
After having a quickie with Björn "threat" Pers yesterday, Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen from XLBet.ATS sat down with HLTV.org for a quickie.
Makesure to watch the match tonight, starting at 21:30 tonight at Intel Friday NightGame in Copenhagen. HLTV.org is on site right now making sure of everything is ready for you guys to watch the match.
XLBet.ATS has been delivering great results already, promising well for the team’s future. You managed to beat the Danish king’s mTw both several times last year and now you are on top of your Extreme Masters III group. Could it go any better for you guys for the time being, even after the latest roster change?
There's always room for improvements, and to be honest we are still shaky as a team, especially when we improvise in-game. People often misunderstand each other, but this is mostly because we are still a pretty new team. We hope to continue the positive development during this year, but it will only happen if we keep working hard and focused, and therefore it's essential that we stay motivated.
The never ending battle against mTw continues this year, do you feel you have gained in on them, or are they by far a class above you guys?
So far they are still a class above us, no doubt. They are the best team in the world, and that won’t change overnight, but I hope we'll keep closing the gap, and I think it's possible if we work hard. But we can't compare to them yet, they are simply better.
Tonight it’s Intel Friday Night Game in Copenhagen, what are you expecting of your first Intel Friday Night Game?
I'm expecting a very close and intense game vs Giants. I think there are a lot of similarities between our two teams, and people often put us in the same box, so based on that it should be a fun match to watch. I hope a lot of people will come to café and support, would be nice with some home advantage.
You will be facing Giants, a great Swedish team, who has been playing quite well lately. What are their strong and weak sides, in your opinion?
I think they consist of 5 really good individual players. They are great aimers and they are also really good in clutch situations. I suppose they might be a bit overaggressive from time to time, if I had to same something about their weak sides. It's difficult to say, course we haven’t played them before.
You are currently ranked fourth in EPS Scandinavia, with the same amount of points as four other teams. You can tonight secure a spot for the LAN finals. What do you expect from the match and who is going to win?
I think it's going to be an even match, and I think that the T-sides are going to be dominate a bit today, it always seems harder to play the CT-side on flat screens anyway. I hope we'll manage to secure the win, it could be a really big confidence booster to qualify for the finals, and we really could use the LAN experience as well.
Looking at the future, what plans do XLBet.ATS have?
WORLD DOMINATION - Our goal is to be a top10 team in the world, sniff mTw in the butt and maybe place top3 at one of the bigger international events.