Even though Defuse Kids often is iyi pornto be found at the major events, they sadly enough never seem to be able to go all the way, but this time perhaps?

HLTV.org had a word with out own super blogger Ofkeli to hear what he had to say about this years ESWC.

What are your opinions on ESWC lowering the total prize money this year?

It's a real sad announcement that ESWC is forced to lower the total prize money, I don't know the exact reasons for that,but it will probably have to do with sponsoragreements and maybe also because ESWC is still an 1.6 event and by that not having a maingame that needs the latest technology in hardware.  It makes me also wonder if e-sports is really expanding that big, like many say it does. But at the other hand, I don't think that the prize money will have any influence at the competition itself, so I'm sure that this ESWC will be as much as exciting as the years before and maybe even more, 40 000$ - 24 000$ - 12 000$ for  the top3 is still a lot of money !

Recently top players like zet, Red and Mangiacapra have made the move to CS: Source. Why do you think this is and can you see many other gamers following this trend?

Like in many things, America is always a step ahead and always wants to be diffrent to the rest of the world. With big companys supporting some very great leagues and events, the money that the players can earn in source, became bigger that for 1.6 in America, so with all those reason together, it's was a logical choice that some of the best teams in America made the swap to source. zet, being the first topname in Europe going source, came a little bit as a shock to me, because zet was obviously one of the biggest talents lately, but i saw in an interview before that zet always dreamed of the American lifestyle, and coL will probably gave him a great offer. Red and Mangiacapra going source, doesn't surprise or shock me at all, Mangiacapra once being the top of the UK, but his team 4Kings, had so much lineup changes, and still it failed to get where they wanned to go, his adventure in praetoriani wasn't a succesfull story too. And when he rejoined his 4Kings team some months ago and failed to win the UK qualifiers, it's the best choice he could make i think. Blown away from his Kingsize seat by dignitas, there wasn't much left to play for probably for him, anyways gl to him in source, I'm sure he can make it again, in that game. For Red, well don't understaind if you get an offer from SK gaming and you don't take it... maybe the source offer was just better? gl to him too. I don't know if the rest of the teams will continue this trend, they probably will sooner or later, if it's a better version of source or the so called promod, I've no idea, but a change is coming our ways. I guess the teams will go where the competition and the money goes, the real and true gamers, won't have that much problems to say goodbye to 1.6, if better options are coming.

Now coL and Team 3D have moved to source can you see any competition coming from the USA in CS1.6?

I don't really follow the American gamingscene, just read some things now and then at GotFrag, but that's about it. For what I know is that most of the 'feared' Americans made the change to source some months ago, I'm not sure wich teams will represent the USA this year, so I don't have really much of an opinion about that.

You think THIS will be the year defusekids will win?

Ofcourse ! We will do our best to get as far as possbible this year, no Belgian team ever passed the first groupstage at ESWC ever, so that will be our first goal in Paris. Fight ourself to the 2nd phase and from then everything will be bonus, wich will make us more damaging then ever, because we have nothing to lose and we will show some unexpected things to our enemys.

Why is that defuse kids hasnt been capable of winning huge international event? What is missing in the team?

Well the best achievement Defusekids had was a 3rd place at Acon5 in China, which is still very respectable. The problem is probably the constant lineup changes, inactivity and lack of motivation to practice in the past. Within this new lineup our chemistry is definatly our best card and with the expierence we have in the team we really can get somewhere, it will be just a matter of practicing enough.

Are there any particular trademarks to Belgian CS and in that case how does it differ from other countries’ style of play?

I don't think we have any particular trademark that differs from other countries, what we do have is a small community, but a community warmer then any other. Belgians are really supportive towards us, doesn't matter if it are Wallon of Flemmish supports, it's just nice to see that the community supports us everytime we go to events, and that everybody is cheering for us. That's what make us strong as a little country.

How do you intend to prepare the team for ESWC?

Sadly enough, some of our players are right in the middle of their examens, so we haven't been practicing for more then a month. we will start practicing the last 10 days before the Finals in Paris, doing a 5 days bootcamp and online practice. It won't be much, but with a lot of topteams going under some lineup changes lately, it might be just enough to bring us where we want to get. We are lananimals, just watch us at ESWC, once we start expanding our own Kingdom!

 Read the rest of the ESWC interviews here.