TaZ: "We have won for Poland"
We had a quick chat with AGAiN star Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtasfollowing his team's victory at the World Cyber Games.
AGAiN clinched the WCG gold following a dramatic 2-0 win over fnatic on de_nuke and de_train, with the first map going to a fourth overtime.
It was the first time in the knock-out stage that AGAiN managed to win a match in just two maps, and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas added he was not expecting this to be the one.
"We really did not expect to win the match in two maps, it was not easy, I have to say, nuke was the toughest and the longest game we have ever played, and it is one of the best games in the history of Counter-Strike," Wojtas told HLTV.org.
After the first map, the match was moved off the main stage and into the regular tournament area, something that disappointed Wojtas, who felt his team had the crowd's support.
"I think it would be better if we had stayed and played there because the public was cheering for us and living it with us, but no problem, I think the stage match was enough for everybody," he added.
When AGAiN sealed the win, there were some words exchanged between AGAiN's Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski and fnatic star Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, but Wojtas is looking to put this incident behind them as he does not want any bad blood between the two teams.
"There were some bad words between loord and GeT_RiGhT, because the fnatic guys were like teasing us, specially loord I suppose," Wojtas noted.
"It's not cool, I mean it's not fair and loord won the game in a 1on3 when fnatic were winning the round, so he went over his head and after the game he apologized to GeT_RiGhT, and I would like to apologize to [fnatic manager] Sam for all this mess, I hope there are no bad feelings between us, I really like the fnatic guys, we love each other, we love to party, so I hope it will stay this way."
AGAiN have become the second team in history to have two World Cyber Games, following in the footsteps of Team 3D, but Wojtas wants no comparisons with the American side.
"3D won in Source, so it's not the same, we have won two times in 1.6, the toughest Counter-Strike game," he explained. "But it means a lot, I mean, two times ESWC champions, two times WCG champions, I have no words to explain the feeling, because who could expect this after such a rough day yesterday we would bring our A-game today?"
The Polish veteran revealed that the secret to perform so well against fnatic was the good breakfast they had before the match, which was a first since arriving in Chengdu.
He added: "Today it was the only day we came to this hotel [Holiday Inn] and we had a very good breakfast, with everything: bacon, eggs and stuff, so everything was perfect, when we ate at 18 steps we had bread with jam, so there's a difference in the food, and I think it was the main reason behind our A-game."
Wojtas stated he and his team-mates have not yet decided where they will spend the money from WCG, but stressed they will not do it recklessly after recent negative experiences with organisations.
"After 10 months without salary, 10 months where we paid everything from our own pocket, from our own savings, we are just going to save it for another rough year," he conceded. "I am happy that we have won for Poland, not for any organisation, and it's only for our fans, for our fanbase in Poland.
"I would like to thank our fans and other people for loving Counter-Strike, we are not talking highly, we do not want to show a bad attitude and tell everybody we are the best, I can say that fnatic are for me the best team of 2009, we only hope we can win a tournament too, so kudos to everybody, kudos to fnatic for a great team and for second place."
We will soon upload a video of the Grand Final, so stay tuned to HLTV.org.