O FRAGlíder foi entrevistar Vasili “individ” Richardsson, manager dos Begrip, equipa que tem sido notícia nos últimos tempos. Recentemente os Begrip.ru venceram um torneio aos seus rivais Virtus.pro, e algumas mudanças no lineup também foram consumadas.

Fraglíder: Hi Vasili “individ” Richardsson, can you introduce yourself for the portuguese community?

individ: My name is Vasili Richardsson, Im 31 years old and I live in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Fraglíder: How is it like to run such a great team, known all over the world, as Begrip are?

individ: It’s a lot of work but i really enjoy it because I work together with great people who have the same goals.

Fraglíder: In your opinion, do you think it’s important to be a multigaming clan? Why didn’t you choose to insert new teams into Begrip?

individ: I guess it depends on what goals the organisation has. It might be easier to get sponsors and more fans if you are a multigaming clan. I think the downside of it is that you can lose some “personality”.

Fraglíder: In terms of sponsors, do Begrip find it easier to find them for being so well-known in Russia, or it’s always hard to find help from those companies?

individ: Our Russian team is very young but the guys have already proved to be one of the best. We have already found a partner in shape of Gaming Center Vikaweb located in central Moscow
and we are of course looking for more good partners.
I think that Russian cs scene is the fastest growing in the whole world at the moment.
One interesting thing you can see over there, is that the teams are really concentrated in different cities. It creates a lot of local fans who are cheering for their hometown team.

Fraglíder: Will Begrip have any new divisions, besides Counter-Strike, in the short term?

individ: We are discussing it but nothing is decided yet.

Fraglíder: What are the next plans for begrip, in terms of events?

I hope our Swedish team will be invited to WEG season 2 and for our Russian squad the next event will be WCG 2005 qualifier.

Fraglíder: In your opinion, does entering online tournaments where big teams play (like Eurocup XI) bring any advantage?

individ: I don’t like online tournaments but I guess they might be good for practice before real events.

Fraglíder: Recently, Begrip.ru participated in two tournaments: Perm Period and a Acon 5 qualifier. Can you give us a short summary of what happened there, about your team performance and goals accomplished?

individ: We had a really good event at Perm period taking 1st place after beating good teams. After that it was a dissapointing 5-6th place at ACON5 qualifier. It could be that the recent departure of Konstantine P affected the team. After all, he was the one who created and called most of our recent strats. Or perhaps we just had a bad day.

Fraglíder: Those who hear about Begrip, almost only hear about Begrip.ru. Who are Begrip.swe?

individ: Actually our Swedish team is more well known. However they have been hiding since CPL winter but this will change really soon.

Fraglíder: Konstantin P. joined Begrip, but quickly left the team to re-enter Virtus.pro. What happened to make him stay only 2/3 days in your team?

individ: We think that Virtus realized that they need someone like Konstantin and approached him with a really good offer he simply could not resist. After all it was he who was the teamleader when Virtus shocked the world when they defeated NoA and SK at ESWC 2004. It’s a bit more complicated to sign Russian players for a Swedish organisation but we are working on it.

Fraglíder: Today you announced Gribov individ: joining you due to Xoma’s age (he couldn’t participate in WCG2005). This player, ex-m19, is experienced. What can he bring to your team?

individ: Experience, skill and hopefully some crazy AWP shots.

Fraglíder: Do you want to give the portuguese community any last words?

individ: All the best to all portuguese counter strike fanatics!
PS: Lissabon by night is a very cool town 🙂

Fraglíder: Thanks vassili for your interview, and good luck for the future.

individ: Thank you.