1 Tell us about yourself - your general real-life and SWAT history...
I'm a bavarian in his early twenties. I'm in the last year of studying a physical subject. I started playing SWAT4 right after release, when I still went to school. Some friends and I bought the game and we founded a small COOP clan (AMP). I mostly played COOP mode at this time, but also played some VIP and even more sporadically the other modes. 3 years later (2008), after we had several longterm breaks from SWAT4 we ended AMP clan. Soon after I got recruited by eXtyle (Ex-|WM|) for the BS/VIP-clan >c0p< and collected my first experience in (mainly) BS and VIP matches.
After the VIP section of >c0p< broke apart and as BS wasn't interesting enough for me, I soon joined |TE| clan (founded by Ex-TTC members) with some former >c0p< mates, but also this clan broke apart fast, due to a quarrel among the leaders as far as I remember. Then at end of 2009, I applied for CTA (founded by Ex-|AE| members) and stayed there for 1 and a half years, in which I learned a lot about tactical gaming in matches. For me this was the "golden era" of SWAT4 1.1. There were several full VIP servers at a time, enough matches and tournaments, and I was in an experienced team with great mates. Due to a little quarrel with the leader which could not be settled, I left CTA. Soon after I joined |FA|, which had a great and experienced war team as well. The choice was easy for me, as I played together with my |FA| mates a lot before, in matches and even together with them for Czech Republic in Nations Cup 2010, where we reached 2nd place (rules were less strict, that allowed people with roots in foreign countries to play for them).
However, at the end of 2012 and after this Gamespy issue, we evolved |FA| to a Gaming Group, so that anyone who wanted to join other clans was allowed to, but we remained together as a xfire group. I became inactive in SWAT4 for some months and played other games with my |FA| mates. In spring this year eWoLt persuaded me to come back to SWAT4 and apply for ||ESA||. For a rebirth he managed to collect most of the former |FA| warteam in ||ESA|| and we are looking forward to some further matches and tournaments.
2 ESA clan recently moved to 1.0. Do you believe that the other remaining 1.1 survivors (XF, MYT etc) will also eventually follow in your steps?
I can't say much about XF as I know just a few of their members and just from sight on server. Regarding MYT, I can say I don't believe they will move their Team Server to 1.0, as long as it fills in 1.1. And it's full with 16 players every evening. From time to time their players will maybe also install both Swat versions and we see them more often in 1.0 (e.g. to play matches), however they can be happy with their situation in 1.1, as they have an active server and a lot of active members, which was not the case for ||ESA|| in 1.1 anymore.
3 If a friend or fellow ESA member got caught cheating, would you give them a second chance?
That's a tough question. I usually support zero-tolerance policy towards cheaters. Also I'm sure no one I have played along with for over half a decade or so has been cheating. So I can answer this by a strict no. If the proof is not clouded with doubt, they won't get a second chance in SWAT4 or ||ESA||, as far as I'm concerned.
4 In the recent World Cup tournament, you played for Germany as they secured 2nd place. Sum up your feelings over the course of the tournament..
As it was not possible for me to play for Czech Republic again, I asked KeYeS whether we should build up a German team. With a little begging here and there we had our team ready in time.
I wrote in the World Cup forum that the team is open for others as well, but no-one else wanted to play. In the end all the players in the team knew each other for years, and for most players it was not their first tournament together. I guess this was a crucial factor on our way to the Final and also when we did some mistakes - after all we did a very good job in the World Cup, which was rewarded with 2nd place. On this occasion, congratulations again for Turkey, who beat us twice and earned their 1st place and a big thanks to you for organizing it, and to anyone that helped ;) Only sad point about the tournament were the few matches that had to take place with just 3-4 players per team.
5 Finally, tell us what you believe the future holds for ESA clan.
||ESA|| wasn't really active last time due to 1.1 community decay. Only Benedictus and some players held on to it. With the recruitment of the former |FA| war team and now the movement to 1.0 which made possible even further recruitment, the activity is back in ||ESA||. Not only with people like sex, foobär and others joining but also the fact that Bene is the last one not to allow improvement, changes and activity to happen (and contributes himself a lot into it) ;-)
Recent matches showed that we need to improve our teamplay and communication, so the new players can be successfully integrated into our warteam. That means in the future we need more training matches besides fun matches. Another topic is the rebirth of ||ESA|| portal (so to say extend our online presence), which has been shut down, as its hoster/developer left our clan, unfortunately without leaving a backup.
Long story short - after regaining activity, recruitment of strong players who also show initiative, having good achievements in matches and with an experienced leadership (Bene founded ||ESA|| in April 2006) I see a bright future for ||ESA|| in SWAT4, as long as this game will live ;-)