After going over the early part of his career and through the NoA years in part one of this interview mTw.dk's Christoffer 'Sunde' Sunde talks about the 2008 which saw his team win Kode5, ESWC Masters, WEM and the WCG gold medal. He also discusses their form in 2009 and a number of other topics beyond those.

The first major event win for mTw.dk felt from an outsider's perspective as though it came quickly since whiMp had only joined in late February and yet in May you were won Kode5. When you look at that Kode5 performance did it feel as though it came quickly for you in terms of everything coming together? Did you sense the team had reached a level you could play at for the rest of the year? Being as you beat fnatic handily in the finals and SK in the semis with only the map you lost being close enough to be in question how do you view the overall mTw.dk performance?

As mentioned [in part 1] we suddenly just felt like we could handle everything, and we played with great confidence which levitated our play to another level. Kode5 was the proof to ourselves that we could actually be number 1 and not always have to settle for the top 5. So to answer your question: no I didn't feel like it came quickly for us, we had been practising hard for a long time and it paid off. After the win we could rightously expect more first places, since we all felt a bit like a curse had been lifted. And yes we felt that 2008 was gonna be our year, and I think it was. Kode5 was the closest we have been to a perfect event in my eyes, personally it might have been the best event I have ever played as well.

The next big victory in the mTw.dk journey came at ESWC Masters in Paris. A key moment in that tournament seemed to be in the semi-final where you were down 5:10 after the first half against Roccat on train, then your team flipped the switch as it were and won 11 rounds straight to take the game and your place in the final. In the final itself you met fnatic again and this time destroyed them on dust2 far beyond the final scoreline of 16:6 may suggest, being as your first half scoreline was 13:2.

What do you remember about those performances and the differences from the Kode5 victory? Did the fact the event wasn't the main ESWC event of the year but was held in Paris make you feel as though you'd gone a step further than the 2007 finals loss in some respect?

It was obviously a big win for us and yet again a milestone, stating to ourselves where we belong. For me it can't compare to our Kode5 win, which was our first win and a huge step for us. The tournament not being the ESWC finals has to be taken into account, but then that said there was pretty much every top team from Europe attending. Of course we felt that we did better than the ESWC 2007, also because we didn't feel that we weren't given "the easy path" this time.

Against roccat we started as T on train, if I remember correctly, and we got 5 rounds which is pretty decent on train. We had studied them well and knew that their force as T was their B1 rush and we knew how to shot that down, so starting the CT side we felt very confident that we would win this. And once we get zonic's and my AWP rolling on train it's an uphill battle to enter any bombsite :P.

Facing fnatic in the final wasn't scary for us, last time we played them was at Kode5, beating them twice on dust2 and inferno - This time it was BO1 on dust2. We started as T and slowly picked them apart. The thing I remember best from my POV is that I killed/hit someone through the double doors in the middle at the beginning of almost everyround. After a 13-2 first half it should only be routine to take to take the remaining 3 rounds and the victory.

After your successes the general consensus seemed to be that mTw.dk was the best team in the world yet you then went into a downswing for a while that saw you uncharacteristically losing games such as against x3o at ESWC and PoV at EM III LA. At the Dubai event you were tied dignitas, barely beat fnatic, got destroyed by MYM and then lost to GamePlay from being 9:6 up with a disasterous 2:10 second half. Comments have been made by other players that for the LA event you seemed burned out by travel so how much does that factor into those performances and did those results affect the team's morale at all or was there a sense they were just bumps in the road?

It's hard to be referred to as the best team out there for a while without beginning to feel a bit cocky, and sometimes it important to remind yourself that you have to bring your best game at all times to continue being successful. In LA we played badly, I don't really have any excuse for that, sometimes you just have an off day where nothing really works. We all felt down and really disappointed after losing in LA, but we could do nothing but go home and talk about what went wrong, to make sure that wouldn't happen again.

We had a really filled up month starting with Dubai, then WEM in China and finally WCG in Germany. Even though we didn't perform really well in Dubai our thoughts were fixed around performing in China and Germany, those being the bigger tournaments. In Dubai Danny and I had upset stomachs and weren't really feeling well throughout the tournament, but we never felt like we were entering a bad period or not able to perform.

