This interview is with the Icelandic player Andri "andrig" Gunnarsson, who is currently playing with the best team in Iceland - seven.
Along with a number of the world's best teams, seven will be attending the shgOpen event on the 17th of February. Andrig gives us a lot of information on what he expects of the event and the others teams and players who are planning to attend. Being this one of seven's first LAN events outside of their home country, it will definitely be an interesting weekend for the top Icelandic team. The full interview can be found below.
Hi! Can you quickly introduce yourself for people who don't already know who you are?
Whatsup SK, my name is Andri Gunnarsson (andrig) and I live in the Capital of Iceland Reykjavík. I've been in seven for over two years, through the good and bad times. I am turning 18 and currently in the same school as three other seven members!
Your team - Seven, will be attending the shgOpen event in a couple of weeks, how is your team preparing for it?
We have always been eager to practice and are ambitious about our game, we practice every day, and we try to LAN every other weekend since we have access to our own little seven-crib. We will try to bootcamp at least one week before our event to get everything as it should be.
What was the reason for your team to decide to attend this event?
Our original plans were to attend the Butlins Computer Gaming Championship in England last January, which was an event with some notable teams such as 4Kings & Serious, but that event was postponed to July. So we started looking for other LANs in Europe and came across SHG, we were among the first to sign up, so at the time the event only had 2-3 good teams, but as most people know the list of teams has grown a bit, and of course the more the merrier.
What are your expectations of the event's venue?
SHG has showed that they are really ambitious about this second LAN of theirs, and they seem to have prepared really really good, the staff has been very friendly helping people. Some people were concerned that they perhaps wouldn't be able to pay the prize money, and in no time they released a note stating their account balance, although the rules state "It's allowed to play both in 16 and 32 bit colours" - which is bullshit. Hopefully they will fix that before the event.
Who do you think your toughest opponent will be?
It’s Hard to say with so many good teams, and it's been a while since we saw some of those teams, and for few teams it's their first LAN event together.
What are your opinions of the other top teams who are attending?
We are looking at a list of about 15 great teams, and it's been a while since we saw some of those teams in action on LAN, so it will definitely be fun to face all those teams.
Would you prefer more great teams to attend the event - to add a bit more competition to the tournament?
Of course, we tried to follow the signup list to see which teams were signing up and as a new great team came, we just got more excited about going to the event and kicking some new asses ;)
There are a few new teams for whom this is one of their first LAN events together - do you think any of these teams have bonded well enough to come into this event and place highly?
This is actually also our first LAN event together with our players mex and spike, but it has been a while since there was a LAN event here in Iceland. When I speak for ourselves we have no worries about this being our first LAN as we have all bonded really well both ingame and outside of the game. It's hard to answer for the other teams; I guess it really all comes down to their own preparation.
What is the Counter-Strike scene in Iceland really like? Are there enough teams on your level to be able to practice with?
Definitely not, we always practice with teams from Europe but when our ISP is lagging we are kind of forced to play here. The other top teams (other one or two) have good players, but they have all been playing kind of long to still have dedication for the game. The LANs are really bad; there have been two CPL qualifiers throughout the years here. Iceland’s biggest LAN which is hosted by Iceland’s largest ISP is a BYOC LAN with the worst prizes ever… (We won five printers for first place… The ink was more expensive then the Printers, so we came out negative).
Seven have been playing in the EuroCup recently, although you sadly lost to Team Pentagram in the first stage of the playoffs. Were you happy by getting this far in the tournament?
Although this being our first season we should have done better, we won the first map vs Pentagram and then lost the final two. We had some problems with our ISP at the time, so we had to postpone, and then relocate since we play all our important matches from LAN. Better luck next season.
Do you think that by playing in the EuroCup with a lot of Europe's best teams, your team will have strengthened ready for the shgOpen event?
Of course, the best practice for LAN events are online matches, so the timing of all this came in quite handy. You really get to see your team’s flaws when you play the big teams, so we have been working on fixing that before SHG.
How would you rate your team in comparison to the other Counter-Strike teams in Iceland?
Lets just say that seven is the Chuck Norris of the Counter-Strike scene in Iceland, untouchable *Smile*
Where would you be happy for your team to finish in the shgOpen tournament?
We wouldn’t spend all this time and money if we didn't think we had a chance of going to the top.
What other events are you planning to attend in the near future?
The Icelandic community lacks the power of managers and management, so we have to work on everything ourselves (no paying sponsors), we pay the trip to SHG ourselves, and although SHG being our first foreign LAN event it will definitely not be the last this year. Our next LAN will hopefully be the European WEG Qualifier.
Well thank you for your time, and good luck in the shgOpen event. Have you got any last shout-outs?
Lock down your daughters, sisters… mothers, because seven are coming to town baby.