The twenty one year old Berliner whose by the team captain's [Andre 'iFEARdilemma' Merzinsky] own admission, “probably one of the last German players who can be titled as a 'cod oldschool gamer'”, was just as quick to sing the praises of his new team mates, “thunder seems to be one of the most talented players in CoD4” and thought that “they're [SK] the team with the most potential in Germany”.

He was quick to brush aside any sympathy for his former team The Last Resort (TLR), when I mentioned the timing of his move and how it could potentially damage TLR's chances in the iPOWER Games German qualifier, which could potentially see TLR face SK Gaming in the semi-final, “that's hard for them, but it's a great offer from SK, one I can't reject”.

I questioned how capable the German players and scene were in CoD4 compared to their overwhelming early success in the predecessors, the German scene wasn't as quick to adapt to the release of CoD4 and “this stopped many teams from developing at the right speed, unlike the international scene”, mainly because of player issues and lineup problems.

When asked what he gets from joining SK he admitted it was a hard question to answer, “every player looks for a reliable organisation and SK has become that big because they don t make promises they can't keep. I think it is a big task to represent such a clan because in my opinion the pressure if you play for SK doesn't come from the management it comes more from yourself because you know 'Man you play in one of the most successful clans worldwide'”, reiterating that “of course you're proud to have reached SK but you have to stay on the ground because otherwise you don't get better, and if you want to be the best you've to get better.”

He called upon his time in OCRANA to show the mentality needed at this level, “when I played for OCRANA we tried to give the clan back the money they spent on us by representing them professionally and winning, by giving our best.”

He felt that despite the obvious departure of big name players such as Enrico 'Fuchsstute' Ausborn, the German scene and in particular both SK Gaming and Team SPEED-LINK were more than capable of being the best internationally. He stated any of the top teams at the moment are really just old CoD one and two teams who've built on their experience and thrive upon the faster game play which CoD4 offers.

SK Gaming.CoD4

Andre 'iFEARdilemma' Merzinsky
Andy 'flie' Rhein
Burak 'MOKAI' Bolat
Turgut 'Respawn' Yildiz
Volkan 'thunder' Kocakahya
Michael 'spaR' Ege

The team will rotate the six man lineup according to performance and the map positions, having experience with six man lineups, the team captain 'iFEARdilemma' was confident the system would work.