Interviews
Page 1 - Team Ebuyer / Guns4Hire (Jack "Callisto" Mason and George "HudzG" Hoskins)
Page 2 - 4Kings (Joona "Natu" Leppanen)
Page 3 - Auxilia (John "Gandofini" Johnston)

Ebuyer / Guns4Hire Interview
It was only moments into the i-series event when the announcement was made that team Ebuyer would be leaving the organisation and playing under a new name. The reasons for this are still a little bit blurred and no specifics have come out as of yet, the new name “Guns 4 Hire” a tongue in cheek pointer to their intentions to pick up a new sponsor following on from a good performance at this event. Of course, there’s a long way to go yet, but there is a real confidence in the players as they look to prove themselves worthy of a big name.

I took some time out between games to talk to Jack “Callisto” Mason and George “HudzG” Hoskins:


So how is the tournament going so far for you?

JM – As expected really. We’ve won all our games comfortably, tactics have been working well, the team has been firing on all cylinders. I’m looking forward to meeting some of the higher calibre of opposition later in the competition.

GH – Yeah, we’re breezing through the games at the moment and it’s onwards and upwards from here. We’re just taking it one game at a time and focusing on beating whoever is in front of us.


What prompted the change of sponsors and how will it impact on your preparations, performance and mindset?

JM – It’s a positive actually, a real big confidence boost for us as we know that we’re thought of highly and we have had people asking about us as a potential pick up.

GH – We know we can move on from here, we’re playing well and our consistency could possibly bring us a solid sponsor. Whatever happens you can expect this line-up totally unchanged and playing out at LAN79.


What are the specific reasons for the move?

GH – We’ve put a statement out there and we just stand by that. We feel personally there was no communication between the organisation and us, so we concluded that there was no future with ebuyer. We did what we believed we had to do and it’s not motivated by greed. We just want to be successful and we acknowledge that anyone who wants that needs the right kind of support.


In an ideal world who would you like to pick you up?

GH – We just want to be able to get out to the big UK and European events. Anyone who can offer that is the right sponsor for us. We just want to be part of something, but for now we’re playing solely for ourselves and each other.

JM – Communication and a good relationship is essential to us. We don’t want to be some tag along team.


Do you believe that you can compete with the rest of the teams that are here? What do you think a realistic potential finish for you would be?

GH – We beat eSuba the other day and people said we couldn’t. I’ve always said we’re better at LAN. If we perform we can beat anyone and we go into every competition looking to win it outright.

JM – I know we can beat any team here. We have the right tactics thanks to Tom (Tom “beta” Hannah) working tirelessly on them day and night. We have the teamwork, we have the communication and all of us totally believe this is our event. It’s probably been said a million times in a million interviews so people might take it with a pinch of salt, but this team are my friends and I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else regardless. Right now I think we’re on the brink of something special.


Jack, obviously you made the move from 1.6 to Source only recently compared to your team-mates. Have you been finding your feet recently?

JM – Yeah, I’ve listened and learned from these guys and I’m really thankful they were around to help me get to grips with it as it is, in a lot of ways, a different game. When you have players like this around you it does boost your confidence, especially when they believe in you and stand by you like they have when I’ve been criticised. I know I can trust these guys to do their job and do it well.

IG5 was the best I’ve played at a CSS LAN probably and that made me feel like I was going to come here and play even better. I have the perfect set-up right now and I know I can compete with any of the other players here.


If you didn’t win this event who would you like to see win it?

GH – Reason Gaming for me. They’re my old team mates, good friends of this team and it would make people realise, if they haven’t already, that giftig and Hellblinde are really strong players. A close second would be Birmingham Salvo. Got nothing but respect for those guys and they’ve been like our sparring partners since we started practicing with this line-up.

JM – For me a team called Nevermind as they have my housemate playing for them. Sam’s a great guy and loves his CSS. It’s their first i-series and I’d love it if they won it against all the odds.