HOG x FPSChallenge COD4 Zagreb LAN 2022 - Interview: mau (Carrying the Hobbit)

1. Hello mau, first of all I’d like to thank you for taking part in this interview. Could you introduce yourself to the people who do not know you?

Hi ZEHIRRR! Thank you for inviting me to this interview, it’s nice to see that the community voted to know more about us! I am mau, I’ve been playing promod since 2010 with multiple breaks over the years. People might know me from eNigma (ROBBERd, timb, pERRYEz, uzuma/rEb1rth/wubyeez and me) where we won CGa season 2 and played in CGm, rave-on (ROBBERd, ph1l, murky, replay and me) and Playfive (neyki, rEjexx, murky, JEYZKAA and me) where we both played in CGi and in later years with the Slovenian team CONTROL (ROBBERd/eksor, turtle, lohwi, celezi and me).

2. Currently you are playing for team Carrying the Hobbit, could you tell us your story? How long has your team been playing together in this formation and how did you find each others?

We are a group of friends that hang out with each other nearly every day on Teamspeak and play all kind of games together. We were not really up to date with the cod community until dynz got asked to play for VDBE and we decided to create a team as well. We had troubles finding 5th player and also a LAN spot since all of them were already taken and that’s why we decided for ROBBERd to drop scope and take a chance with the French player Steel. We’re back for around 3 months now.

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your team?

Our biggest strength is probably a huge amount of LAN experience. I’d say our weakness at the moment is definitely communication in English rather than in Dutch.

4. Unfortunately the community could not see you on the last two international LAN this year, but now everyone pays special attention to you and your team. Are you excited about the LAN? Have you used to go to LAN events before? How much LAN experience do you have from offline events?

We didn’t go to these LANs simply because we didn’t really know they were going on. Obviously, we are really excited to go to LAN again and hopefully show everyone what we’re capable of. We all have a lot of LAN experience, except for Steel. Personally, I went to 28 LANs and 19 of them were with ROBBERd, so we will have our 20th LAN anniversary :’)

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

To be honest, I’ve only seen a few pictures but it looks promising so far. I’ve been to Zagreb a few times and seen the old venue and it will definitely be an improvement. I’ll probably not be able to talk after LAN, it’s going to be so much different than online!

6. You won your all games in FPSChallenge Autumn League 2022 TIER 2 and lost only one single map, which is really promising. 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? Did your team practice enough days according to you?

We have practiced as much as we could, which is 2 days per week on average. At the moment I feel like we are TIER 1 worthy, we’ve won a lot of high tier teams in pcw’s, but also got smashed. The skill ceiling is higher in my opinion and teams are harder to read nowadays, it’s a huge difference from the early days of cod.

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

We have a hard group and it’s really difficult to predict the outcome but I feel like we can cause an upset if we have a good day and our communication is on point. I think we should go in with confidence and aim for the first place, even if it isn’t realistic. I’d be satisfied if we make it out of the groups, everything from there is just a plus.

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

Looks like this is the most stacked LAN in a while considering the level of the teams. It might get interesting if most of the teams can stick together after LAN!

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?

Overall it looks like it’s pretty balanced. To me, group D looks the easiest because I feel like giwu/NFY/eSeven can all beat each other with invalid being able to cause an upset so everyone has a chance. Group A and C (ours) look the hardest to me.

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

Everyone that we need to play against is a threat because we need to beat them to go through, but I’d say that a Dutch derby against VDBE would be a banger of a match (especially because we would then be playing against our friend dynz).

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

I’ve seen a huge spike in performance of Unknown Gaming (not that they were bad before, but they’re unreal at the moment) and qwertz have been dominant as well. This will be the final in my opinion. Third place could be a lot of teams, but it’s between DENIED and APES I think.

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?

I will be rooting for VDBE to slaughter their group. I think BLITz can surprise everyone. Really curious to see Victory Wings, they’re gonna be hit or miss.

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

Once again, thanks for letting me take part in these series and I just hope that we can keep the zoo out for this event and all have a good time. If anyone wants to grab a beer feel free to approach me!