fox: "I am not playing to win"

fragster: The first question is fairly obvious but also very interesting in your case. How did you prepare for the event?

Magnus 'fox' Olsson: I am almost embarrassed to tell people how I did prepare. I improved my HoN skills to such an amazing degree that it kinda affects other games and that’s how my Quake skills grew. I actually played about, I would say, maybe five 1on1 matches the past three weeks.

Here at the event, players like Cooller study demos or do practice games, while you seem really relaxed. How serious do you take the IEM World Championship?

Fox: Honestly, at this point I felt like every win would be like a bonus. But I still know, if I am going to practice, I am not going to learn anything new. I think it would just be about self confidence and getting solid aim. I can still perform well, I know that from Cologne.

So at this point you kind of gave up to really try winning the whole tournament?

Fox: Yeah, I am not playing to win.

What did you think about winning your first matches against strenx and DaHanG?

Fox: I was just giggling, really. It’s kind of ridiculous, I don’t know… When I played in Cologne I hadn’t had not prepared well either, but at least there it felt like I played well. Today I felt like I played terrible and still won. I felt more comfortable in the later games and I think I played solid against Cypher, well at least I wasn’t like Bambi.

You are second in your Group now and will go into the Playoffs, do you want to achieve something now?

Fox: Yeah, of course I am going to try to win. I think that me having a kind of relaxed and laid back mentality helps me games in certain games, because in the past I have been too passive and tried to be careful and now I am a bit more reckless and sometimes that pays off.

Who would you like to play against from Group A in the Quarter-Final?

Fox: Let’s assume Cooller, rapha and Av3k go through, then I would probably prefer to play rapha, that would be fun.

Since you have been to so many Events like ESWC, WCG and so on, what do you think about this one?

Fox: Well since they pretty much fixed the network yesterday, I am really fine with the setup. Although we play onlines with Pings about 5-10, I certainly don't notice a difference. Also I am getting used to my Sennheiser headphones, otherwise I would be at a disadvantage.

Looking to the upcoming NationsCup in Quake Live, are you willing to get back to TDM now?

Fox: Yeah I will return to the TDM-Nationscup, especially now that there will be some bigger prizes for that kind of tournament and possibly LAN-Finals. The lack of serious TDM competition in the past kind of held me back but I am looking forward to this and I am also trying to get toxic back to play.