Guest post by @LiamHorley1
I spoke with Rickard "Secretly" Olofsson from team Euronics about the upcoming Invitationals and to discuss the qualifier.
Euronics can be followed on Twitter @EuronicsGaming and be sure to follow @SecretlyR6!
How were the members recruited?
We started off as a mixed team in late season 2/early season 3. We were basically just some random guys without teams. We decided to make one and it turned out really well. Shootex was our 6th player at the time, but came to be a main player in early season 3.
Where do your names come from?
My name (Secretly) comes from a inside joke among my friends, I thought it was an okay name and kept using it. Pannari means Pancake in finnish, he really likes pancakes. ShooTeX wanted the letter x in his name, found the word shooter pretty cool, replaced R with X and there you have it. Renuilz got his name from the Swedish word for Reindeer but it felt to short so he added a few letters. Snooken has had his nickname for longer than he can remember, snooken is a type of Swedish Snake.
How long have you been playing Siege?
Pannari, Shootex and Snooken have played the game since the release in December, I started playing around March, and Renuilz around April or May.
How often do you play Siege?
Pretty much every day. Between our 5 days off 3-4 hours of practice everyone plays ranked for a few hours almost every day, we play a lot of Siege.
What other games do you play?
We all enjoy playing other shooters as well, like Counter Strike and H1Z1, but other than that everyone has a few games they really enjoy. I am personally really into WW2 shooters. Snooken enjoys a lot of Hack ‘n’ slash games like Path of Exile. If Renuilz wasn't playing Siege he would be replacing it with World of Warcraft. Shootex plays everything, FPS, RPG, racing games, as long as it is competitive. Pannari really enjoys survival games and RPGs.
Do you have any sponsors, if so could you explain who your sponsors are and what they offer/sell?
As you can tell by our name we are sponsored by Euronics, which is a buying group, or easier said a big group of independent stores. They are the leading electrical retail group in Europe. Intel, the company making the Processors most gamers prefer to put in their computers. And Omen by HP, a company making high end gaming computers. Our newest sponsor is Corsair which is a leading gaming peripheral manufacturer. Everything is under the name EURONICS Gaming and with that organization we really have a solid backup.
What do you see for the future of Siege?
Siege has a great future, and I hope there will be more competition and more players being interested in competitive Siege. The dream is for the scene to be big enough that players can be fulltime Siege players.
What would you change about Siege?
I love this game, but it still lacks that little bit of polish when it comes to disconnects, ping issues, hitreg and such. Also, don't listen to Reddit about Blackbeard, he is finally kinda balanced.
Canadian of the s3 PC champion team Continuum implied on twitter that he felt the EU was more prepared than NA. Would you agree with this?
I thought it would be the opposite considering that some of the EU teams had roster changes and limited practice time but after watching the games I have to agree. In the NA games it felt like the teams didn't have control over what was going on and it looked really "puggy". I am really looking forward to seeing what the NA teams have planned for Montreal, as I am sure they will be well prepared for the 6 Invitational.
How did you feel about the double elimination for the qualifiers?
I really enjoy double elimination, it gives everyone a fair chance of winning, even if you have 1 bad game there is still a possibility to recover and win the grand final.
Would you prefer a different format?
I would prefer if it was not all done during one day or at least a schedule that allowed for some breaks. Maybe a bo5 for the finals instead, as it felt like winning 1 map was to quick of a final.
Which team do you feel will be your biggest competition?
Continuum (cTm) have proved themselves on LAN and have been really consistent in the NA scene, so I feel like they will be a team to look out for. Gifu are also veterans on LAN and probably the most consistent team in the world overall, so looking forward to seeing them again on LAN.
Are you nervous about playing with completely new teams?
The team is really looking forward to it, especially playing against the Asian and Brazilian teams. After watching some of their games it's easy to see that the meta in those regions are completely different, seeing what region is strongest is gonna be a lot of fun.
What will you change when you play the other nationalities?
I think the overall game plan will be the same, whatever happens in the game will have to decide if any changes is needed.
Any shoutouts you’d like to give?
Shoutout to our organization and sponsors. Shoutout to TangyD for always stepping in when we need him. Thanks to everyone who was cheering for us during Pro League and the qualifier for the 6 Invitational, you guys are awesome!
Thanks to Rickard for the interview and we look forward to seeing Euronics playing soon in Montreal!
