Full name: Niklas Holtäng
Age: 23
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Food: Sirlion
Drink: Milk
Player: faken
TV series: 24
Music: Techno/House
Sport: Football

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zvan: Hej Niklas :D Thank you for accepting this interview in the name of all your/our fans and community members. What can you tell us about your life? like when and where were you born and what passions did you have as a kid?

pxr: Hi zvan! Im just about to turn 24, but I was born in a little town in Sweden called Uddevalla, about 80km from Gothenburg where I now live. My two biggest passions growing up was football and martial arts! So some of the greatest memorys I have as a kid, they are related to thoose two things :)

zvan: How does your family look like and how was it to grow up in it?

pxr: I don't have any brothers or sisters but I have always had a great family. Sadly I lost my father when I was 9 years old. But my mum has been great. Later on when I where 13, my mum moved to England and I didnt want to come along, so I stayed at my grandparents place until i turned 18 and moved to Gothenburg. Sure some things have been rough, but I have a great family :)

zvan: As a kid or adult, did you get any big changes at a moment of your life?

pxr: Well ofcourse as earlier stated with my dad. And two other major things must have been my mum moving to England and me moving away from everyone to settle down in Gothenburg. Then there has been some things during the time I have lived here, but nothing worth mentioning :)

zvan: When did you get in contact with a personal computer for the first time?

pxr: Well I guess it was when my mother brought home some ancient computer from work when I might have been something like 10-11.

zvan: How did you started to play counter-strike and which was your first team?

pxr: Haha, thats a really funny story. I had a mate back in Uddevalla who tried the game once and told me it was great fun etc etc. But I always said stuff like "I will NEVER play that game, whats the point of playing a stupid game?" haha. Then after a few months they opened an internet café about 50 meters from my house, and he asked once again if I wanted to join him for an hour or two there. And then i went, and I got stuck instantly. We played from the café for some months time and then I thought it was time to join a team! So i went on irc for the first time and joinded the quakenet channel pracc.se HAHA :D It took about 20min, then I got a tryout for a team called LpB. Two days later I was a member of the team! :D

zvan: To all interested fans, where does your nickname come from?

pxr: Thats another funny question. When I had to come up with a nickname when I started to play for a team, I wanted to have ALOT of different letters in my nick. So I just started typing some stuff, and after an hour or so I got sick of not finding anyone I liked, so I just took the one I tried out last, and that was PeXXeR HAHAHA :D But after playing for a year or two, I figured that it was really ugly and I wanted to change, so there i just changed it to pxr

zvan: Can you describe in few words how did you stepped to the professional level?

pxr: Well I dont really know, but a moment I will never forget was 2 weeks before we where about to attend ISC Dallas with Chillside (me, raxxe, nippo, van1ty and JAEGARN), I got contacted by a really great team and organisation, but I actually turn it down. So when a team like that was interested in me, I thought I had stepped it up a little bit :)

zvan: Who was your mentor when you started to play this game? Also tell us if you ever had a favourite player like you wanted to become.

pxr: Well for the first few years I didnt really have a mentor, but after that when I first met faken when he was playing for metropolis and later on SSV.Lehnitz, he started to help me improve my game etc etc. So if anyone, Its him. I have never wanted to become anyone else, but I always enyojed watching the old NiP team back in the early 21st century..

zvan: When you started playing CS at a higher lever, did you ever feel a bit embarrassed for spending a lot of time in front of your PC?

pxr: Yeah I did. From the beginning I really felt like it was wrong, and always asked all my friends what they thought about it. And sure, the most of them said it was just stupid, but then a few said that if I enyojed it, I should keep on going. So it was kinda hard for some time, but It all changed later on.

zvan: When did you realised that you are really good at this game (counter-strike) and what do you think about your game now, pure skill or just talent?

pxr: Well actually it took alot of time before I really realised that. I think It might have been with this exact team, when we first started playing as edepol.INSTA in 2007 :) Then it was a great feeling having alot of teams whining about that we were cheating etc. Then we joined Gamers.nu and went for our first bootcamp, and played even better on the bootcamp. And I think that you need to have a little bit of talent, but If you dont, you can still be a good average player. But to be a star of a game like this, you need alot of talent!

zvan: About Unique.cs16, which do you think that is the most important thing for keeping this team alive? And also that something which helped you and your team to come back on track after a long pause.

pxr: You can hear people saying "we are having so much fun together in our team", but I can guarantee that you cant have any more fun that we have. And we all work perfectly together IRL, and I think that I could move in at any other of our players house and stay there for 10 years, just for fun. And knowing that, and also knowing how good we really were, it wasnt hard to say yes to this again :)

zvan: What do you think that is the most precious thing you brought to this team?

pxr: Bolognese!! :D No but I think it might be some things ingame, but Im almost always happy, even if we loose a few rounds in a row, and try to get eveyone back on track. Its me and zeki :)

zvan: How do you feel about the future of this team? There are almost 3-4 years since you play together.. with some pauses.

pxr: Well I think it can only move one way, and thats higher. We never got to go to any events with Gamers.nu, so I cant really say that we are going to win everything. But still, that is our ambtions. So I think after a few events both lan and online, I think and hope that we will show a little bit of nice, creative and crazy playing.

zvan: Does your team chemistry evolved now, that you are under contracts? Have you seen any mentality changes in your team?

pxr: Not at all. Well I think everyone is a bit more motivated now then before. But apart from that, I think that we are all the same :) But if it has changed anything, its just for the better!

zvan: Have you ever felt that you have fans? And also have you ever considered yourself a star?

pxr: I have never seen myself as a star, I think there are only 5-6 players in the world that I concider as stars. And yeah, I know I have some haha. But I have to add, just for you zvan, that you have been our biggest fan, watching every game, following every step with this team since 2007, so a big thanks to you :)

zvan: As a final question, which are your best and your worst experiences with counter-strike?

pxr: Both answers I will have to refer to ISC Dallas with Chillside. Best must have been when we got to play both Mug N' Mouse and DeadZone, beating both of them. And worst must have been our loss vs. 4Kings in lowerbracket. I missed 9 clear shots one eco round, standing 1 feet away behind my enemy haha.

zvan: Well, now I want to thank you Niklas for your friendship and amability to accept this interview and we all hope that you and your team will make us proud of your performances! Any final words?

pxr: Thank you! And I want to thank all the people following our progress with this team, Unique-Esport and all of our sponsors! Thanks for everything! We love you all :) peace out!! INSTA TILLS VI DÖR!

zvan: Tack. INSTA for life!!!

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