Highlander Nations Cup #4 Grand Final Sunday @20CET

The fourth Highlander Nations Cup reaches its dramatic conclusion this Sunday evening! Join CeeJaey, sigafoo & Jon on BlackOut TV to see Sweden and Ukraine duke it out in a best-of-three on Upward, Steel and Badwater!

Sweden come into this clash as defending champions having dispatched England in last year’s Grand Final. The Swedes have looked strong throughout the competition, taking down the fearsome Russia in their semi-final tie in a thrilling three-map match. Boasting big names both 6v6 and Highlander fans will recognise, the likes of Zebbosai, Villdjack and Ascendary will make Sweden firm favourites for this fixture. With over 80% of bets on saloon.tf going in their favour expectations are high for this team. We spoke to leader and Heavy nijoonen to get his thoughts on the final.

Congratulations on making it to the Grand Final! Were you expecting to meet Ukraine at this stage or have they surprised you?

nijoonen: I casted Lithuania vs Germany early in the tournament with Ceejaey and when he asked what nation I thought could make an upset my answer was Ukraine, but if I thought they’d reach the finals, not at all.

Are you happier facing them than one of the previous favourites, or have they scared you with the upsets?

It’s hard to answer this without sounding cocky but much rather Ukraine than USA and France. I don’t think we would have beaten France in a final, USA would have been close but I’d say we have a rather big chance against Ukraine.

Which roster are you planning to use? There have been quite a few different Swedish teams turned out throughout the cup.

The hard part has been Sniper, obviously Inso left a rather huge pair of shoes to fill so I basically had to find a talent, since all of the good Swedish snipers are out of the game (TviQ, jukebox, BeaverN). Twisted is a sniper main but he was the best medic option at the time and none of the other medics we tried really worked out well enough. However ondkaja stepped up and decided he was up for playing Medic. The rest should remain as it has been for most of the cup with Herr_P, Zebbosai, Ascendary, alle, me, Mint and Villdjack.

Who do you think will be the player to watch in the final? Anyone in particular who’s key to your game plan?

Our teams are built up somewhat the same, having big names on sort of the same classes and somewhat weaker players on other classes. The big players are the Snipers, Demos and Scouts. Kensi / Abra vs Herr_P will be interesting, alle vs Death important and the really key battle is to see how well Twisted, who haven’t played even close to Prem, will do against Nesh who is really experienced and proven. So the key is really to deny Death from stickyjumping away and steal the throphy from in front of our eyes!

How have you found the addition of weapon pickups in a Highlander setting? Would you like to see it allowed in future 9v9 seasons?

It’s always bad when you have to make the difference between “regular” TF2 and competetive bigger, but on the other hand it really makes the game less interesting. Essentially an uber force is better than getting a uber drop, and few things are so loaded and hyped up as medic dropping in a keysituation. That being said I don’t really mind that you get another thing to keep in mind whilst playing. Counting ubers gets harder, guarding dropped mediguns is another thing to keep in mind and so on. I think Valve need to re-think the idea before it could be allowed in future HL seasons, making it more like the Vita saw or something, that you just keep 40-50% of the ubercharge or along those lines.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Any shoutouts?

Any time! Shoutout for TLR letting me have Herr_P playing Highlander, Ceejaey’s fans and to the guys behind DeutschLAN, I’ve seen nothing but nice things being said about it! Thanks for the interview! q:-)

Sweden
Scout: Herr_P
Soldier: Zebbosai
Pyro: Ascendary
Demo: alle
Heavy: nijoonen
Engineer: it's Mint
Medic: ondkaja
Sniper: Twisted
Spy: Villdjack

Ukraine have turned out to be the surprise package of this Nations Cup, dispatching heavyweight opponents United States of America, France and Denmark during the knockout stages despite being underdogs in every fixture. Nesh has been doing some serious work on Sniper, with Death pumping out huge amounts of damage for the talented flank of arty and lippy to clean up on. Leader and Medic Klefsas took some time out from drilling his troops to answer a few questions for us.

Congratulations on making it to the Grand Final! Did you expect to make it this far at the start of the Cup?

Klefsas: At the beginning of the Cup we only had a good roster and a strong desire to win. We did not look that far ahead, the main task was to set up a good teamand take 1st or 2nd place in our group. So maybe no, I didn`t even think I could be playing in the final.

Which roster will you be playing with for the Grand Final?

We will play with Arty on Scout, lippy on Solly, food ration on Pyro, Death on Demo, Gunrox on Heavy, Ihor on Engie, me on Medic, Nesh on Sniper and detoed on Spy.

Which players should we look out for in the match?

Lippy and detoed are realy strong players. Sometimes we win rounds just cos of lippy’s sick jumps and great picks. Detoed has good gamesense, he saps every time when we need him to, giving alot of info and hunting medics like old school predator. Our flank players have less highlights but sometimes they make crazy plays like 4 kills in a few seconds from food ration or big damage output from Ihor and Arty witch makes a game for the team. And our big star, Gunrox – is a big boy with minigun, sick aim, and tasty sandwiches. He is definetly best heavy EU ;-). I can definitely say that Death and Nesh will show strong play because they have a lot of experience in HL and sick aim. These two guys will make a lot of problems for the enemy team as long as they have an opportunity to take a shot.

Finally, what are your opinions on weapon pickups in Highlander? Should they be allowed in future Highlander seasons?

I think this is a great innovation in the game, and it has both positive and negative sides. How much this innovation will affect the game is also very dependent on the map. For example, on pl_ maps drops from the BLU medic only means that the attack from BLU will start a bit later. From the other side if RED have UBER and a good situation on flank, they can push with uber and take the enemy’s medigun. The main negative aspect is that medics can`t properly count an enemy uber and spies need to check it more often, cos you can`t be sure if the enemy medic picked up someone’s medigun or not. Uber management is fucked cos of this new feature. And the second bad thing is drops. If medic drops he not only wastes his uber, he is now giving it to the enemy team and this is really painful for teams with dead medics. But in another side, drops from aggressive plays are now paying out if your team has enough resourses to push the enemy line and take their uber. And playing medic is now more interesting. You can drop RED medic on pl_badwater and just rush his corpse with your uber, and then continue with his own ;) I don`t think that this innovation makes game harder or easier for medic. And I can`t say that this is 100% bad or good. It just changes the game and I think that there is nothing critical about it. I think ETF2L should keep it.

Thanks to Klefsas for taking the time to talk to us!

Ukraine:
Scout: arty
Soldier: lippy
Pyro: food ration
Demo: Death
Heavy: GunroX
Engineer: Ihor
Medic: Klefsas
Sniper: Nesh
Spy: Detoed.