HOG x FPSChallenge COD4 Zagreb LAN 2022 - Interview: pacovipg (Unknown Gaming)

1. Hello pacovipg, first of all I’d like to thank you for taking part in this interview. However you have been one of the best players for years, could you introduce yourself to the people who do not know you?

Hi ZEHIRRR, thank you for inviting me for this interview and for the kind words. My name is Mario “pacovipg” and I’m currently playing for team Unknown Gaming.

2. Currently you are playing for team Unknown Gaming and your line-up changed significantly in this year. You played with the same line-up for so many years, but now you decided to change and say good bye to uNzR and MYTKA and start playing with rOKZYE and ZINKENBERT. Could you explain the background of this decision?

Yeah, unfortunately our lineup has changed a lot this year. MYTKA quitted game because private reason while with uNzR some things didn’t work anymore. They are both really nice guys and friends, we miss them!

3. What do you think, are you stronger now than in the past? What is difference compared to your previous line-ups?

Obviously forming almost completely new linuep has drawbacks, mostly because of teamplay and comms, but on the other hand it gave us some positive things like new strats so we are not readable anymore that much.

4. You played on the last two international COD4 LANs in Zagreb and in Budapest this year and your performance was really outstanding on Saturdays (you won the Group Stage on both events). Unfortunately your Playoffs performance was a bit disappointed for you after the excellent Group Stage. What do you think why did you miss the chance to continue your great performance on Sunday? How did you felt on these LANs in April and in June? How would you rate your performance in general?

Yes, Group performance was really outstanding. Unfortunately we can't say the same for playoffs. Both LANs losing in upper bracket meant losing our mentality, which is by far the most important thing in competitive sports. No mentality = no performance at all.

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?

The venue is really sick, everything is just well done. Big plus is mainstage which makes everything much more. It was really enjoyable to play there, and we are looking forward to play again.

6. You won eight and lost only two games in the FPSChallenge Autumn League 2022 TIER 1. 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?

Autumn league currently is not our focus since it is still in Group phase and we learned so many times that Group results doesn’t matter at all. We had so many line-up changes in the past 3 months and we have another one at the moment of writing so I can't say we have prepared so much. However, we are all skilled players so if our individual performance is on decent level, we can compete with best teams.

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

With latest team lineup change our prediction about our placement obviously changes. Saying this, we have no pressure so it might be good thing. However, we will give our best to come as far as we can

8. 30 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?

In my opinion, this upcoming LAN is probably one of the greatest in COD4 history. Mainly because it is a battle between old and new COD era. So many ex semi-pro experienced players will attend and try to battle with modern meta players.

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?

I think the Groups are well balanced, but I would say that Group B is the most interesting.

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

Every team could be our rival. We will treat every team as our rival, either they are placed in low, med or high seed.

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

My personal TOP3 prediction is: qwertz, DENIED, APES.

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?

Teams AG and giwu will surely surprise everyone and even maybe compete in grand finals.

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

Thank you for the interview. Big shout to everyone who made this event possible and so well organised. I’m looking forward to see you all!