Netherlands vs Russian Federation

Statement of Ben 'Sc00T' Siebert

Another rough match that was at times too close for comfort. We expected this win over Russia as we’ve been having good practice results against them.

Our own pick qzdm14 (Grim Dungeons), we expected a big win as we expected our enemy to be not that good on it. We started out with a big lead having double scores right at the start. Besides, we also had great control over at least one of the powerups all the time and the ability to deny the enemy the other powerup a lot. Though in the middle of the game the Russians made a very smart move, they delayed picking up the quad damage so there would be a big difference between with the respawn time of the Quad and that of the Battlesuit. Due to this they managed to get the red armor area back quite easily when they got the quad. In the end they managed to get as close as one frag behind, but due to good coordination the team could prevent the Russians from making that last kill, ending the game in a three frag difference.

On their pick qzdm6 (The Campgrounds), we expected another close game. They started with a lead after getting control of the red armor, but we managed to prevent them many quadruns. Due to that we got hold of RA for most of the time and simply held better control than they did. Other than that it was just a regular qzdm6 game.

Finals will be in the middle of august so stay tuned and again, whish us luck :D

Interview with Ben 'Sc00T' Siebert

First of all, congratulations on reaching the ENC Finals. Did you expect to be in this position at the start of ENC?
No, not quite. We started out as one of the underdogs in Group A, consisting of Sweden, France, Austria, Iceland, Belgium and us. Sweden, France, and Austria got rated above us though we knew for ourselves we could beat at least Austria out of those. In the end it happened to be that we won vs France as well and losing a close game to Sweden. So we got quite comfortable with our 2nd place finish in our group. After the group stage we were quite confident we could get into the finals as our practice results favoured us clearly.

Which was the hardest match for The Netherlands during ENC and why?
The hardest match during the whole ENC was definitely our game against The United Kingdom. While we lost to Sweden, it was more or less an expected loss. The match against The United Kingdom was way too close for our own comfort as we expected a big victory more or less.

What’s the success formula from The Netherlands?
The success formula of the Netherlands is equality. We have five players who are about equally in skill-level whereas by a lot of other nations you just see one star with three henchmen. That together with a good atmosphere and a team willing to practice brought us to the finals.

The other semi-final is between Sweden and France, both teams faced each other already in the group stage and Sweden came out as the strongest. Who do you prefer to play in the Final and why?
I prefer to play Sweden once more as we lost to them in the group stage and I’m convinced we could beat them this time.

What are the expectations of the final?
I expect a 2-1 win for ourselves against Team Sweden!

Any shoutouts?
To each of the members of the team:
Jeffrey 'draven' Debipersad
Ivo 'forever' Lindhout
Kyle 'Silencep' Mooren
Tua 'tua' Druijf