As we countdown to the ESWC Finals, the Norwegian team Meet Your Makers are next in line for our interview process.

Recently Meet Your Makers (mYm) recruited Lars "Naikon" Olaisen to replace Thomas "DaY" Rudstrøm. The move came only a month before the ESWC Finals and a change so close could end up in ruining the team's chances of success.

We spoke to Henrik "Kepler" Andersen, team manager, to see his thoughts and views on the upcoming ESWC Finals:

You have recently brought Naikon into the squad to replace DaY. How do you think this will effect the team mentally and physically for the ESWC finals?

I think it will change for the better, since with Naikon comes more focus on preparation. so both mentally and physically will be better prepared.

Can Naikon replace DaY easily or does he have a different playing style so that the team has to change their style of play?

Not two players are the same, and we will ajust our gameplay a bit.

How are the team preparing for the [ESWC] finals?
We start of online from mid june, and then from june 27 until we leave for paris, we will be bootcamping in Nethouse2000, our sponsored gamingcenter in Copenhagen.

mYm are one of the few teams to receive an invite to the ESWC. How does it feel to be at the sort of status where you receive an invite at an event like this?

Well i dont think we got the invite because we are special in that way, we got it because theres no qualifier in norway so ESWC just looked at the best team in norway and invited them, and we are by far the best in norway.


Out of the Scandinavian countries would it be fair to say Norway has the weakest CS Scene? If so, why do you think this is?

Hmm well imo i think the order would be: Sweden, denmark/Norway on the same level, and then finland as the worst country. I know that theres topteams in all of them, but if u see it on a broader view i think thats how it looks.

What does it take to win an event like ESWC?

Preparation, luck and skill

Recently top players like zet, Red and Mangiacapra have made the move to CS: Source. Why do you think this is and can you see many other gamers following this trend?

Well, maybe they got tired and wanted to try something new, and then ofc the chance of getting a steady salary. and yes i do belive that we are see the beginning of a change, so more players will follow.


What are your predictions for the top 3?

As always we do try to go for the gold, so i see our selfs in a top3. But theres so many great teams down there, so its hard to predict. But it will be among, MYM, fnatic, NoA, Mibr, Pentagram, alternate attax and Mousesports

Read the rest of the ESWC interviews here.