bloodR lives in Espoo, a town just west of the capital Helsinki. What he does on the days varies. He likes to be with his friends and be on parties, but why he is famous in our ears is because of some all different thing.



Niklas started to play Counter-Strike early in age, for about five years ago, which gives an age of 12 years. The reason he in the first place started playing the game was that his brother has downloaded a whole bunch of mods to Half-life (and what we all know is that Counter-Strike was this, i.e. a mod). He tried CS out around beta 3 but his first impression wasn't positive.



– I had lots of problems with it, for example you had to know which type of ammunition went to the right weapons, he says.



This was one of the reasons to why he started to look in the other Half-life mod community, foremost Team Fortress Classic and Action Half-life. But when CS got updated he tried the game out, once again. Together with his dear 56k modem (lots of people have a kind of love-hate relationship to their 56k modems) he explored the network of CS servers. He was then stuck.



After a year of playing on public servers he came in contact with clan playing. The clan was MurtoVarkaat, which just as cool as it looks means burglars. This team consisted of players he had met during his public playing period, plus one of his friends. Just as you've probably guessed they weren't successful. They played a couple of Clanbase matches, but lost them all. bloodR says they still had lots of fun together, which you of course should give high priority to. The months passed by, and bloodR's wish to play in a clan got more and more conspicuous. He test-played in a couple of various teams but none of them appeared to be good material. He then tried to put together an own team consisting of Finnish top-players, the project didn't go well that either.



– It didn't work out that well though, we had about 40 different members and played 2 matches before folding. Even one player which I nowadays know very well "played" in it, namely tihOp, but didn't really get to know him at that time.



His claninstability stabilized however when he joined EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) where he played for one and a half year. EMP floated around the rank of 200-300 on the Clanbase ladder, and at this time bloodR also played some Diablo 2 which kept him from improving his CS skills.



In the autumn of 2002, at the time eoLithic was founded and raised people's eyebrows (more), he finally got himself a decent ADSL connection and he started to play more seriously. He joined Allies, that held the 50th place on Clanbase ranking. After six months they had climbed a really long way and were fighting together with four other teams of the top five-placings. This success was huge for bloodR, and this was perhaps his first step to the very top of Finland.



The clan got inactivated in the beginning of the summer however which resulted in Niklas bouncing from team to team during the summer, but this was to stop at the end of the summer. He got an offer from one of his old team-mates in Allies, ilc, who was putting together a new team, and bloodR accepted. The team was a part of the multigaming clan Team Royalty and after two months of reorganization the team (and probably some playing too), the team became a team that had possibilities to appear om LAN events. The lineup consisted of himself, his good friend deVoter, Koistinen, maesteri, tihOp and upraiser. They showed up at a small LAN, Kiasma, which they won and a boost of confidence appeared to the team.



Shortly after the Kiasma LAN another Finnish LAN was on its way – TiltGames. Team Royalty was there and surprised many when they ended up as second, right after LQi (later known as DSky). The months went by, and the team got fed up with the Team Royalty management and decided to leave and change name to ctx. They also took in a Brittish squad, which later on didn't get too good publicity because of their cheater-issue, now known as c4u. ctx played many various Swedish online cups (among others our very own cups here at Fragbite), and in April this year they even travelled to Sweden, to Rendezvous LAN. But around here it didn't go that well.



–Our placing there and in TiltGames 2 which was right after here in Finland didn't satisfy me at all and I completely lost my motivation to play with the team. My team mates felt my attitude rather unpleasant too so I did what was best and left ctx.



Lucky for him was that he didn't had to be clanless for a long time – more like 20 minutes. Guardian then contacted him because diGitaL just had left astralis for DSky and a spot in the team appeared.



– I accepted the offer and the rest is history. :)



On the question about if it was any specific happening in his career that was determined in how he managed to take the step from unknown to famous, he answers that it's hard to mention just one thing. Instead he means that it was all things combined together that made it the way it went. He points out that it took a really long time to reach the top, but he says that things like that he played well at Finnish LAN events, that he attended Swedish cups online and RZ, and that he actually made a couple of CS movies himself were important reasons for his success.



