HOG x FPSChallenge COD4 Zagreb LAN 2022 - Interview: G4box (ULTRA)

1. Hello G4box, first of all I’d like to thank you for taking part in this interview. You were able to achieve outstanding results both in COD2 and here in COD4, only a few players could reach the same. Could you introduce yourself to the people who do not know you?

Hello,thank you aswell for inviting me to do this interview. Indeed I have managed to achieve some really nice results in multiple games. My nickname is G4box should be familiar to old players mostly in COD2 of course everything started back then on clanbase. I was pretty young nobody wanted to take me but I managed to put some teams together and we participated almost every LAN of our country called ICL. I played a lot of grand finals both COD2 & COD4 unfortunately I lost all of them I mostly blame it on as being a kid and no experience. As far as we talk about best results I would highlight which I am proud of is my Battalion 1944 First place in Belgium GENT with GameAgents (bmblbe,Sp1RiT,Sk1lzZ,bluean6el and me) at Victory_LAN and my Prague The Last Stand V cod2 victory with team Martians (Sp1RiT,Sk1lzZ,blavex,daaaneeez and me).

2. Currently you are playing for team +ULTRA and your line-up did not change from the last offline event. Four months passed, what do you think, is the team spirit better now than in June? Do you have better relationship with your mates?

Yes, we decided to stay together as +ULTRA after Budapest FPSChallange LAN third place, which I am very disappointed with. We pretty much had up and downs in these 4 months, but we could always get up no matter what so that is what the most important is as long as the mental is stable there is no problem. Relationship wise is much better we had time to get to know each other and enjoy the game together.

3. What do you think, are you stronger now than before the previous LAN? What is difference in you current form compared to your early summer performance?

I do think there are some parts of the game where we are stronger for example communication, which was really chaos at the summer because we had literally zero time to play. So in difference I would say we have much more defaults, synergies and nade setups.

4. You played on the last two international COD4 LANs in Zagreb and in Budapest this year and your performance was really outstanding. You could surprise everybody and took home a prominent bronze medal from FPSChallenge Budapest LAN. How did you felt on these LANs in April and in June? How would you rate your performance?

It felt really good I enjoyed both LANs although the Zagreb one was really unlucky played my longest offline game ever against APES around 6-7 overtimes had a really good time. As I said before I am mostly disappointed about the third place on Budapest for us it was not a surprise third place we definetly went for the win. I had some really nice games perfomance wise until we were leading qwertz 1-0 in maps on upper bracket then I had some unfortunate situations that I could not really play my game as my brother went crazy drinking, atleast everybody had a good laugh I guess. :D

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

I saw the pictures of the Venue, I think this venue is great and has everything to play a competitive LAN the stage looks sick. Of course I am hyped can't wait already for the LAN to happen, the only reason I am still playing is because of the LANs.

6. You won three and lost three games in the FPSChallenge Autumn League 2022. How would you rate your online preparation (practice) matches in the last two or three months? Are you happy with the current form of your team? Could your team practice enough days according to you?

The Autumn League for us is just for preparations for the LAN we are there to try out things especially in the Groups there were matches where we picked map which we wanted to practice. Current form is that the team is really motivated and trying to improve everyday, which is enough for me doesn't matter if we have some bad games online. Unfortunately with new some new jobs (promotions) we couldn't take as many days to play as we wanted to but we are going to spend last days playing that we have and I think it should be enough.

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

We are definetly going to Zagreb for the first place, just warmup in Groups and then roll the playoffs with a big mentality thats our plan.

8. 29 teams are gonna participate on this LAN. Since 2013, no COD4 LANs with so many participants has been organized. What do you think about the teams in general?

In my opinion this is going to be a great LAN, the competition is really high and I am pretty sure that there will be some surprises from the HIGH tier teams.

9. 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?

Organisers did a good job once again, Groups are fine I have never been really focused on Groups for me its just getting warmed up and even if you win all of them its just for confidence boosting. Hard to say, which is the strongest or easiest because there are teams, who performs online pretty much good and then offline is just another thing. Really depends on what form are we actually looking at but I would say D is the easiest and all the other ones are kinda equal.

10. Which teams you consider as the biggest threat (rival) for ULTRA?

There are atleast 4 teams who can suprise even top seeds as I said but we only keep an eye on 3 top seeds and investigate their gameplay other than that it only depends on us what perfomance we show.

11. What is your prediction about TOP3 of this LAN event?

My top3 prediction not gonna include ourself simply just to not put more pressure on our backs so i would say: 1. qwertz, 2.APES, 3. DENIED.

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

My secret favourite is Albion Giants they will have the power of a new team and a lot of teams doesnt know anything about them gameplay wise and i hope they gonna do good.

13. Thank you for taking part in the interview. Is there anything you'd like to add?

If anybody wants to eat a manly extra big kebab teller and not just child burger king at the LAN feel free to contact me.