Interview with mTw.int:

Team-Captain: Martin „guddo“ Cording
Age: 21
Player: Alexander „ave“ Holdt
Age: 19
Player: Jonas „whimp“ Svendsen
Age: 19

Interview done by Christian „[pp]confuser[/pp]“ Faller

At the end of the last year, Martin „guddo“ Cording, manager of the former Team NoA, decided to join up with mTw.PokerRoom with the whole roster. The 21 year old Scandinavian is one of the best-known persons in his business for many reasons. We asked him and two players of mTw.int about the changes in the lineup and the current situation. He’s also giving information on the plans for the year 2008.
 

mymTw: The team’s latest success, has been in winning the SLAP LIVE in Denmark, where you were able to proof your stregth with a walkover through the WinnerBracket. How do you judge the result of the tournament?

whimp: The win at SLAP Live was really important for us since we have always been on the top of Danish CS. We had some close matches, however, we didn’t really consider them as close because a lot of the rounds were basically our own fault. But when we kept focus and played our game we proved that we are capable of doing some serious damage.

mymTw: Did you feel like having a certain "home field advantage" over some other teams you beat there by playing in Denmark?

whimp: I don’t think so, it might be the other way around since we have won almost every LAN-event in Denmark for the last two years and therefore I guess that the other teams are lusting for our downfall!

mymTw: The community vote for the Seoul e-Stars Continental Cup is currently running. With a pricepool of 75.000 US-$, the tournament is quite profitable and there’s a lot of prestige at stake. How important would it be for mTw.int to participate in it?

whimp: It would be very important because it is one of the big events this summer and there will be a lot of strong teams and of course Seoul is a beautiful city. Therefore I would kindly ask for the German CS-community to vote for us!


mymTw: With your win at the SLAP LIVE, you indirectly beat SoA once again. Are they currently your strongest opponent within the country or do you think that other teams have potential as well?

whimp: We didn’t beat SoA, however, I regard SoA as one of the toughest opponents at the moment but they should have kept their old line-up even though they had some internal problems. Teamplay and time spent together in a team are underrated in my opinion.

mymTw: Your last results shows that you presently seem to be the most powerful Danish team. So at the CeBiT, you were chosen to compete for Denmark at the SEC. Now, in your opinion, what’s your actual ranking within the international top teams?

whimp: I won’t give you a number of a top-x, I will let the results of this year speak for it self (smiles)

mymTw: Concerning the Danish EPS, you are as already mentioned the dominating team. Of what importance is the EPS.dk for the country’s eSport community?

whimp: I believe that a strong league with a lot of teams which are decided by qualifiers are good for the Danish CS community because it gives a lot of teams the opportunity to play versus the best and also gives them something to play for. I think it helps to improve the skill-level of the Danish CS-teams.

mymTw: With whimp, you also added a new player to your roster, replacing hpx. Some time has passed now since the decision was made. Does he fit into the lineup and are you pleased with the progress the team makes?

ave: Yes, definitely. whimp is a great person and a player who probably is able to fit into every team. I think most of the players who played on a team with him, would love to have him in their roster. We’ve played with him for about 2 months now, and we’re still developing our teamplay nicely. The adjustment in Sunde switching to AWP has also added some new possibilities in our game.

mymTw: Few months have passed now, since you joined mTw.PokerRoom. Are you satisfied with your decision to join the german gaming-organisation?

ave: mTw Sports showed us stability and good cooperation even though we have had some bad months, so yes - we are satisfied! Thanks to René, Lars, Sebastian, Andreas and the rest of the crew.

mymTw: So what are your goals for the upcoming events in 2008? Which tournaments are you going to attend presumably?

ave: This year our goal is to win a final. Last year we finished second at two of the grandslams, ESWC and WCG. With that in mind we are more eager than ever to prepare ourselves for the big events this year. We will attend KODE5 in May and hopefully ESWC and e-Stars Seoul this summer. Besides that we will try to attend as many events as possible.

mymTw: Guddo, you are able to speak German fluently for a long time now. Why is it, that you master so many languages and was it helpful for you while struggling with the management each day?

guddo: I don’t know actually, I’ve never studied languages. Travelling around the world helped me develop my communication skills through meeting a variety of people in, over the time, pretty many nations. It is very helpful in order to communicate with the organisation, tournament-organizers and foreign teams.

mymTw: Probably that’s one of the reasons why you’re a very well known team-captain. What exactly is your role in the team? I mean you already sticked with most of the players for a long time and developed great friendships with these guys. Is this why there is such a strong company between all of you?

guddo: As I said many times now; the players only need to focus on playing their game. Besides that I take care of the players; act in the media/public, try to marketing them individually, etc. I think the main reason for our strong friendship is that we all strive to perform our best as a team and enjoy teasing eachother.

mymTw: I guess you got to know the German language much better during the last months. How do you like it?

guddo: If I don’t speak a language for a while I have some small problems finding the words in my head. Those words are getting easier and easier to find due to the communication with the management. I like dialogues in the same language!

mymTw: Thus, you could imagine accepting an offer as a player within the German team - oder auch bei den hamburger Jungs zu wohnen? (laughs)

guddo: I strongly doubt that! (laughs)

mymTw: All right, thank you for the interview! Finally you got the chance to greet your fans or anyone else.

guddo: Thanks to all our fans and our sponsors PokerRoom.com, SPEED-LINK and Foxconn – we really appreciate your support. Vote for mTw.int at the eStars Seoul vote!