Following the ESWC Grand Final in 2008, Christine 'potter' Chi left the team to pursue her future in PMS, while Jane 'janeosaur' Wie called it quits and retired from competitive play. SK Ladies then went on the hunt to find a new fifth recruiting former 2007 player Mel 'Cupcakes' Gribben, meanwhile Benita 'bENITA' Novshadian filled the remaining gap. However, the drive of certain team members was proving detrimental to the team's work ethic and Alice 'ali' Lew decided it was time for change.

First of all explain in details how it happened that you realised there was a need for such a major roster change.

SK.ali: After we picked up Cupcakes we truely did our best in building the chemistry back up to what I new it had the potential to be. Since I truely believe in the essentials of hard work and "practice makes perfect". I knew that every single member of the team has to be at the top of their game for our team to succeed, and the fact held more truth after ESWC announced they were going bankrupt.

Although we are part of an all girls team, our ultimate goal has never been to just be the best female team, but instead be one of the premier teams in the world. It was obvious that some girls worked harder than others. We spent a lot of time practicing for the ESEA online league and although we made it to the playoffs, the teamwork just was not right and a lot of girls were inactive and only showed up for practice a couple of hours a week.

They did not show the sweat and dedication which made other members of the team discouraged. I think as the leader of the same team for the last 7 years, I just know when change is needed, I know what it takes to make a championship team.

Could their lack of motivation have been lost due to the future of the ESWC uncertain?

SK.ali: Possibly, but I was well aware of their lack of motivation prior to the downfall of eswc being announced. Especially as a female, you need to train HARD and CONSISTENTLY to play at high level. More importantly, all team members need to be on the same page and be dedicated fully.

The ESEA league is a huge thing for me because it is "co-ed". ESWC might be an international tournament but winning a league filled with males would be a bigger accomplishment.

With the ESWC possibly dead, how did you manage to convince MissHarvey and Potter to return?

SK.ali: While we were on our seperate teams, we were dealing with younger, more inexperienced players. PMS and SK each spent 5-6 months trying to get our teams at the top and it just was not happening for either of us.

SK ladies practice would last a mere 2-3 hours for a couple days a week. there would be disagreements here and there and somedays, some girls wouldn't even show up to practice. on the other hand, me and jso are gamer freaks and love to play so we'd be on the computer 24/7 trying to get our game on.

Potter, steph, jso, and i played for fun together after team practices and stuff. when me and jso realized we pugged with steph/potter more than with our own team, we knew something was wrong. It was a logical decision for all of us.

Who is this mysterious new 5th member?

SK.ali: The new fith is cath who played with potter and steph on PMS, she is definitely an up and coming player with a lot of potential. She's a local friend of stephanie who lives in quebec, canada as well so they lan together often.

PMS was actually pretty busy during their time together so they participated in a couple lans together. Potter and steph were impressed with her during the whole time she was on the team so me and jso gave her the benefit of the doubt. Her experience shined through the first time we played together.

As you might remember, before this whole ordeal, the SK team was searching for a 5th for 2 months. We must have played with literally ALL the best girls in North America, so we knew who had more potential than others. We interviewed so many girls about their intentions for playing on a top team. Cath has all the same goals as the rest of the team, it was obvious that she would be the right fit.

Why not keep one of the girls alrdy in the team instead?

SK.ali: CupCakes openly told me weeks before this roster was even official that this was not what she signed up for. Due to the eswc downfall and lack of teamwork, she told me that she was going to leave the team to continue playing with her male team, essence. For lidy, the lack of love for the game was obvious. i think other priorities in life took over and she just didn't have the time and effort to strive and improve.

With Benita I think age and maturity really play a huge part as a teammate. i know benita has the potential to be a great player, but she is too young to be worrying about being on for practice. She needs to go out and have fun while she's still in high school.

So are there no hard feelings between you, jso and the previous roster?

SK.ali: I surely hope not, but if i can just add, this is the hardest part about being a team leader. i just hope they know i'm just trying to achieve our ultimate vision. I'm sure they will be supporting us. It was a pleasure to play with every girl that ever put on the SK tag and hope this change is not taken personally.

You've mentioned several times about the teams goals, what exactly are the teams goals. With possibly no ESWC female tournament, what are you and your team working towards?

SK.ali: Our goal is to compete at a high level. because we made playoffs last season in ESEA, we got moved up a division and will now be playing in ESEA main. we will definitely be training hard to try our hardest at winning main and eventually get moved up to ESEA invite, where we will play all the best teams in north america. we are also competiting in NAFL, which is a new female league that is starting their first season.

We are participating to show our support to the female community, so of course we will train to win that as well. In all, although ESWC is could no longer be in our future, we are hoping we will be given the chance to play at local lans around North America. There are a lot of smaller prize lans that go on throughout the year, so you'll be sure to be seeing us playing our heart out on LAN. A win at a "co-ed" LAN tournament is definitely the biggest goal we have as a team.