Event: ESWC'08
<img src="http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2397/dkteditez5.jpg" align="right" /><b>Helloooo, please start by stating some general information about yourself plus one interesting fact about yourself which the readers may not know...</b><blockquote>My name is Brian Flander, my alias is dkt which is actually short for destrukt. One interesting fact about me is that I am 26 years old, married, own a house, with a cat!</blockquote><b>And what is the cats name? Colour?</b>
<blockquote>My cats name is Cooper and he is all white.</blockquote><b>How long you been married? </b>
<blockquote>I've been married 2 years and 2 months.</blockquote><b>Any talk of having kids?</b>
<blockquote>Yea. :) Maybe next year even :)</blockquote><b>Nice =) You know how many you plan to have?</b>
<blockquote>No idea =P Probably around 2-3</blockquote><b>Ok...You qualified for the finals by finishing 2nd, behind rapha in the US qualifiers. How do you feel about them being held online rather than on LAN?</b>
<blockquote>For a guy like me, I actually liked the fact it was held online. I'm usually a pretty busy guy and having it online allowed me to balance my schedule. I mean, most people think every tournament and qualifier should be on LAN with some prize money or something, but honestly that just isn't realistic. That is why we've seen so many companies come and go, because they all tried to be big hot shots with LANs.</blockquote><b>You won the WB Final with an amazing performance (I personally was in awe) and then rapha won the finals quite convincingly, what happened?</b><blockquote>I was extremely well prepared for the WBF. I had been playing a few hours every day leading up to that. I was well rested and extremely focused, I knew what had to be done. In the grand finals - it didn't matter. We were both qualified already, so honestly I didn't care that much. The day we played I had actually been out of town with family for an American holiday, Memorial Day. So after 5 days of not playing, the match basically being for nothing, and then playing rapha hours after I get home - it didn't work out too well.</blockquote><b>You chose not to attend both GameGune and the ESWC Masters; why was that?</b>
<blockquote>ESWC Masters was actually during the CGS Season. I was at the CGS leading up to masters the entire time with barely any practice at all. It would have been silly for me to try and go. GameGune could have been possible, but my wife and I had planned that week out to refinish our kitchen cupboards, which we did. The cost of going to the event vs the prize money, it didn't make sense either.</blockquote><b>In season 2 of the CGS (Championship Gaming Series) your team failed to make it to the playoffs, how did you feel about this season and your teams performance compared to the previous year?</b>
<blockquote>Well, obviously this season was basically a failure. My CS:S team and my DoA players really underperformed and unfortuantely those are the two games you absolutely need to succeed in the CGS. However, next season I'll have the #2 pick in the draft, so things will most likely improve dramatically.</blockquote><b>Do you think the CGS can be successful in the long term and if so to what extent?</b>
<blockquote>Absolutely. I think CGS WILL be successful in the long term. In fact, in my opinioin, it already is a success. I mean think about it, they are broadcasting salaried professional gamers on LIVE television in a fantastic production lead by a man who has produced the Olympics and won 11 Emmy awards. The CGS will open up pro gaming to the general audience even more then it already has, simply by showing people how high of a skill level games can be played.</blockquote><b>You entered both 1v1 and CTF tournaments at Quakecon, how do you find Quake Live as a tournament game and as a whole?</b>
<blockquote>I think QuakeLive is a fantastic game and I think id software did a very good job. It really is q3 at its roots, but the changes they've made and the QuakeLive website is just awesome. I thought the game played great for a tournament. Once they get some good new maps like tourney7, I think we'll see Quake become mainstream once again.</blockquote><b>What do you think the chances are of it being used in a future CGS season?</b>
<blockquote>Honestly, no idea. It's chances are as good as any other games chances.</blockquote><b>Did you sit and watch the 1v1 finals at Quakecon? What do you think of how the players were treated with all the main stage activities before hand?</b>
<blockquote>Yes, I did. I felt like the QuakeLive 1v1 finals took a back seat to all the other events. Maybe they had "save the best for last" mentality, but it didn't seem that way. Sponsors and teams invested major dollars to send players to these events. I don't know about you, but if I was organizing an event like this I would want some high profile gamers to come. I would want the hardcore to be there, and I would want to treat them well. I would definitely treat the tournaments much more serious. Also...
TOURNAMENT ORGANIZERS: NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER AGAIN PUT THE TOURNAMENT AREA NEXT TO THE LOUDEST BOOTH. DO NOT PUT THE TOURNAMENT AREA NEXT TO BLARING MUSIC. EVER. THANK YOU.</blockquote><b>I understand you have a new keyboard out, tell me about it...Were you involved in the design? Will you be using it in the ESWC Finals?</b>
<blockquote>Yes, I was involved in everything. The DKTBoard has been out a few months now and many pro gamers use it. ZeRo4, myself, and many pro CGS CS players use the keyboard as well. Personally, I think it is the best keyboard you can buy and I'm not even trying to be stupid about it. It really is the best keyboard you can buy for the money. You can see a review and buy it at <a href="http://www.everglide.com">www.evergli...b>Going into the ESWC Finals how are you going to prepare for it? Where do you hope to finish?</b>
<blockquote>I'm flying to Orlando, FL for 5 days to LAN with chance. We are going to practice pretty hard and try and prepare each other for the event. Then once I get home I'll be playing online for the next week or so leading up to the event. I hope to win, obviously that will be very difficult, but it would be silly for me to try and do anything other then that.</blockquote><b>How likely is it of Team USA bringing back a gold?</b>
<blockquote>It is very likely actually. We will have 5 players there, all of which who are extremely good players.</blockquote><b>Top 3 predictions?</b>
<blockquote>I don't have any. If the last couple of events are any type of indication I'd have to guess Cypher, Av3k, Jibo, in no particular order. However, this tournament will be much different then the others I think.</blockquote>