zonic Speaks Out

Anyone who's been following our recent coverage will be well aware ofFnatic Ltd.'s promotive endevour, the All-Star games. With the eventalready in motion HLTV.org prepared an interview with Asylum's zonic, who is playing for the Scandinavian region in thetournament. While the interview is mainly focused upon the All-StarGames, we touch upon such diverse subjects as girl-gaming, the skilldivision and the prospect of making friends through gaming. So withoutfurther ado, here's zonic.

HLTV.org: For the benefit of ourreaders, could you please introduce yourself and explain how you cameto play in the all-stars event?

zonic:Sure. My name is DannySørensen, I'm 19 years old and are one of the five guys in Asylum.Walle contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I wanted to play theAll-Star event, after a little thought I said yes. Unfortunately wallecan't play, but im sure XeqtR will replace him well as the 'in-gameleader'. :)


HLTV.org: Do you feel that events such as thisare a good way to provide interesting or unique viewing opportunitiesfor the community?

zonic:I think it's a great idea, and I alsothink a lot of people are going to watch the matches on Friday. Why doI think it's a great idea? It's because there's not an event like thisevery week, it's an exciting event so people won't easily get bored.Hopefully we can entertain the european scene and get Club-Fnatic inthe spotlight :)


HLTV.org: Even though this event wasbrought about for the purposes of promoting Fnatic Ltd.'s latestveture, Club-Fnatic, do you feel that tournaments such as this are agood way of uniting what can sometimes be seen as a diverse andsegregated community?

zonic:Well I wouldn't say it's a segregatedcommunity, many of the players know each other from differenttournaments, but yeah as I said before, it's not like there is atournament like this every week, so of course this is a fun concept. :)

HLTV.org:For the last few years women's gaming has been something of a hot topicwithin CS circles and the wider e-Sports scene. Many attempts have beenmade to integrate and encourage the female CS scene, some have beensucessful but the majority have failed to make a perceivable impact.With the release of the region's rosters one can see that there're nofemale participants in the teams. In what could be considered a 'fun'event once again we see female players shunned in favour of their malecounterparts. If even in an exhibition event such as this women aredenined a role, can there ever be hope for them in a community sodistinctly divided by skill?

zonic:Oiii, tough one, I haven't reador focused on the girl-gaming scene, so I'm not an expert in this area.I don't think girls will ever get accepted the the same extent as theguys, but the girl's scene is getting bigger and bigger. A lot offemale cups and ESWC running a girl's tournament is a start. I thinkthey will get accepted in time, but a lot of people will always lookdown on their scene.

HLTV.org: After competing in the hotlycontested atmosphere that the WEG III EU qualifiers provided, do youfeel that perhaps this all-star event is a more relaxed affair and willyour region's team be putting in a similar amount of practice?

zonic:I'm not going into this with 100% praticing etc. I see this as funevent, and an opportunity to entertain the scene online. I'm a badlooser, so of course I'm going to go for the win. About practice, Idon't think we are going prepare much up to the event, but the otherfour guys are ready, and so am I.

HLTV.org: The teams for thisevent represent a union of some of the most highly-skilled players fromtheir region's varying clans, even though we may practice against anopponent on multiple occasions the interaction rarely extends past theodd in-game comment or a salutory "GG" afterwards in IRC. The communityare brought together in an almost autonomous fashion - united by ourlove of the game - and yet we rarely seem to communicate to anyextensive degree with our fellow players, most tend to stick to theirsmall cliques of friends and clan-mates. In what way has this eventhelped you to 'get to know' or perhaps befriend your fellow regionalteam-mates?

zonic:Well I know a lot of them because we're all fromScandinavia, and we have some good Internet connections which makes itpossible to play Clanbase matches together etc. there are a lot of IRCchannels for practicing and people are playing alot of mixes together,so I would say the whole Scandinavian scene is their own little"clique".

HLTV.org: It could be argued that since these line-upsare basically 'mix' teams; that they're not a true test of a group'sskill because of the lack of preparation time and the ability to makeand practice some of the more complex stratagies. Conversely, it couldalso be argued that this kind of event is the ultimate test of theplayer's abilities; your team must quickly adapt to one-another'splaystyle and be able to perform to a high standard under the intensepressure that a restricted times scale enforces. What's your opinion ofthis event's format?

zonic:Well I think all the players are gonnasee this as some CB matches, have some fun and, of course, try winning.I think its time to see the fun part of this game, I think thats theimportant thing, to have fun while you play.

I felt that thiswas an honest interview with a down-to-earth guy, who doesn't underplayhis feelings on the competitive aspect of Counter-Strike. I wasespecially interested in his opinions with regard to certain socialcircles within CS. From his perspective, the Scandinavian scene seemslike a tight group of players all gathered together by the game theylove, much like the situation I posited in the previous questions. I'llhave to admit that I found this somewhat hard to swallow, it's not thatI believe he was intentionally misleading me, but I wondered: could adiverse scene really be that tight?

Coming from a UK background,the Scandiavian CS scene can often be a somewhat impenetrable entity,and I believe it's more than the language barrier and aneighty-milisecond ping difference that seperates us. Without descendinginto melodrama I can say that attitudes within the UK's CS scene can besomewhat caustic to the outside observer, and even to the seasonedinitiates (of which I count myself to be one) a community so seeminglyrife with negativity, or overly judgemental objectivity (which isreally just another branch on the tree of subjectivity) appears to liethere, lurking beneath the surface.

Perhaps we could all takesomething, not from the Scandinavian CS scene in general (though itdoes have a great many positive attributes) but from the idealism thatshould perhaps accompany the goal that should be paramount within ourcommunities, and from which the great times we've had together havebeen descended from, which is namely this: the pursuit of fun.

Thanks to zonic for answering my questions. Best of luck, Scandinavia and may we all have a share in your fortune.

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