– It also helped that I was chosen to play for Team Finland with tihOp by diGitaL in the ESL's European Nations Cup and I guess people noticed I did some crazy stuff at ESWC (ingame too!). But maybe the greatest impact on my fame has been when natu mentioned me in Gamers.nu's interview! Thanks a lot! ;D



So now he's playing in of the world's more well-known teams, and you start to wonder. What does it take of a person to keep yourself in shape as a good CS player? A typical day in Niklas life looks rather normal. The morning routines starts at 7 am, when he wakes up. The school ends at 2, and 30 minutes later he's at home. This follows by schoolwork, hanging out with friends or going to the gym. The gaming doesn't start until the evening.



– In the evening I probably play some public as warm-up and around 7 pm we start praccing with astralis and after few hours of playing and checking strats we stop. I try to get to sleep by midnight.



On the question about if he can see himself playing CS for many years from now he's positive.



– Since I've just got myself to the CPL age I'd still have lots of years to use in gaming but it depends on so many things. But maybe I'll keep on playing if I will be able to play for a well sponsored clan and the particular game is something I enjoy playing. Naturally a team with nice persons is also a thing which I expect to have if I will continue my career.



Fine, he's a good CS player, but he still got a weird nickname. He says that many people have been wondering about the origin of the nickname.



It was like 4 years ago when Papa Roach released their new album and I really like the song "Blood Brothers". I just took half of both names and there we go – BloodRoach. During the last few years I've played with different kind of variations from it but then decided to stick to bloodR. The last letter has to be capital since d and capital R look cool together. :P



Who is bloodR really playing with? Read more!

How, when and why was astralis created?



This was all before I joined up but Dooberi, Guardian, Saviour and kuviCk decided to put up a team since Identity Gaming folded (they were their .fi squad). They took diGitaL in as a standin and Smiley tagged along to help them. The first event attended was TiltGames 2 which they managed to win. But after Tilt, diGitaL joined DSky and I was offered to join.



It has been quite a lot of player changes between you and your antagonists D-Sky, what's your view in D-Sky? Do you see them as the better team?



Right now they are of course kept better than us since they have our two important members and for the time being they've also been able to practise more than us. But we're confident that is all about to change in the coming weeks. We're aiming to prove ourselves at the CPL and show who's the real deal in Finland. :)



Both Guardian and tihOp left astralis for DSky, and obviously there was some reason they accepted the offer. How would you speculate about the situation if DSky asked you? Or have you perhaps already rejected an offer from them?



I don't get along with diGitaL that well so it pretty much ruled me out of the possible replacements in DSky. I also saw their lineup as a much weaker than ours back then so even if they would've asked me to join I would've refused.



You recently recruited alfa, and when CPL is just round the corner it's really important to get your teamplay going. Do you think you will manage to do this?



Teamplay certainly is a huge asset in CS and we need to get it in shape as soon as possible. At the moment we still have a lot to improve but we're going to the right direction all the time. I feel safe to say that it will be on the required level by the time CPL begins.



Who's really playing in astralis? Tell us about the players!



Our lineup consists of myself, acid-, alfa, kuviCk and Melvin.



acid- is an old school member who joined the team with Melvin. These two have played together in various teams including the very top of Finland - ig3l & MSD. acid- is a very calm player and knows how to keep it cool even when the situation looks desperate. He has a very accurate aim with Colt & AK which we have witnessed quite a few times already. ;P



alfa is our latest addition to the team. Formerly playing in DSky he has what it takes to be a representative of a world class team. He has brought new tactical improvements to our game and showed us his value.



kuviCk is the only founder member left in astralis. He is also the only one I know from previous events, a nice and trendy dude. :P Like acid- his aim is top notch plus he can do some extremely tricky stuff in 1onX situations.



Melvin is our experienced ingame leader. He is a notable asset for the team since he can perform his best even while calling the strats for us. He's our only AWP-player but his skills with the rest of the weapons won't be left unnoticed either.