The WEM event you won might not carry the highest level of prestige for the casual fan as that event is not well known outside of Asia so how was the experience of playing there and do you remember anything significant in your games against fnatic which you won convincingly in the semis?

WEM was a bit different from other events I have attended, the schedule was actually managed to be kept due to the matches being sent live on TV, if I remember correctly. Anyways we once again met fnatic, whom we all felt very comfortable playing, we had a decent win streak against them at that time, and didn't feel they would surprise us this time. I think one of the maps was inferno: they won the coinflip, and to our surprise chose to start as T. Our CT on inferno can be really strong and at the time inferno was definately our best map.

Being as with the WEM victory your team had managed to win three 'majors' in a single year and you had been someone with zero prior to 2008 how was the experience and was there a sense that the team had become unstoppable as though even if you lost one tournament you would get the next? Going from also-rans to favourites did you feel pressure that you should win each event where other teams merely could?

Indeed we felt and believed that we were the best team at the time, we had taken home some first places, and very convincingly if I have to say myself. I think that when people start referring not to mTw not winning a tournament but to mTw losing the tournament, we have already proved where we belong. These days I don't see one team dominating without having one or more bloopers along the way. And yes we felt like we were going to win at every tournament we attended. We had gone from the expected top 5 team to being expected to win every tournament, of course it added pressure but it feels great and I hope we will once again be the team to beat!

The WCG gold medal is always a prestigious prize due to the olympic nature of the event and receiving a tangible symbol of victory moreso than the typical oversized cheque. How was it to take the gold after the disappointment of settling for the silver the previous year? Aside from a three map affair against Norway's XpreZ where you pulled out a nail-biter on inferno your team seemed to be playing at a very high level the whole event. You annihilated MYM 16:2 on inferno and took out SK Gaming for the gold in the finals. How did that victory flow in comparison to the others?

The silver medal was still in the period where we hadn't gotten our first win, so at the time it felt great just getting silver. Our match against XpreZ was a match that on paper was merely a routine win for us, but showed out very opposite. I felt that we were very superior to them and my guess is that we started taking the win for granted very early in the game, thus allowing them to surprise us time after time. But after they tied the score to 1-1 we had a talk and did try to play our very best. Not having shut them down earlier made them believe in it, and put up much more of a fight than we could ever have expected.

We played really well and rode the wave from our WEM win only a week earlier. I think it would have taken something special to stop us, there wasn't a thought in my mind that we could lose going into any of our matches. It was a combination of all five players playing really well, our tactics and preparations just being better and our trust in each other, allowing us to take the necessary chances and elevating our game.

The Dreamhack Winter event was a strange one since you had an incredibly tough route which pitted you against all the other elite teams of 2008. So you defeated MYM in your group, Mouz 2 maps to 1 in the quarter-finals, fnatic 2 maps to 0 in the semis and then in the finals lost 1 map to 2 against SK Gaming. In previous events it seemed that if mTw.dk were on their game and beating the big name teams then they went all the way and won the whole event where if they weren't on their game then they fizzled out earlier. What is your take on the event bearing in mind with the opposition you overcame and barely lost to that if you'd managed to win that 3rd map of the finals the tournament might have been your best win of the year in terms of pure competition?

Yeah that whole excitement of beating so many good teams, just to lose the final vs. a team I felt we should have beaten was a weird experience. It was obviously nice to eliminate that many good teams on our way to the final, but then it just felt so much worse when we threw our 2-3 match points away. As T I remember one map-point in particular: SK was on a desperate buy round, only able to afford pistols. We chose to move towards ramp, not knowing that SK had packed up there, just waiting for us. SK won the round and moved on to win Dreamhack, leaving us stunned. That is without a doubt the loss that has taken it's biggest toll on me.

At the EM III European Finals, the first big event of 2009, there seemed little reason to question whether mTw.dk were still the #1 team since fnatic had a completely different lineup, SK.swe were struggling, Mouz couldn't even make the playoffs or the Global Finals, you destroyed MYM on train 16:3 in the semis (with a mind blowing 15:0 CT half) and then secured a spot in the finals with a very solid 16:7 win over Alternate. In the finals though you faced a real challenge as the game against Alternate swung from being 11:4 in your favour to an overtime war as the German team played out of their minds. What do you remember of that intense final?

