While most focus on Marcus 'zet' Sundström's 1 vs 4 situation in Dreamhack's final against mTw, and rightly so, Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström was the silent hero of the event for SK Gaming. With him replacing Dennis 'walle' Wallenberg at the helm for the tournament the team has had its greatest victory in 2008.

In this interview, we talk about the match against mTw, the Dreamhack tournament and what it is like to call strats for SK Gaming.



Did the DreamHack victory feel better than the one at Extreme Masters LA?

Yeah, it felt a lot better than LA. First of all we finally won over mTw. We have always had problems playing them so it felt really good with a win over those guys. The feeling after we won was simply amazing.

What was going through your head when mTw were walking over you on dust 2?

We added a lot of new things to our strats on dust 2 and the rounds we played didn't work at all. We tried different things and nothing really worked out in our favour. I only thought that we needed more rounds than we had because we have a really strong CT side normally. We have been struggling with our T side on dust 2 for a while.

You had the right to doubt yourself after losing dust. What kept you going?

I made a promise that we were gonna win to someone, so I really didn't have a choice. :)

Which moment was the most difficult moment of the final for you?

We had a really good opportunity to win on nuke before it went to overtime. There was a round where mTw bought weapons when they were low on money. I think we got the entry that round when we went for ramp. mJe had pushed aggro near the radio room. I was the first in and I really thought I checked there but I didn't and that made us lose that round.

I was really pissed at myself but I still had to think about the next rounds. I would say that was the most difficult moment in that match. If we had won that round, they would have only bought deagles the round after and it would have been an easier way to victory than going into overtime

Did you think at any time "oh my, we are screwed now"?

No, it's never over until it's over!!!!

What about the last round of the first overtime when you were screwed on money and had to win it to keep playing? What were your thoughts then?

Yeah, well I knew it was gonna be hard to win that round. Luckily for the rest of us Tentpole stepped up that round with his deagle!

What kind of conclusions should we draw from the event Jonkoping? From looking at the final standings?

Well, Giants impressed me a lot, they are playing really well these days. mTw I already knew were really strong of course, but I don't know, we will keep practicing a lot until our next tournament and try to be as in good shape individually as we were at Dreamhack. I think that was the key for our win this event.

Would one of the conclusions after DreamHack be that you should remain SK's strat caller?

We haven't talked about that yet so I can't say. But if it were up to me I would say that I would like to stay as the strat caller because I really like it.

Why did you change with walle?

We started to talk after WCG and he asked me if I wanted to start calling the strats. I started to think and I said we could give it a shot. Walle is still coming up with ideas during our games and we talk together before any game how we should play. He's still helping out with the strats a lot.

As a strat caller how are you similar to walle and what makes you different?

I would say our style is kind of similar. Walle is/was a great strat caller and I have learned a lot from him so that's probably why my style is similar. I was the in-game leader for SK before walle and Tentpole joined the team, so I'm not all new to the mission. Still I have to get used to it a bit more and learn from the mistakes I made during DreamHack.

What kind of mistakes did you make?

There were moments we just stood still and I didn't really know what to do, for example in a 4vs4 situation, and I felt like I was too slow to come up with something good. I'm going to try to think up a master plan faster in moments like that for next tournament, if I'm still calling that one.

But you won the tournament. Does this mean you're a better caller than walle?

No no, not at all. If walle had been calling we might have won even easier. :)

When will we be able to say that SK Gaming is the number one team in the world?

It's hard to say that one team is the best in the scene, but if you win many tournaments in a row I guess you can say your team is the best team. So if we keep winning and take a few more I would say we are number one.

Do you think that it helped at DreamHack that SK had a caller that other callers didn't know well?

Well, not really. We kind of played with the same strats at Dreamhack as before. We changed a few things and added a few rounds. I guess I'm choosing the rounds a bit different than walle, but I doubt that the other callers from the other teams got confused.

This year showed a trend of mTw and mouz rising. Is it fair to say that fnatic and MYM's time is up and they are burnt out?

I woudln't say that their time is up, but yeah, they haven't played as well as they did before. Still they are both teams to count on in all tournaments.

Which are the best teams in the world at the moment? Your personal top 5 ranking.

1 - mTw, 2 - mouz, 3 - SK, 4 - eSTRO, 5 - MYM, based on results.

How do you think it's going to change in 2009?

Of course I believe in my own team so I'm just gonna say that we will be first on that list in 2009.

Tack.

Tacktack.

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Dreamhack photos taken from readmore.de