FPS COD4 Winter League 2022 - Interview: ISNO (qwertz)

We have interviewed Ricardo "ISNO" Van Eck who has been playing CoD4 for years, attended many LANs and now is fighting in Tier 1 league with the best CoD4 teams.
 

1. Hello ISNO, first of all I'd like to thank you for taking part in this interview. Could you introduce yourself to the people that don't know you?

Hey, My name is Ricardo I'm from the Netherlands and i live in Eindhoven. I work as a teamleader at Eindhoven Valet Parking Service. And I've been playing COD4 since around 2010 competitively.

2. I've seen that you are posting photos of your son recently with you but you've never showed his mother / your partner. Why is that? Do you still find time to play after spending days with your son?

Unfortunately i'm not together anymore with the mother of my son. Things didn't work out and it's now better than the way it was before. I see my son around 3 days in the week. And I can play some when he's with his mother or when he is sleeping.

3. You are already playing CoD4 for 12 years. You attanded many LANs, took part in leagues such as ClanBase / CyberGamer. How would you compare the past and the present when we talk about the META and competetivness between the teams? Is it still worth playing this game or what keeps you here?

Think it's hard to compare. Over the years players and teams got more experienced and improved a lot. But there are also less players to compete with. When I heard FPSChallenge launched last year I downloaded COD4 again and tried to play some ladder games. Instantly got hooked up again cause of the nostalgie and the fun to play against or with some names again that I knew from the time that I still played.

4. Let's talk about the Winter League now. This time you decided to play with Croatian team called qwertz. What happened to your old team that is called DBEPAINS now?

After 2 leagues with bad results me & dltr decided to split with Jeyzka & co. We were more aggresive and they played more passive that didn't work out in the end. Nonetheless we enjoyed playing and became good friends with the germans afterwards. Me and Chris tried to find a team together to give it a last shot but couldnt find a team that needed 2 players. After some weeks i got approached by Ljustvo if i would like to play with them. I played a few games and it clicked instantly very good. I would like to mention that new DBEPAINS looks promising with whadez and G4box

5. By this change you have new teammates that you've never played with and you are the only one not speaking Croatian. What is the atmosphere in your new team? Did they switch from Croatian to English or what is the communication?

I've played with Ljustvo some mixes  before so we already knew each other. When I learned to know the others it clicked immediatly very good. We try to talk English most of the time, when they need to communicate together when I'm dead they talk Croatian but it's all fine for me. It doesn't bother me at all.

6. I know it can be hard to say after two weeks but what are your stengths and weaknesses in the team?

Good question. I think this will be a very strong lineup. They are all 4 amazing players that surprised me alot in the last month we play. SMG's are crazy like bulldozers. and Cookie/Sopa have good patience with very nice aim. Can't tell weaknesses yet, I think it's for the opponent teams to find out :)

7. What are your expectations and which team you consider as the biggest threat for you?

I think we can get really far. For myself I'm not ''scared'' for any teams. The more better they are the more I enjoy playing them. I think the most difficult will be to beat DENIED or Unknown. 2 teams that improved a lot in the last year and are very hard to beat.

8. What's your predictions for TOP3 of each Tier?

Tier 1 I think/hope will be qwertz,denied,unknown.
Tier 2 I guess, S1ck, KokkeliVekkulit and prestige.
Will be nice to see other teams placing high like Radar,DBEPAINS and Ducks. and in tier 2, hopefully VDBE.

9. Do you plan to continue playing with these guys and attend Croatian LAN?

For sure! I'm really curious how far this lineup can go. For now we put the focus on Winter League and try to aim 1st or atleast top3.
Hopefully the Croatia lan will happen to have a chance to show what I can do on lan for the last time. And to see some old faces that I haven't see in years.

10. Is there something else you'd like to say?

Thanks for all the effort you guys put into FPS Challenge, Cause of you guys we can still enjoy the game we love competitivly.