It was a new year and we felt we had to prove ourselves again, as you say fnatic had a new line up and it was unknown to us where they stood skillwise - cArn had stated that 2009 would be fnatic's year, and let's just say he wasn't completely wrong :). Anyways as always we felt confident going into the final against aTTaX, and we played a decent CT side, winning 11:4. Switching to T side it got exciting. We started out by winning the gun round and the two obligatory ecos, then being behind 4:14 aTTaX chose to have another eco, bringing the score to 15:4 in our favour.

Normally I can make sense of having one extra eco, thus securing not having to go into two dreaded ecos after losing a 4th round. This time aTTaX couldn't afford to lose even just one round, so I still today don't know why that would pull off three consecutive ecos there. But back to the game: they did one of the most amazing combacks I have witnessed, and I couldn't even imagine how they felt after losing the overtime. They certainly played a great tournament, but it seemed like the steam fizzed out a bit after that.

After the success of winning the European Finals you went out at the Global Finals in an incredible consolation finals match on dust2 which has to be seen to be believed. Your team were up 10:2 as T and continued to push the game so that you were up 13:5 during your CT half. Then MYM locked in and won nine rounds in a row and eventually the game itself by a 16:14 scoreline in their favour. On that CT side after the pistols and ecos it seemed as though everything that could go wrong did for your team. MYM consistently picked the correct time to hit B, essentially when you were switched out into A, with such overwhelming force your players at A ended up having to save most of the time instead of being able to attend a retake. What did you make of that unstoppable run?

As CT on dust2 most teams, including us, take chances as where to stack up the most forces. Most often we get a good idea of where they are gonna get hit, therefore we have more guys defending that bombsite/area. In this match we got outplayed by MYM's fakes, as well as overrun by their strong B play. Having mentioned that I also feel that we were unlucky as you commented, MYM consistantly chose the right way around our defenses, making us look like pawns in their game. Once again a game that made me feel like the world was ending.

At Kode5 you were up one map then lost two to SK then when facing MYM for 3rd repeated the same feat. Did any significant moment or factor swing those games against you?

I don't think so. Our game wasn't as good as back in 2008 for a long period of time, and if I knew the exact reason I would improve that, but the fact is that we just hadn't been playing as well as we know we can. Winning the first map then losing two in a row was never really a thing I could see happening for us, but somehow we managed to make that happen twice in a row. Just what I would call a bad beat.

Taking into account that e-Stars and the SuperCup were not top of the prestige list, with e-Stars having an unorthodox structure and the SuperCup featuring only four teams, how significant did you consider your losses at those events? At the SuperCup your victory over SK in a really close third map and loss to Mouz in similar circumstances suggests the swings in placing could have been as huge as 1st to 4th with little needing to have changed. Did you feel as though all the teams were on a similar level as reflected in the scores or was it a case of Mouz playing better or mTw.dk playing worse perhaps?

They weren't really considered major events, which kinda takes a little edge off, every team still tries to win but it's just not the same as ESWC and WCG. The game against SK was rather ridiculous, I think they were leading something like 15:7, one point away from closing out the match, but we managed to pull it to 15:15 and then win the overtime. Against Mouz we ended up on dust2 with the map scores at 1:1. If I remember correctly we were ahead 13:5 playing CT second half, and just not able close the match. It seemed as if Mouz was reading us perfectly, always striking where we had lowered our defenses.

I don't think any of the teams were really 110% comitted, and no, mouz haven't been playing well lately either, it's simply us playing worse rather than other teams really stepping up, maybe with the exception of fnatic who have been dominating the first six months of 2009. I don't mean to pick on mouz, but it just seems that they haven't been nearly as sharp and dangerous as they were back in 2008. I will probably always consider mouz a top contender but they have underperformed, such as in Dubai: unable to advance from the group stage after a loss to k23, though k23 is not a bad team and is not to be underestimated.

