CPL Winter: 69°N

Unfortunately,69°N-28°Emissed their chance to show the Finnish flag at last weeks WSVG Finalsin New York, but now, they're in Dallasto prepare for the CPL Winter Championship Finals, where they will be playing against the best Counter-Strike teams you could imagine, many believe that lurppis, contE, toNppa, ruuitand their stand-in barrackwill have a great shot at a top position among the 64 teams, let's hear what lurppishas to say!

• Introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Tomi Kovanen, I'm 18 years old and I'm playing for 69°N-28°Ealong with contE naSu ruuit & toNppa. However, due to CPL's age restrictionnaSu won't be able to play here so we brought barrack with us instead.

• How has the team prepared for the upcoming CPL Winter Finals?

We didn't have any practice after CPL Nordic before coming here (Pre-CPLLethal Gamers bootcamp) where we've been getting in a lot of practice on lastdays so we're not as prepared as we should be but we also have a last minutechance at CPL BYOC to practice.

• Do you feel that it was perhaps unfair that the true winners of WSVG UKwere not allowed to attend at the WSVG finals?

We didn't actually win, Pentagram did :P. Anyways, of course it's unfair,I don't want to get into this again because I've explained the situation 100times but naturally we would have liked to attend WSVG Finals as well.

• The CPL will be one of the first events where you are playing under you new tag: 69°N-28°E. Does this add any extra pressure on the team to do well?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't bother anyone at all, we've all been playinglong enough to be able to forget about things like that when it's time to play.

• How much of a problem is it that one of your players is only 16 and due to restrictions is unable to compete in some events like the CPL?

It's a performance drop for sure, but how much it weakens us, depends onhow well we get our game going with barrack. Right now we're not in nearly asgood shape as we were prior to KODE5/WSVG UK/WCG but we're working hard to getthere.

• What is your Top 3 for the CPL Finals?

Excluding us, NiP, fnatic and coL.

• These events can be considered as the closing events of 2006. In your eyes are your happy with your 2006 performance and what changes would you like to see in 2007?

Our first half of 2006 basically went to waste so for me, CS wise, theyear didn't really begin until July when we formed hoorai. After that it hasbeen pretty good, could have been better but I suppose I'm fairly satisfiedwith our results.

• Any last words?

Thanks to all of our fans for thesupport and thank you for this interview.

That's all from lurppis, HLTV.org wishes 69°N-28°E the best of luck!

Remember, stay tuned on HLTV.org for all your needs and wants for live coverage of the CPL Finals. We will be bringing you HLTV, demos on demand and all results and updates as it all happens!