Event: NGI LAN 2
I have embarked on Italian soil on Wednesday morning with the hope that vicious, top world's UT player (for all you ignorants ,) would pick me up as promised. He was nowhere to be seen in the vicinity for about twenty minutes or so. Knowing his sleeping habits, I figured that there is a fair chance that I find his place before he wakes up. So on the bus karmak goes and wee, we are seeing Milan. I must admit, it is one of the nicest cities I have visited (eat your heart out London) but enough was enough, I called vicious when I knew I was five minutes away from his place. It turned out that he had been at the airport after all, having set a new record for his wake-up time at the impressive hour of 8.45.

Soon, I met the rest of the crew, including vicious' training partner, Ryo-Saeba. It was like meeting friends you hadn't seen for a long time. We talked, went to eat something and then the guys trained for the WCG qualifier. I must admit that I saw a piece of good UT, watching these two guys duel. Both are very well prepared and it will be a surprise if either doesn't get his ticket to Korea.

Later, Ricky drove me to FilaForum, the venue of the NGI LAN. I was surprised. I expected something nice but... The place is a big sports dome with about 7.000 spectator seats used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. The NGI people were working their asses off to make it sound and switch, the network administrator, was running around as if she had a bee hive in her jeans. Let's just hope that the level of play exceeds the organisation level, then we will have a wonderful tournament, because the Italians are doing a really good job preparing the place. On the spot I picked up some very interesting gossip about E-Sports and UT2003 but I can't say a word about it although it would be some hot news, I tell ye!

In the evening, despite my being completely beat, the guys took me to town, to have fun. Fun it was. We went to a pub somewhere in the centre and all the people were outside, going inside only to buy some beer. I will spare you the account of what we were doing, I will just brag a little that the Italians were really impressed with my ability to be rude in their mother tongue :)

On the next day we went out for some breakfast and bought Republica, apparently the biggest Italian newspaper. Inside, we found an interview with 'Vicius' (this is how they spelled it). The nickname was not the worst part though. The journalist got mixed up with Ricky's family name and it the effect was quite funny (I will spare you the details as I believe vic would not like this to become his new nickname ;).

Instead of boring you with what we did and what we did not do, I decided to talk vicious into a three-question pre-tournament interview.

You are definitely the favourite to win the qualifier, do you think someone has a chance to push you or Ryo-Saeba out of the top 2?

We have practised a lot, me and Fabri (Ryo-Saeba), and we are really well prepared for the event. If everything goes right and neither of us gets a stroke of bad luck, we should meet in the final. And if we get to fight for first place it is really going to be an even battle. Ryo is majorly underrated outside Italy but everyone who underestimates him is making a big mistake, he is a great player. Both of us might do really well in the Korean finals if we qualify!

Some very good duelers will attend NGI LAN 2, are you going to have a go at GitzZz for example?

I still have to decide on this. I would like to be focused on the qualifier so it would be best for me to just practise with Ryo and concentrate on my tournament. On the other hand, there going to be a bunch of skilled players here and it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to play them. Yes, a three-mapper with GitzZz would be a very nice experience :>

There are two German teams in the TDM competition - shuuk and esu, both favourites. Which one do you think will be the victor?

I think shuuk. It is just a matter of that they have been active all the time while eports united haven't played an official match for quite a few months since their CB title win as Ocrana... this has to make a really big difference.

What's for dinner?

Spaghetti alla carbonara :>

So much for vic, tomorrow the event starts and I promise to mind Quake and RtCW a but more (CS... well, maybe :), it is just that I haven't had a chance to get any info on them. You can find the official timeline here. What you cannot find there is an UT2003 presentation which I will most likely take part in. Later!
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