Hello Kioshima, before moving on to the Dreamhack topic, let’s go back a bit: you finished second at ESWC 2014, are you rather disappointed with this performance or do you think fnatic were really better?

Hello, it’s a little bit of both. We struggled to get into this final either mentally or in-game. Maybe we needed one more headshot during some specific rounds to change the tide of the game. We will never know, so yeah a little disappointed by our performance during the final.

Finally, the team decided to withdraw from the Caseking of the Hill finals. For what reasons? To focus on another event? Or was that an opportunity for the team to catch his breath after a busy schedule?

We withdrew from Caseking of the Hill finals because we needed some rest. Playing four Lans, with bootcamps meaning intensive training, it’s not easy and the minds become tired.  

Despite this free period, you end up with the second place at Fragbite Masters, what conclusions do you draw from the event? After this new defeat against Fnatic, does the team remain confident?

We went to the Fragbite Masters without real practice since ESWC so the variations in our game weren’t really there, and fnatic knew us perfectly. They studied our game for the ESWC, which was the same than during the Fragbite. A positive point is that we managed to win a map without changing our game so yes, our team remains confident for the future.

What do you think your team need to finally beat fnatic and be considered as the number 1?

That’s a good question that we ask ourselves very often, and I think that what we need is a faster adaptation of our opponents’ strategy when we are ingame.

We know that the DH offers a pre-event bootcamp. Are you planning on going there? What will your preparation be?

No, we won’t go to this bootcamp, we’ll be in our gaming room to peacefully prepare our tournament and not be mixed with all the other team that could be able to see our preparation, what maps we’re training, etc… The idea of a bootcamp is really nice but without private space, I doubt that any “big” team is gonna go there, except if there are separate areas added. But even with this, for the teams coming from the same countries, it’s still possible to hear some things (except if the players end up on an opaque and soundproof bubble, isolated from everything :D)

The other day, KQLY and Sf got VAC banned. This means they won’t be coming to the DH winter. What are your thoughts about it? You played with both of them, are you surprised?

 When you’ve been playing with those people, it’s way harder to be objective and suspect your own teammates to cheat. What surprises me the most is that it happened to the two french guys only while apparently many others are concerned too (everybody knows about this list that came out of nowhere :O).
I want to clarify that, after thinking about this list, the only mentioned names are the ones from growing players, which means players from the sub-top that managed to reach the top! Is this list actually true or was it created just because of some hate or jealousy?

You are logically ending up being the only french team there, an additional pressure ?

An additional pressure, non. The goal remains the same, reach the final and, this time, become the winners!

You wrote some weird things on twitter the other day and your inventory got emptied. Can you explain us what happened?

 To come back on this story, let’s take the things as they really are. I was peacefully in my bed around 12PM when all of a sudden my phone started to vibrate non-stop. It was getting obnoxious so I opened one eye and tried to understand where it came from - small moment of incomprehension - A WEAVE A TWITTER NOTIFICATIONS?!? Curious to see what was going on, I opened it and saw several messages that I never posted. I ran to my computer, turned it on and discovered that I had no longer access to my Twitter account. The name got changed, same for the email! Luckily, my phone was still connected (Thank GOD), so I activated the phone validation system right away and waited for the backup processus to end (it took more than three hours).
Anyway, after this I got worried about my other accounts (Steam, emails, etc…), so I decided to remove my items and transfer them to another account until I managed to secure them all by phone. It was only on the friday 21st november around 3PM that everything was secured again! I want to precise that he only got access to my twitter account and one of my numerous mail account that isn’t linked to my steam account (fortunately).

Thank you for answering our questions. We let you add anything you wish.

 Thanks for this interview. I wanted to thanks all the people following us, TEAM-LDLC and its sponsors CM Storm, Crucial, AOC without who we wouldn't be able to participate to all the events!