Interview of n|RedStorm

Esportsfrance.com : Hello RedStorm, could you present yourself to our readers please ?
n|RedStorm : Hello guys, I'm Daniel Hoppe, better known as 'RedStorm'. I'm 18 years old. The most time I spend with sports and eSport. I play Trackmania since the first version and I downloaded TmN on the first day of course. A few days after Nations released I took place as the Captain of our Trackmania Team (of the ex-aX/bioXar players).

We learn you join n!faculty with all keySports players, what a great news !?
Yes, we joined n!faculty, but I wouldn't say we joined n! with the keySports players. During the last days and weeks, there were many things to do, and because of the fact, that we are "2 Squads" (CGT and aX ) who will play together in the future, we had to find a solution, to start the Premiership together and other Cups too of course. The solution was that we play under the keyS tag. But now, we are happy that we joined the nice association.

How did it pass ? Were you in contact for a long time ?
Well, the contact to n!faculty took place between bmg4ever and one of the leaders of n!. They spoke about some other things and later about Trackmania Nations too. n!faculty already organized a few TmN offline Cups, for example at the Games Convention. For these Cups the mapper was Greif – a player from CGT ( now n! ) So a few of our players already had contact with them for a long time, but a few weeks ago we decided to do do an application to join faculty.

At the beginning, would you join with only aX players or the couple CGT-aX was decided ?
Because of the thing, that bmg - the CGT Leader spoke with the faculty management, there was no way to join only with the aX Team and that was not my intention too. aX was a great team but with some players who couldn't follow the others too. So we decided to do something like a best of CGT and aX for a new Squad in n!faculty. And when I saw the lineup I was very happy to be one of the Captain of that new Team, which is better than before.

Do they promise you something ? What are your aims now ?
As you know these question is really hard to answer. In Trackmania nobody can say before „ we will win easily“ or „we have no chance“. I would say that we have good chances to score a top place in the first session of the Premiership. But with webOne, excello and nEph there are a few strong teams who want to win too. We have good chances but we will have to train a lot ( Not easy for most Teams because of ESWC Masters, France, Austria and other Cups )

Many teams (insidiae goes to Begrip, dignitas) are joining "super-structures" otherly called "powerhouses", what's your opinion about ?
I think these associations are important for the eSport and for many players. Good players want to "earn" a bit money with their hobby, so they are traveling to many Lans in many countries and if they can get a „powerhouse“ which support them, why not? A good team which is playing for a „super-structurded“ organization got many advantages.

Thank you for all this answer RedStorm. You can add a word if you want.
I wanna thank bmg very much for all his work and now GOGO n!faculty!

Esportsfrance.com : Hello JWH, could you present yourself to our readers who don't know you ?
Begrip`JWH : I'm Jan Willem 'JWH' Hofstede from the Netherlands, driver and co-captain of the recently added Begrip.tmn squad. Previously known as Insidiae.

We recently learnt that your TrackMania section goes to Begrip structure, how did you do ? Did they contact you or did you contact them ?
We contacted them, knowing a player of them was interested in this game some time ago. We, of course wanted to try other organisations aswell, but this one, we had a good feeling about. Because some already knew about this game. It made it easier to convince them that Trackmania Nations has a bright future. Seeing how it's quite an overlooked game in the eSports scene.

Your publicity increased so quickly! Nobody knew you before your great match against dignitas and now, you take part in Begrip team, how do you explain it ?
First of all, all credit to the team on winning that match. As I didn't play myself. Either way, we knew this match would be able to put us on the map. But we also knew Dignitas isn't the most motivated team for online competitions. Either way, I expected way more on the ESWC map from them than they showed. Seeing how we completely focussed on the TNA map. The fact we moved to Begrip now has nothing to do with this match though. It's just 'bad timing' I guess. The only reason I can think of is because we didn't have any results to show prior to joining insidiae. So we couldn't get to a larger and more established organisation.

What are you expecting from ESL now ?
We, of course, hope to do well, obviously. But mainly to gain more experience and to become closer as a team, seeing we are still quite new and lots of additions lately. We know ESL Premiership is hard, but we hope to do well and proof that the win on Dignitas wasn't just a lucky game.

Did you sign a contract ? Are there conditions to stay with Begrip during the next season ?
We did not sign a contract, however there has been talk about it. First of all, we must show that we are a motivated team and belong in the organisation. So there is some kind of trial period for the team. But i've got full confidence and all players showing their motivation!

Thanks a lot JWH for answering my questions. Let the last word for you.
Well what is there left to say, other then hope to see you all on the tarmac! I'd like to show a final appreciation to the insidiae organisation for accepting us in the very beginning and letting us build up to what we are now. And, of course, Begrip for having us now.