Pretty much everyone of us is an all-around player and we're definitely going to use it as our advantage.



Do you think it's necessary to have an AWP player in every team? If so, do you think it's enough to only have one, like you got in Melvin?



Yep, one AWP is a very useful addition to have in most of the maps like train, dust2, cbble, mill etc. Good AWP-player can easily take out even 2-3 opponents per round if carefully placed. Some teams tend to have two but I believe one is able to take care of things. And besides I don't like the idea of putting to much weight on AWPs.



You participated at WCG about a month ago. Tell us about the event, did everything work out well?



Yeah everything was nicely done, comps were good and so on. The gaming area was well set and they had nice side events too like some ultracool sk8boarders doing tricks outside. The hotel we got was fine although we had only two 4-people rooms and tihOp had to sleep on different floor than the rest of us. There were some difficulties at first with issues concerning our team since the guy who should've taken care of all the Finnish players' issues was not able to come to the event. Luckily MrKill was there to take care of everything so big thanks to you Mattias!



You ended up on a 9-16th place at WCG. What do you think about your performance?



I think we did the best we could in there but 9-16th doesn't describe at all how well we played. In my opinion using single elimination in tournaments without seedings is plain stupid since lot of good teams might drop out early because of it. And as usual we got lucky and faced the tournament winner in the first round. We weren't even that far from winning the match and of course the whole WCG would have looked a lot different then. But it's useless to think about what might have happened.



Are you satisfied with your own performance in the tournament?



Well I didn't focus at all in the first two matches and sucked quite a lot. :P Good thing is that my pals handled them well and then I played pretty much on my own level vs 3D. Too bad it wasn't enough to win the matchup.



From one big event to the other. Read all about bloodR's thoughts about their upcoming CPL Dallas trip on the next page!

How does it feel to go far away to Dallas to play in one of the most prestigious CS tournaments there is?



Since CPL is always one of the year's main events and I haven't had the chance to participate in it before I really look forward to it. And because of its high value I really want to show what we are capable of.



How does your training schedule look like until CPL Dallas?



Currently we try to play pcws for few hours a day and go through some tactics. We are also planning to have a bootcamp on the weekend before CPL. And when we're not praccing I might play some aim-maps or public myself to keep my aim sharp.







What place are you aiming for?



We don't have an exact placing in our minds, just trying to play our best and see what it's worth. But on the other hand I'm really getting tired of always finishing 9-16th so anything above that would be nice for awhile.



In the first round in the winner bracket, de_cpl_strike will be played. What do you think about this?



It's nice to have a new map for awhile, good thing is that it's so early in the tournament I highly doubt any top team will drop out because of it. I also think we won't get to see any greater tactics for it since most of the top teams probably trust in the fact that they can just out-aim their first opponent.



What makes Strike good, and what elements in the map could've been better, i.e. in your opinion?



It's a very fast paced map which makes it spectator friendly and I guess lot of players will like it too. Although it might be a bit too fast because you can reach the A-bombsite in less than 10 seconds. It's also easy to sneak behind your enemy's back and catch them unprepared. Maybe they could slow it down a bit and cut few routes.



Both EYE and Begrip are playing with standins at the CPL. What do you think about these decisions?



I don't think this trend is a good example how to prepare for an event. You should be able to play well with your own members, not to take few starplayers as standins when CPL is just around the corner. And if there's no other option they could just take them in as full-time members, I have never liked this standin idea.



CPL Dallas is always interesting because you get to see how well the Americans are compared to the Europeans. Who do you think will be the best this CPL, Europe or USA?



Americans have really shown a lot improvement lately. Wouldn't be too surprised if we get to see an American clan in the grand final. 3D already took WCG home with a very solid performance so it will be interesting to see can they play on the same level at CPL. On the other hand Europe has a lot of top clans right now so I'd say top 10 will be pretty crowded with Europeans. I still hope we would get a Finland vs Sweden in the finals. :P



What makes bloodR to a such a good player? On the next page we talk about how he is in-game.

Do you think you can measure plain skills in, for example, a clan and point out who that simply is the best?



