Hi Insane. First of all I'd like to congratulate you as being one of the few lucky people who actually make it into clan9. I know there are a lot of players out there who envy you ;)
Thanks a bunch. I do not know about the envy thing, but I am happy with the way things have turned out so far.


Now let's get on with the actual interview. Let's start by introducing yourself (eg where you live, what you do for lving, your hobby's etc etc)
My name is Stefan Bech, 19, and I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the time being. I am employed as a developer in a Danish webdesign company named Juul & Stejle Multimedia A/S (www.stejle.dk). Besides my interest in professional gaming and Quake 3 Arena, I constantly listen to music and enjoy attending festivals and concerts. I have been a regular at the yearly Roskilde Festival in Denmark for the last 5 years and, like most others, I go clubbing with friends in the Copenhagen nightlife and so on and so furth.


Since when did you start playing FPS games, and how did u get in touch with them?
At first I was more into games like Command & Conquer than first person shooters - mainly, I suppose, because I could beat my good friend Mortimer whom I was frequently lanning with in RTS games while getting the shit kicked out of me in the likes of DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D. Then I started playing a bit of Duke Nukem 3D online over KaliNet using my good old 28k8 modem, and I must admit it amused me to drop pipe bombs in front of surveillance cameras, run off and find the monitor 'spectating' through the camera and wait for an unsuspecting opponent player to get close enough to the bombs for me to detonate them with my remote triggering device. Great stuff, really! ;)

I also tried out Net Quake a few times but disliked the laggy feel too much to even bother giving it a shot. I mean, a modem Net Quake shaft felt ten times worse than the gay wet noodle shaft from the Q3TEST :) As soon as QW was released, though, I quickly made the shift while also stepping up my gaming time a bit. Hooking up with an old Danish clan called the Morbid Monks, I even began owning up my old mentor Mortimer whenever we played Quake (but he still kept humiliating me in the classic Duke 3D - sigh). In MM (not to be confused with Q2 clan Mememto Mori) we mostly played against other Danish teams in the Danish Quake League but when I got my ISDN connect, I left the clan (which was on the brim of inactivity anyway) together with Arcane and joined Clan ColorWeb which was the DK powerhouse back then. I started playing a lot of duel games, also against foreign players which I had not really been able to face before due to my lousy modem, and after a while I was somewhere in the neighbourhood of top 5 in my country...


Why did you start playing Quake3? Is it because you like the game or is it because 'all the others play it'?
I spent my last summer holiday on vacation in California, and my QW clan had gone inactive when I got back to Denmark. Since I was not quite ready to give upgaming, I thought I might as well give the newly released Q3TEST a try. I put away QW entirely from one day to the next and started practicing a lot more than I used to. I was planning on taking my game to the next level and when I won the Danish Championship back in February, I suppose I had succeeded in doing that.
Why do I still play Quake 3? I guess it would be safe to say that it's more because I think gaming is fun. I mean, it's always fun to win a game and to see my own skills improve etc., but if there was no money or travelling or anything involved, I could not see myself putting as much time and energy into gaming as I do. I want to turn it into a business, into a job, and that obviously means actually considering gaming a job in every sense of the word. The aspects of time, energy, devotion and of course also money must be in balance. But returning to your question, I suppose it would be fair enough to say that I play the game 'because all the others play it' since the money is found in the same place as the majority of players and spectators :)


How did u get to know clan 9?
I met the Clan 9 guys for the first time during the XSi tournament in Stockholm, Sweden. Basically, I liked them and have played quite a bit with them ever since. In particular, DOOMer and I have been doing a bit of duel practice. That guy has the most freakishly insane GL aim I have ever experienced!
Since then, I have spent some time with Xenon, DOOMer, Blue, Spice and Paralyzer as well as most of the Clan 9 US guys during the Razer/CPL back in April and met up with the 9 US boys again at the recent Frag4 event. They are all cool guys in real life as well as talented players and I am happy to have been added to the team.


What made you decide to join them? Was it because there was a vacancie since Timber left a few days ago, or were there some troubles between you and your clan F@W?
Fire at Will, which was the clan I founded together with a bunch of Swedish players formerly of WRECKING CREW, has been long abandonned, actually. One after the other, the Swedes quit playing. I got a chance to meet them once and they were really cool guys. However, some had to study, some had to work, and some were just slacking, and after a few months FunkyB (the other Dane on the team) and I were the only ones still wanting to play. We shut down the clan and I have been clanless up until I joined Clan 9.


After you joined 9, xorgal gave a few hints about you playing online games. Are there any concrete plans about this or are you just considering them?
I do not think Clan 9 will compete in online tournaments any time soon, as most of us believe that the internet is simply not technologically ready to be used for professional and fair tournament play. The outcome of online tournaments will always be somewhat influenced by computer specifications (FPS), speed of the internet connect (low ping vs. ultra low ping does not even come close to being fair), whether or not the entire team is physically located in the same room, what game servers are picked to host the match and so on. Sure people might feel like competing in online leagues like the EuroCup to have fun and perhaps win a bit of cash at the same time, but I think that LAN events are still the only acceptable way to go for high profile tournaments boasting big prize purses.


If you're gonna play online, will you play with the same team as on lan, or will you split the clan in an 'online' section and a 'lan' section?
I reckon that who ever wants to play will play, and that goes for online practice games as well as tournament games.


Are you going to participate in next season's Eurocup?
My guess is no, but it is not something we have discussed in detail yet.


What are the future plans for clan9? Are you guys gonna concentrate on playing duels or will team DM be your thing?
The Clan 9 team will obviously concentrate on achieving more victories in team events, but we also have a bunch of individual players that are talented duellers and as such will compete in duel events.


How do you feel about pro gaming? Do you believe in it or do you think it's just a thing that blow over in a few months?
I believe in the future of professional gaming, yes. It has evolved so fast over the last few years and it is not going to blow itself out in a matter of months. Still more companies have taken an interest in gaming and have begun sponsoring events, individual players and teams. Even companies that have no direct relation to computers are giving this new and exciting phenomenon a chance. For instance, Levi's agreed to sponsor me as a Quake 3 player and started out by providing me with a series of their awesome clothes, and every time I see heavy international corporations like Taco Bell and Razer stepping into the gaming field it makes me even more convinced that this will in fact continue to grow and that professional gaming is here to stay.


Where do you see professional gaming in 5 or 10 years?
We will see tournament games broadcast on television. In fact, I believe ESPN2 will cover the Babbage's CPL event in Dallas, Texas, in December. We will see players bought and sold as well as making a steady monthly income sufficient to cover everyday expenses, and we will see more teams being registered on the stock exchange and organized a whole lot better than most clans are today.


Last question: any thoughts on which clan might win the Clanbase Eurocup?
Danish 1337 ass team After Dark :)


Thanks for the interview