Who the hell is Markus "Smaugy" Sundqvist is the first question on everybody's lips when they see than an unknown Swede managed to win a tournament that included professional Counter-Strike players.

Would it be fair to say that 90% of the public may have never heard of you? "Yea, maybe more like 99%," said Smaugy.

Smaugy is now 18-years old but has been playing Counter-Strike for the last seven years, but how is it he became so good? "I've always been positive in what I do. I never give up. If there is a flaw in my game, I will try to correct it as much as possible," said Smaugy, "That has been my secret to success to becoming a good gamer."Smaugy does not reply for a while and the IRC timer ticks away, suddenly he replies, "sorry, newspaper talking to me," and continues with the interview.

The Swede has clearly stepped into the limelight but how has he managed to stay in the shadows in the past? "I had a break for 2 years, so might have been that. I came back to Counter-Strike 5-6 months ago," said Smaugy, "I just have not found any good team out there that wants me to play with them. Without contacts you can not do that much."

"I've been in teams before. A LOT. But never gone to a big LAN events like Dreamhack, IOL and stuff like that," said Smaugy "The biggest team I've been in (not big at all) is when I was playing with HellscreaM from the old Matrix team. It lasted three months before it was disbanded."



In the qualifiers the format was first to 10 rounds wins but it was changed for the Grand Finals in Heron City, Stockholm. "It was first to 10 rounds, best out of 3. The map we played is aim_ugt_2009 and it is a customized map from the old classic aim_map," said Smaugy, "with some changes, for example: Boxes are moved to improve the structure of the map."

So does he think he would have done so well if he had encountered the likes of f0rest, zet or allen (who were on the other side of the bracket)? "Yes I think so, but you never know," said Smaugy, "Threat who I met in the finals, actually chucked out f0rest of the competition in the semi-finals but it all depends on the playstyle."

So has the competition made him more interested in stepping up his Counter-Strike to perhaps a professional level? "Yes, definately" said the Swede, "It is what I am aiming for - And it is a lot of fun so who wouldn't"? Could we be in the presence of a possible fifth member for the revival of Lag Blank?

"I haven't really thought about it actually," said Smaugy, "but I've been talking to some famous professional players on irc about playing in teams so we will see what happens in the next few days." And what will he spend the prize money on? "A NEW COMPUTAH! A drivers license maybe and a mp3 player to listen to my hardbass music," said Smaugy, "and I will save some as well."

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[photos from Fragbite]