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 myEG.net brings you an interview with Evil Geniuses' Danish Orc René 'Ciara' Krag on his latest ENC victory. In the first match of the main round, they were given the liberty to be the first team to try to defeat Germany, the defending champions. The match was very close but they still succeeded, winning with three point. The interview for the most part covers Ciara's thoughts on the match against Germany and his own performance against the German players.
myEG.net: Ciara, how does it feel to be the first team to give Germany, Defending Champions, their first beating?
EG.Ciara: Well first off, facing Germany is no easy task. They have a huge line up, so it's hard to predict what we were going up against. And I'm really happy we managed to beat them. Beating them was one step along the way to achieve the rank 1 in the group, we (Denmark) are looking for. But glad to see my good man SKINGLE pulled through!
myEG.net: Were you guys in any way prepared for this match?
EG.Ciara: Nah, we were like 90% sure to face a human in one of the matches,but other then that, we thought they might play Sokol, Hasu or hanf in the solos. So it is impossible to prepare for that I think. I just pysched Thomas up for it ^^. I kept telling him we would win and that there is no way we could lose!
myEG.net: ESL introduced the Davis Cup system this year to ENC. Do you think that system played a key role in Denmark's victory or do you think that even with the old system Denmark could still stand a chance?
EG.Ciara: I think this new system greatly improves our chances to win. We've always had a strong teamspirit and big lineup, but most players in the team have school or work fulltime which makes it hard for them to practice. So they always had the potential to lose if faced with a opponent strong. But for the main part I was happily surprised with the out comes of clan wars using the old system. We would always depend on good lineups to win against strong teams like Germany and Sweden.
myEG.net: The match started with the 2v2. It didn't end well. Anything worth mentioning about that?
EG.Ciara: Well, actually both games me and Thomas started out great, we managed to delay them from creeping for a good amount of time, but in the end (both games) we over stayed our welcome and got punished for it. Once they hit that critical mass we should have moved away, letting them creep and do the same. Instead they crept and picked off our heroes and units.
myEG.net: Your first opponent for the solos was HLA. It looked like you had the first game on Ancient Isle but it didn't turn out that way. What went wrong?
EG.Ciara: Not sure. Like, I thought I was ahead, probably was, and decided to get the Tiny great hall, expand, and then I waited for him to fight me. Except he had a different agenda and just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I think if I would have choosen the other expantion spot I would have won, instead of fighting him and waste 600 gold on something I never got to use.
myEG.net: Second game on Echo Isle, you used a tower rush strategy. This brings up last Sunday game against Skutt, where you also tower rushed but the difference is that you didn't win. What did you do different this time?
EG.Ciara: Well to be fair, the game I failed my tower rush against Skutt was because some creeps decide to help him out by surounding my level 2 FarSeer. I was way ahead that game, keeping his Death Knight level 1, with unholy aura first. My tier 2 tower rush would 99% surely have won me the game instead I lost the FarSeer, gave him level 2 and was forced to play defensive towers in his base by not letting him see them until I had my FarSeer back, making the towers less useful.
I never tried tower rushing with Blademaster first, instead of FarSeer. And even though I lost my hero in the start, it worked pretty well giving him little chances to fight it off. It worked even better this time, even with a Blademaster loss in start, but I am hoping it won't become a habit!
myEG.net: Ciara you are close to perfecting what could be a very inovative strategy for Orcs to take down Undead. Is this a strategy that you practice or one that half way through the game you decide your going to do it?
EG.Ciara: It's all Cranes fault. To be honest, once a long time ago, I used to tower rush FURY alot and then I kinda forgot how well it worked against Ghouls under the right conditions, but he (Crane) reminded me Skutt played mainly ghouls so thought "hey I can tower that". Without practicing it I just tried it out against him at the dreamhack qualifiers. But a warning, DON'T ever do it against fiends first, it should never work against a decent undead player.
myEG.net: Overall did the strategy work out the way you wanted it to or were there a few things that weren't suppose to happen?
EG.Ciara: It did the trick perfectly ^^ and it's something you might see me do in the future, but hopefully not to often. Can't have other players adjusting to it.
myEG.net: After your victory against HLA you lost to Yaws. Now bringing this up, sunday at DreamHack qualifiers you lost 1-2 to Thorzain. Does it have something to do with your Human match-up?
EG.Ciara: My games on Melting Valley in both series went terribly wrong. I should have made an adjustment in my game against Yaws on Turtle Rock and the game could have been very different. I saw him expanding and thought I would push him with Demolishers, instead of expanding myself. But that was clearly a bad choice, he was not going to fight me head on and stayed behind his towers and always fought within tower range, till he had the gold advantage to knock me back.
myEG.net: Denmark won 3-2 against Germany. Personally are you satisfied with the result?
EG.Ciara: Nope, I'm not too destroyed over losing the 2v2, but I hate losing 1v1 especially when it isn't only my ass on the line. I should have prepared better and won't make the same mistakes again hopefully.
myEG.net: From 1-100%, How much of team Denmark's full power did we witness in this match?
EG.Ciara: 50% ^^. All Thomas' work. Me beating HLA I don't see as a surprise (ORC vs UD after all).
myEG.net: Denmarks next opponent for the main round is going to be Russia. What are your overall thoughts on that match, is it looking harder then what Germany had to give?
EG.Ciara: I am 99% certain that we are going to be facing Nicker and Sting, two very tough opponents for sure, but it also means we know what to prepare for. I know Thomas is very strong in his Elf vs Orc match-up, so have great faith in him winning that one. The rest remains to be seen. I think we have a good chance of getting a 3-2 or if we really pulled it together 4-1 or 5-0. But it could also be 5-0 for Russia too, I guess.
myEG.net: What can we expect from you next match?
EG.Ciara: Hopefully I'm better prepared and can keep my internet under control.
myEG.net: Thanks for the interview. If there are any shoutouts you would like to give you can go ahead.
EG.Ciara: Just a shoutout to my Danish teammates and a GOOD JOB TO THOMASG, never thought he would win a game!
EG.Ciara along with his fellow countrymen are taking on team Russia next week Wednesday - 10/06/09. Stay tuned on myEG.net as we will bring you the latest news and coverage on the EG players and the respective leagues and tournaments they are participating in. The full schedule of ENC 2009 Main round can be found at the ESL ENC page. Here are links to coverage items related to European Nation Championship.
News Content:
EG.Grubby 3-2 Romania
EG.Ciara 3-2 Germany
Players Blog:
- EG.Grubby: The ENC dream for Netherlands
- EG.Ciara: ENC Main stage, group drawing .. Thingy
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