HOG x FPSChallenge CoD4 Resurrection LAN Zagreb 2023 - Interview: SUNSPINX (APES)

1. Hello SUNSPINX, first of all I’d like to thank you for taking part in this interview. Currently you are playing for team APES and your line-up did not change from the last offline tournament, you will come to this competition with the well-known APES line-up again. One year passed from the last COD4 LAN, what do you think, is the team performance better now than last year? What is difference in your team actual form compared to your last year autumn performance?

Hello, I would correct you. Our lineup hasn't changed since HOG1 means that we should have good chemistry in-game and know what everyone does and what can we expect from each other. It's really hard to say how we gonna perform on the upcoming LAN as CoD4 is not that active nowadays, just like us. But yeah, we still have week and half to make progress especially when it comes to movement and aim, because that's the only thing we need to practice right now. If we are successful with aim and movement practice, we can definitely aim to reach the TOP3.

2. In 2022 you played on all thee international COD4 LANs in Zagreb and in Budapest and your performance was really outstanding. You brought home the trophy from Zagreb LAN at Spring, but at Summer your team’s hegemony was broken, and you finished at the 5-6th place. At the Autumn event you finished on the podium again in Zagreb, you reached the bronze medal. How did you felt on these LANs last year? How would you rate your performance?

We came into HOG1 with winning mindset, we wanted to show everyone that we are the best team and we can still beat all teams with slower game play unlike new school players / teams that play super aggressive (W+Shift all day long). We knew that if we can stop them in early pushes then the game is ours. Moving into Budapest Major we had totally different mindset. We felt like we are the best and we don't need to practice like before. We kinda underestimated it and yeah we lost against team that we had never had problem in online games. HOG2 was kinda different LAN compared to the two before. We had almost 32 teams, everyone practiced as much as possible and games were close. Basically any team out of TOP4 could win the LAN. I was happy with our performance even after losing to ULTRA in LB finals. We fought for every round and unfortunately it didn't work that time.

3. For a long time the Czech teams (especially Gunrunners and lately APES) dominated the COD4 LANs. It seems time is changing, and now the Croatians took the lead. Team qwertz won two times on the last two LANs. What do you think what kind of causes are behind their success?

Not gonna lie, qwertz are the most active team. If they don't play together, they play individually. So it's not really hard to see their progress, they are simply dominating the scene right now. However they haven't meet us in playoffs in Budapest/HOG2, we were always in the other part of bracket. I personally think we would have won against them in Budapest as we also totally smashed DENIED (2nd placed team) that had close game against qwertz.

4. You won seven and lost only two games in the FPSChallenge Autumn League 2023 Group Stage, which is really outstanding. How would you rate your online preparation (practice) matches in the last two months? Are you happy with the current form of your team? Did your team practice enough days according to you?

Our practice online is mostly individual + we play the league mostly. It's one of the worst practices compared to other teams but at least we can't get anti-stratted. I believe we will be back in the form in the upcoming days + warmup in LAN groups will be also good for us.

5. 16 teams are gonna participate on this LAN in Croatia now. What do you think about the teams in general?

Majority of the teams are the better teams known from previous LANs maybe with small changes. We miss a lot of mid/low tier teams. So this LAN can be close again, maybe we will see some upsets again.

6. The Groups has been revealed few days ago, what do you think about the Groups? Are them balanced based on your opinion? Which one is the strongest and which one is the easiest according to you?

They seem to be balanced. However in my opinion Group A has stronger TOP / HIGH seed teams, which might be harder for MED / LOW seed to beat them but I'd like to see upsets definitely. And talking about Group B, there is big potential for upsets. HIGH and MED seeds are much closer skillwise than in Group A. If I was MED seed, I would rather be in Group B. But being HIGH seed or TOP seed, Group A would be the choice.

7. In the last offline tournament several open-eyed participant could notice that there were a large amount of paper in front of your teammate (cDe) during the matches, which might contained analyses about the opponent teams. Usually do you analyze your rivals before the LANs in details?

We did analysis before HOG1. Basically notes about opponents during pracc/leagues/cups and of course we also replayed some demos in the fly mode to see routes of players so we know what to expect based on the smokes/nades. This time analysis will be poor due to small activity of teams but we will try our best. :D

8. Which teams you consider as the biggest threat (rival) for APES? Furthermore, who is the player(s) especially who can make hard time for your team?

It's definitely qwertz and ULTRA. But if I had to choose one I would say ULTRA. We are simply unable to win against french teams, it happened in our last two LANs and hopefully we will be in the opposite bracket this time. Maybe it's worth to mention team Kolegove. It's Czech team that knows how we play and these games are always too close.

9. What is your prediction about TOP3 of this LAN event? Based on your opinion which player(s) has the biggest chance to win the LAN MVP award?

I would like to say APES as a winning team, but the TOP3 without APES could be 1. qwertz, 2. ULTRA, 3. WAPANDA. Based on the activity of players and results I'd say it's gonna be one of these: COOKIE / Ljustvo / ISNO.

10. What are your expectations about your team’s performance on this Zagreb LAN? What kind of final result would you be satisfied with?

We want to enjoy this LAN and have a good time. However, our goal, as always, is to win the LAN or at least be in TOP3.

11. What do you think, which team will surprise the community? Who is your secret favorite, that is underestimated by the other teams, but you know they will perform really well?

I would like to see Kolegove surprising everyone, they are my favorite here. I played with neitheR for longer time and he would really deserve a good result. He is very underrated player in the community.

12. We have seen some promising pictures from the LAN venue, and you already played two times in this esport arena. How would you rate the HOG esport arena? Are you feeling hyped about the upcoming event?

Release of CS2 kinda ruined my hype for LAN but as it's getting closer and closer it is slowly coming back. Without doubts HOG is the best venue in which we had CoD4 LANs. I only dislike one part and that's the smoking room. It's kinda bad when you are on stage and you have to breathe it because some people tend to stand between doors and not closing them.

13. Thank you for taking part in the interview. In addition, thank you for your hard work what to do day by day for this lovely community. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Thank you too for doing this interview. I would like to say only one thing to everyone - enjoy this game and LAN, it's only us few playing this game and there is no need to insult each other.