fragster: Hello Alth0r and thanks for your time. You only got the third place in the group stage of the IEM Kiev. Where were the problems with Moscow Five and Dignitas?
Franzetti 'Alth0r' Romain: The problems were multiples, actually. Mainly, we almost didn't trained at all, cause of members having holidays trip and exams. This was the main problem because we could have avoided many mistakes we did there. We failed at almost every aspect of the competitive game: We did a terrible job on bans and picks, resulting in both us having bad synergy and letting enemies have a too good of a composition like in the game versus Dignitas. Then, against M5, we let them counterpick us, and we didn't have any idea of it until we got stomped and realize how was the counterpick. Galio completely deny Skarner and Galio is quite strong versus Cassiopeia on laning phase. All of this was the result of the poor training we had before the event because if we had trained properly, we would have known those things.
Also you said the problem that you didn't take it to the playoffs was the poor training. Which place can you make when you have trained for something like the IEM?
Alth0r: I truely believe that any team in the very top European scene can take the top three spot in an IEM event. It's lot about your motivation for the preparation you make before this event. If you take a look to the few last events, you see M5 winning IEM Kiev, but they were not in the top European scene a month ago; GBT in the same case, getting second at WCG due to bootcamp before the event, and they weren't that great before in the European scene; TSM having strong regular results over time, considering they are in a gaming house. All of this to say that we, as any of the top European team, could have taken the very first place on different conditions. We just didn't made what was needed to be done.
(fragster.de)
What do you think about the Winner of the IEM Kiev, Moscow Five, after you played them in the group stage?
Alth0r: I think that the winner of Kiev completely deserved it, since they trainned hard for it. They went on a bootcamp for a while before the tournament and were very prepared. That was their force, because if you pay attention they outpicked everyone in almost all of their games. In term of skill, I believe they are a bit below what the top European teams are on the individual level, but this game is mostly about picks and bans, synergy and teamplay since the skillcap is not really high.They kind of managed to create their own metagame, by picking heroes that have both strong laning phase by killing minions waves very fast plus beeing very tanky plus having a lot of aoe damages. That's the key of their picks. They think like that: aoe + tank + dps.
What do you think about the fact that you can't play at the World Championship Finals on the CeBIT in Hannover because you didn't reach the Playoffs?
Alth0r: Well, I don't have anything to think about that even, of course, I would have liked to be there. But, we don't have enough points, it's the rules, we won't be at Hannover unless a team could not make it to there.
How are the future plans with aAa?
Alth0r: I think we've learned the lesson, and we gonna train hard starting now. We want to come back to our top level and be part of the top European scene. Regarding tournaments, we have a lot coming up: There is Cdiscount cup hosted by Millenium and King of Europe hosted by Chips&Noi starting this week, plus a couple more online tournaments coming next month with descent cashprize as well. We gonna probably as well take part in some french events, and we're gonna 100 percent be present and work hard for all season 2 tournaments in the future, including the season 2 finale.
Thanks for the interview.