If all the players are pretty equal it's hard to say who is the best. Pointing out one player is easy only when he's clearly better than the rest. One thing which can also confuse is that one player could be be better than the other on different field of the game. And of course there are players whose skill depends too much on their current mood.



What's your relation with other Finnish, and international, players?



Well I get along with most Finnish players, lot of them are my good friends too. Although some consider me as a cocky cheater. I don't know people that well internationally except the Virtus.pro dudes, that's probably because of the Finnish nature not to chat or make friends with foreigners. But I'm hoping to change that too at the upcoming events.



How good do you think you are compared to those people? Finnish and international players, that is?



Don't like to hype myself so I just say that I'm in the elite of Finland. ;) Internationally, well I guess I'm there too, hard to say really since there are so much top-players around.



What do you think is the strength in your play?



Aim and reflexes, no doubt. :) My AWP-playing is probably the best in the world too (last time I hit someone with it was like a year ago).



Is there anything you'd like to, or trying to, improve in your play?



There's always things you can improve and in my case there's a lot. :P I should try to learn myself some patience and just take it easy in the 1onX situations. I usually just do the fastest thing possible to get rid of it. I could also start controlling my nerves since I might get really frustrated if we loose an important round.





What do you think your clan-mates think about you, both in- and outside of the game?



They naturally keep me as a highly skilled professional top gamer. :D Or maybe they don't always like me if I start whining and saying LOL all the time. Outgame we are really good friends though they just want me to keep away from alcohol.



If you want to check out bloodR in action, go here or here to see two short clips from ESWC. We also have some HLTV demos from various matches with bloodR – search in our file archive to find those!



The last part of the interview is about the CS scene, and bloodR will also speculate about the future. Read on!

Do you get yourself updated in the news of the CS scene?



Absolutely, you need to know what's going around in the whole scene since we mostly play against teams outside Finland. And I actually enjoy reading scene-news so it's not really a problem for me or anything. Even got my bookmarks filled with numerous community sites. :o



What five clans are the best in the Nordic countries?



I'm being optimistic so astralis, DSky, SK, spiXel, Titans. (Alphabetical order) :)



Put together five CS players, whoever you'd like, in a star-team. Which five do you choose?



bloodR, Guardian, kuviCk, Melvin & tihOp!



Let's look forward in time a little bit. Where are you and what do you do in a half year from now?



I'm on a boat trip from Estonia to Sweden with my schoolmates and we're partying like hell. And after I get home I'll probably sat down in front of my computer and play some CS with my mates in astralis.



Stick around in the future – what team is the best in the world by that time?



Astralis, perhaps? :P But I guess SK is back on track then who knows.



What will happen in astralis in the beginning of 2005?



Hopefully we'll announce a lead sponsor of some sort, who knows. :) But that's one of the things too hard to say yet. Depends on how we do at CPL like many other matters. There won't be any lineup changes anymore in the near future since we're on contracts.



What's your goal in your playing, really? Why do you play?



First it was to get decent at it. Then it was to achieve CB.fi top 20, 10, 5 and so on. That was all long time ago but I'm still willing to improve my own and my team's level and go all the way to the very top. As time has passed I've got myself other goals too. Now I'm also trying to develop my language skills in Swedish and English.



Do you think you can achieve those goals?



Time will tell how far we can go, it requires a lot of training and dedication for the game. But the thing about learning different languages shouldn't be too hard to achieve. :)



Thanks for the interview! Is there anything else you'd like to say to the people reading, or perhaps the ones who aren't reading, this interview?

Huge thanks to Steelpad & Icemat for their awesome support, they make our trip to CPL possible. Of course I can't leave Shuttle unmentioned for giving us top class computers for praccing. Also thanks to all fans out there, remember to cheer for us at CPL and at HLTV. :P And finally greetz to whole astralis crew, se7ensamurai – the best gather team out there, and tropiCo. GL Arto & Tino in DSky. :)



Hereby we end this little article, we thank bloodR for doing this and finally we'd like to wish him and his team the best of luck at CPL and future events!