Today we are pleased to present an interview with a Team Delta member Tomasz "ths" Sopel. The conversation took place on the eve of the first games of our tournament. Enjoy:

– Hello! If DELTA feels fit now? How does your team prepare for nearest tournaments?

Hi, I think we do, we tried to practise as much as we were able to but it wasn't a lot of time. Last results, especially on ESWC Qualifier showed that when we are playing our game we can beat everyone in Poland and even play a close match against Frag-eXecutors but we need to improve some things in our game. We don't play systematicly and it was visible on ESWC Quals where two times we lost a map in bo3 match against teams which are besides the top5 in Poland.

– Do you practice on LAN?

We had 2 days bootcamp before the ESWC Qualifier and we played this tournament together from Internetcaffe.

– Few days ago you took part in ESWC Poland. Is the fact that qualifications were held on-line had any influence on common distribution of places?

In my opinion it didn't have any influence on final position because the best four teams took the best four places, nevertheless matches were closer than they would be on LAN event. Such teams like "Meet Your Five" and "top level" were able to win a map against us but I'm sure that if the matches were played on LAN, the scores in both games would be 2:0 for us. But there is an advantage from Internet Qualifiers - Many people and I found out that Poland has many talented players, I hope that they will play on LAN events as good as they did via internet :).

– Do you have a lot of experience with a double elimination + bo3 system? What do you think about organizers’ decision to make such a format for the tournament?

I think it is the best game system. When the match is played in bo1 the worse teams have bigger chance to make a surprise in match against much better opponent. In bo3 we cannot say that somebody won the match by accident - it happens that favorite lose one map, but they don't lose two maps in a row.

– Could you please give us your opinion about your team’s performance on ESWC Qualifier?

Our first three matches we played really bad, two wins against not really good teams with a result 2:1, and being crashed by PGS in semi-final of Winner Bracket. But at the end of the 2nd day we woke up, started playing our game. We crashed the fourth power of Poland - Universal Soldiers - and won the most important match of whole ESWC Quals against PGS, so as I said before, we played really well in last two matches but our we still need to fix some mistakes in our play.

– Nevertheless, judging by performances in Europe, we can say that it is not the best time for FX now. What is the opinion of Poland CS community about failures of local leaders? Whom do they blame?

Yeap, it isn't. Most of people blame Pasha for such situation but I don't think so they're right. All of Fx members played a little bit worse than they did few months ago but they are very experienced team and I'm pretty sure that they haven't said the last word yet. Last year they hadn't played so well before WCG Finals but then they showed that they are still capable of winning such a big tournament. Maybe this year it will happen again, who knows :).

– I have heard that the most ardent fans are from Poland, is it right? At least there is no better fans in the Internet.

I think it is true. You can always see it on sports event in Poland. It doesn't matter what discipline Poland - football, volleyball, basketball - play, the stadium is always full, it is even hard to get a ticket for matches. But if we are talking about internet fans in Counter-Strike, I wouldn't say that we've got the most ardent fans. Simple example - Frag eXecutors - when they were winning big tournaments like WCG, ESWC everyone in Poland loved them, now when they are in trouble many people say that they are already gone. Always, when they lose a match you can read a comments such a "how bad are they" "somebody in team is a weak player, they need to change him" and it happens again and again. I even wouldn't call such people FANS.

– DELTA got on WES Masters thanks to successful game on national qualifiers. How Poland qualification rounds were held? Was it easy to get into top-2?

To be honest, we didn't have any trouble to win this qualifiers. Our biggest rivals in Poland didn't participate in Qualifiers - Frag eXecutors - or they had already qualified before the national qualifiers started - PGS. Other teams weren't able to stop us in our way to victory

– Did you try to get slot for WES tournament before Poland qualifiers?

No we didn't, just because at the begining the WES tournament was going to be held on the same date when we were playing ESWC Qualifier.

– What is your opinion about opportunities of Delta and other Poland teams, such as PGS and tmoe?

We haven't been playing since we finished ESWC Qualifier so I don't know if we will be in our best shape, furthermore we will probably play with stand-in because ham needs to be at the University on that weekend when we are playing WES tournament. PGS changed their lineup for that tournament so I don't know if they are able to do some damage. About last team - tMoe - I can't say anything, I even don't know if they will participate in WES Finals.

– Do you have any concrete goal for WES Masters?

Of course we would like to be in Top3 of tournament but we know that it won't be easy to do. There are many good teams which will be participating in tournament, furthermore we are after ESWC Qualifier which was our main goal for that part of year and don't know if we will be able to play our best game in this tournament and as I mentioned earlier - we will probably play without our of one player.

– You take part in WES Masters not for the first time already. During the first tournament your team stumbled on Open European Qualifiers. Do you have any commentaries and wishes for the organization?

It was long ago I think but if I'm not wrong, there weren't any problems in that tournament if we are talking about organization. I just remember that we didn't pass the Qualifiers :).

– In what tournaments will you take part? Are you planning to visit gamegune, as it was last year?

Yes, we are on GameGune participants' list. Furthermore we will probably take part in Dreamhack Winter 2010.

– Tell us please about yourself. How did you get into professional CS and in DELTA in particular?

Oh it is very long story :). I've been playing with rDh and ham for more than three years and we joined together to BenQ DELTA about 2years ago. I wouldn't call it professional CS, maybe semi-professional, I've just been playing for a long time and it made me better and better and now I'm where I'm.

– Is it easy to go in for cybersport in Poland?

I think that cybersport in Poland is developing year by year but we are still behind such countries like Sweden or Germany where cybersport is more popular.

– How much time do you spend with the game, practicing?

It depends on if there is any tournament ahead of us or not. If so, I try to play as much as I'm able to, for example before such tournament like Gamegune I'm capable to do 80hours on Steam so it is about 5hours a day but if we don't go to any tournament I play maybe 10hours a week.

– Have you got any other hobbies besides CS?

Sure, I often play tennis and other sports. I am a big fan of football and Real Madrid, please don't start flaming me Barcelona's fans :).

– Thank you very much for your answers! Can you tell something to our readers, please?

Thank you as well, thank you all for supporting us, visit our webpage - http://benq.deltaesports.com and our sponsors - BenQ, Plantronics and Icon7.