O FRAGlíder “viajou” até França, para ter uma conversa com Ludovic “Maarek” Planès, líder dos aAa. Os aAa são uma equipa bastante conhecida mundialmente, apesar de ultimamente não estarem tão presentes a nível internacional, eles obteram um grande resultado num evento nacional, em termos de todas as divisões. Confiram a entrevista em baixo:

Fraglíder: Hello Ludovic “Maarek” Planès, can you please introduce yourself to the portuguese community?

aAa * Maarek: Hello ! I’m Maarek, leader aAa with Sunscorcher.I was CS division leader from 2001 to 2003, and now I’m focus on the gaming management.

Fraglíder: How is it like to manage a worldwide known team such as aAa?

aAa * Maarek: I would say, a lot of work for all people involved ! Sunscorcher is leading every part of aAa, big thank to him ! Better example is probably our staff number : 4 or 5 people in 2003, and more than 25 today ! (including technical, website contents, onlineshop, marketing, etc..)

Fraglíder: In your opinion, what is the importance of a team to have several divisions, or what do you think is the importance of a multi gaming clan today?

aAa * Maarek: Bigger impact on community, events, sponsors, media, etc.. There are a lot of positive impacts but there also are more work. You have to get managers for each divisions, financial support for all, etc..

Fraglíder: In terms of sponsors, do aAa have advantages in finding help or is it always hard, even being a world renown team?

aAa * Maarek: Always hard, but since one year aAa is the owner of his own company : aAa.Solutions ( www.aaa-solutions.fr ) aAa.Solutions provides some esports services in France like online shop, regional event and soon gaming lessons. And then aAa.Solutions support aAa !

Fraglíder: Recently, aAa got excelent results at the Gamers assembly 2005, where only the WC3 and CS teams didn’t place first. Tell us a bit more about this event and about aAa’s results.

aAa * Maarek: Gamers assembly 2005 is one of the major French Lan event, it’s held in the ESWC place (Poitiers Futuroscope) and it was really important for us to perform well. We did a great job, first ranking in 4 competitions (Q3, RA3, Halo2 and PES4) , we also perform well in the WC3 and CS competitions (2nd & 3rd).

Fraglíder: Any new divisions soon?

aAa * Maarek: I don’t think so, we add a PES4 division 2 months ago and usually aAa “only” add 1 new division per year : (q3 in 2000, cs in 2001, ut in 2002, halo in 2003, wc3 in 2004 and pes4 in 2005).

Fraglíder: What events are your various divisions planning to attend to?

aAa * Maarek: Our next goal is to perform at the ESWC French Finals (including CS, WC3 & PES4)

Fraglíder: Talking a bit more about the Counter-Strike team, what do you think about their performance in Eurocup XI?

aAa * Maarek: We got some trouble with our CS squad for 6 months and all our results were poor (including EC XI). We tought something was wrong with the leading and now our last addition (KaRa) is doing great as team leader. Things goes better and better.

Fraglíder: Do you think it is important to participate in on-line events, although not being always reliable, in terms of people being correct?

aAa * Maarek: I would say yes because nowadays some online event goes lan finals (like French EPS, CSCL 2, ACON 2, etc..) We definitly cant ignore all these events !

Fraglíder: What are your goals, for one of the biggest worldwide competitions, the ESWC, since you play at home? Are you going to be there with every division?

aAa * Maarek: I’m really confident about our PES4 division, there are 2 spots and we got really nice players and of course we already have the ESWC 2004 world champion qualified (*aAa* Samsam) For CS & WC3.. hard to say something.. it will be a tight battle for the title ! between aAa, GG, Hostile, Bz, aT and HoP for the 2 spots. Same thing for WC3 with ToD, Fact, Intox, Blatty, Wolf, etc..

Fraglíder: Would you like to leave a final word to the portuguese community ?

aAa * Maarek: I would see more Portuguese players and teams in the International Event ! See you at ESWC 🙂

Fraglíder: Thank you Maarek for this interview, and good luck for the future.

aAa * Maarek: Thank to fraglider ! Thank to aAa.Solutions, Xs-Arena, HQ.server.com, X-ray Pad and Sennheiser !