tournament realm, I'm not afraid of any.

[aAa]Anelit : Among all the teams we know, Millenium vu à la télé has very talented players. We don't know the teams from the other battlegroups, so we cannot judge.

N|Cherez : No team in particular, i'm looking forward to playing against some top teams from the none-english speaking battlegroups. If they live up to their own hype, it should be fun.


What do you think of the difference of level between Europe and America?
[M]Tsoukie : I think it is more a rumour or a matter of personal pride than a real difference. WoW is not a game on which the skillcap is very high. There is no reason for a continent to play better than the other one. There are some examples showing that a continent as influenced the other : for example, Pandemic who has "democratized" the RMP setup, or Europe which has "invented" the well-named "europcomp" in 5v5. With the creation of an European BG equivalent to the US BG9, I think no continent can envy the other, so there is no difference of level in my opinion.

SK|Neilyo : Other than looking at the Cyclone tournament, I haven't read or watched much else from Euro teams, the biggest difference is probably just how the battlegroups develop, what teams become popular which in return decide what the next popular wave of teams will be.

Pandemic-Kinttlol : I don't think there is much if any really. The biggest difference between good teams is usually the quality of players they have had the oppurtunity to play against in the past. If their ideas and strategies are based on things they have seen from lower tier opponents, then they might not be prepared to fight higher quality opponents of certain classes.
It goes both ways, and this effect is a biproduct of the BG system. The tournament realm will do well in fixing this issue, as theres a two week practice period or something that will help players from lower quality BGs a lot.

[aAa]Anelit : I think the level of the top teams are quite similar, but the styles of play are still different. There are for example popular setups in America which are not used in Europe, and vice versa, so we sometimes have different views on the game, and we should take advantage of that difference. In the tournament, I think Europe really has a chance.

N|Cherez : There's definitely a difference in terms of certain styles of play and attitude towards the game , but on a "skill" vs "skill" level there's no difference imo. The Europeans rep was really hurt early on with the poor representation we had at live tournaments, this was mainly due to the invitational only tournaments.
The fact that every team has a fair chance in this upcoming online tournament is a huge plus.