From an outsider's perspective your team didn't look strong at the recent Danish events where you were pushed hard and almost upset a few times. So what do you see as the strengths of this team in comparison to the old team who were famous for their teamplay and anti-strats?

First of all I actually felt very confident playing the Danish teams, even though the results tell another story. We are definitely another team now and I think the teams who knew us well will feel that as well when they get to play us. Minet and trace are both great players individually. About the teamplay we are obviously not on the same level yet, but I don't feel anything is in the way for us getting there shortly.

The strengths of our team have/will change, I think we'll probably be able to play much more aggressive, relying on one-man performances. Still led by ave we will not be a completely new team, but we sure have a few tricks up our sleeve. Also combining routine with the new kids on the block has been shown to pay off several times, I'm surprised by the amount of ideas and tricks they actually know and come up with.

Your team has had some back and forth games against WeMade Fox (back to when they were eSTRO) as they tied you twice in 2008 and you traded a win and a loss at e-Stars this year. Do you have any analysis on their star player solo, who is a big fan favourite, which you could offer from your experience of playing that team?

For me their star player ain’t Solo, I would point out bail as one of their strongest players – I have heard how solo played insanely some years ago, I think it was at WEG, but the times I've played against them I noticed bail more.

Despite less than four years in the best Danish team whiMp steps away from CS with a very impressive resumt and will likely go down as one of the all time greats. How would you describe him as a player and is he the best Danish CS player ever?

Playing cs as a team on a high level is all about the team, not so much the individual player. Everyone has his role in the team; some will be more visual than others. whiMp is a great aimer, and the most reliable backup one could wish for. Ave, whiMp and I had really great teamwork which I appreciate more than individual-minded players. Whether or not he is Denmark’s best player ever I don’t know, but along with zonic he is Denmark’s most successful CS-player, and he deserves all the kind words people say about him.

Being as Minet is so unknown to people outside of Denmark what can you tell us about his playing style based on your time with him so far? What weapon or map situations should one expect to see him excel in? Can you think of a well known CS player, past or present, his style reminds you of?

He is the kind of player who, instead of spraying where most would have, tap fires a couple of bullets into the head of his target. He definitely plays ak/colt. Expect to see him take down 2-3 men while being the last defender on a bombsite, expect him to turn around some important rounds. He is the kind of player who could very well be in the spotlight in the future. I actually don’t think his game is similar to anyone I can think of.

Of all the great players who have played Neo and f0rest stand out in most people's minds as two of the very best of all time. Having played against them so many times what can you say about their playing styles? Do you feel as though when you are playing your A game and they are playing their A game you can perform at their level?

Obviously they are both great players and deserve the attention they get. When playing at their best they take on the role of one-man-armies, gunning down their opponents. They have a somewhat alike play-style, being able to position rather offensively, relying only on pure skill to take down their targets. I don’t think I have the same game-style as they do, nor do I think that it would fit well in our team, but yes I definitely think I can play on their level.

Being as objective as you can do you feel fnatic's success in 2009 has benefited from all of the other top tier teams (SK, Ex-Vitriolic, Mouz and mTw.dk) playing worse overall than in 2008? One could make the argument that 2008 was the more competitive year with the majors mTw.dk didn't win being spread out so evenly (Mouz - 2, MYM - 1, fnatic - 1, SK - 2) and with different pairings of teams in the big finals, not to mention a team like GamePlay on the outskirts consistency upsetting the bigger teams. How do you look at the two years weighing these factors up? Is the fnatic run of 2009 the best year of CS ever?

That’s a tough question; I have actually never compared 2008 to 2009 in my head. No I don’t think fnatic’s 2009 should be considered the best CS year ever. There might be something about 2009 not being as competitive as 2008, but I can't put my finger on what it is; a lot of teams have changed line-up and some have been in and out of organizations. I'd probably have to say I think 2008 was more competitive, even though it sounds like I'm promoting ourselves... which I don't mean to :). Regarding the best CS year ever it is still probably one of the years back in SK's prime (keep in mind that CS wasn't anywhere near the level it has reached today), but they won pretty much everything they touched.

(Photographs copyright of readmore and fragbite)

Visit the homepage of Sunde's team, mTw, here.