The Italian player has applied for the ESWC Masters of Athens along with several other top players. Whether or not he is invited will be known this Monday but whether or not he decides to go is still up in the air.

Why have you signed up for Athens?
stermy: I signed up hoping they will be using Quake Live already for this event.

I really want to play in some FPS 1v1 tournaments again and unfortunately I did not have this opportunity in the past year because of lacking of tournaments and schedule conflicts between the CGS and other events.

As soon as I got back from the US this August I started playing QuakeLive and I`m definitely enjoying it so far so I was just waiting for a big tournament to come up. Unfortunately I don’t know if this ESWC Masters in Athens will be Quake 3 CPMA or Quake Live already (related to ESWC`s previous news regarding ESWC finals and the possibility of Quake Live instead of Quake 3).

Are you done playing in the CGS, or is this just something you want to do in the off season?
I am not done with the CGS and I am waiting their announcement regarding the game titles for the 2009 season. I really hope Quake or a First Person Shooter ON PC will be on the list since I have been looking forward to actually playing my game genre in the league and I believe it will be also a good opportunity for all the FPS 1v1 players who have been pretty much left with few tournaments a year after CPL and WSVG died. I really miss that kind of competition and the players.

Playing in other tournaments / FPS tournaments is something I always wanted to do, you know..

I was used to competing in tournaments almost every month and I really wish it was still like that; last year I was trying to compete in Quake 4 tournaments as well but unfortunately there weren’t any.

What are your expectations regarding your performance in Athens?
I did not receive an invite yet nor I know if it`s gonna be Quake 3 CPMA or Quake Live, so my decision on going will be based on that too. I believe I might have missunderstood some rumours but I applied anyway, you never know…

If I get invited I won't have high expectations because I haven’t competed in a FPS 1v1 tournament for a year and a half but it will definitely be a good preparation for future tournaments that I am planning to attend.

What happens if you do really well in Quake 3? Would you stop playing in the CGS?
Right now I am looking forward to Quake Live and since CGS hasn’t announced their game list for 2009 I don’t even know if there will be a game for me next year yet, like everyone else in the league. I have played already seven different games in my career professionally and in the past two years I always had to pick-up a game where I had to catch up to players that have been playing the game for a longer time and trust me, it`s fun and gives you a lot of motivation, but at the same time it can be really stressful as well. That`s why I am hoping for a game where I can start from the beginning like I did with PainKiller or Quake 4.

Time will tell what I am going to do for next year. However, I do know how much I`m proud of my team, the San Francisco OPTX and how attached I am to these guys. I like playing in the CGS , I`m sure everything will workout. Worst case I will pull out my usual practice routine to pick up a new game and get to a high level and see what happens ;).