Patrik 'cArn' Sattermon answers community questions.

Two weeks ago, we opened a post for all of you who had questions for captain of our Counter-Strike 1.6 team, cArn. Due to his tight schedule, which includes both practice and working on different project within FnaticMSI, his answers have been delayed a bit. He tried to answer most of your questions and thanked you all for showing interesting and support for many years now.


How is life in london treating you and what roles do you have with your day to day work in the fnatic office? (ksj)

Life in London is great so far. Warmer then home, more to do and it gives me the possibility to extend my knowledge in English. Im not at the office every day. I put my time into practising and working out, the weeks prior our tournaments. If there isnt any upcoming tourmaments I go to the office around 11am where I try help out on content on our new website and helping Sam out running the company in the day to day things that comes up such as sponsors, scheduling and bookings.

Are you happy with the introduction of Na'Vi to the competitive scene, as up until recently they were particularly unknown amongst the better teams? Do you feel that it adds much needed competition to the Counter-Strike elite, or do you feel you will not be able to overcome them as a challenge? (kikki)

It has been a while since we saw a new team among the finest Counter-strike teams. The interesting thing will be to see if Na´Vi is capable of do as well they did at the IEM Finals. As everybody know, it´s much easier to reach the top than staying there.

You will retire after wcg 2010 winning? (mesetefe)

The WCG is a fun tournament to play but it´s far from the most competitive one out there, and I dont base my retire plans on the results there . However, we have won many tournaments but the WCG so of course it would taste sweet to add that to our achievment lists.

I'm quite sure that you have started a couple of new teams in your carrier. Which are those important keys for building "the perfect team"? I mean which kind of players you need in a team. (degen-)

I get this question a lot. The most important thing when creating a team with high goals is to have fun and to feel comfortable hanging out with the players you are teaming up with. I do think its wrong to expect that you will achieve well from day one. The perfect team is a team that works well together and having the same goal.

Do u watch your opponents demos (hltvs or pov) , and making tactics only for the match? (faithha)

We usually have our MSI GT640 to the tournaments which means we have the chance to study our opponents from watching their recent matches. We try to stick to our own game but adapt slightly depending how we expect our opponents to play. There has to be a great balance between our own tactics and the anti strategies, otherwise it ends up messy.

Do you consider you CS career as something you deserved from training hard and striving to be the best, or is it a fortunate combination of circumstances you are what you are in this team? (twijg)

I think it´s not only due to my dedication spending hours and hours practising, but also from my attitude to the game itself. I´m just a normal guy trying to have great fun with my teammates, that motto have let me surpass many teams that was disbanded and of course I have been fortunate finding good people to play with.

Hey Patrick:) Had you problems in school when you started to play cs? (atwa)

It would be fair to say that CS did affect the school but somehow I managed to finish it with decent grades. There was some points we had tournaments abroad and I missed a week or two, this is something I dont regret at all - that experience took me where i am today. If I could advice someone who is thinking he should drop out to pursuit a pro gaming career I would say you could do both, it´s just a matter of planning and dedication.

Hi Patrik, what do you think the key to consistency in CS is? (alleninhooo)

First off, I think we have five very talented players who fill their roles superb. In addition to this, next as important as the first mentioned one, we enjoy the time together which makes the travelling, practising and spending time together. Finally, we have awesome support, not only from our beloved organization FnaticMSI and fans, but also the best sponsors you can imagine; MSI, SteelSeries, Bigfoot Networks, SLAPPA and Ugame.net.

 Hello, how did you find out, that the left hand(in counter strike) is better for u? did u ever keep gun in right hand? (dzn)

I have been thinking about why I use the left hand weapon alignment since I´m right-handed. I would say its just something I started out with and havent really cared to switch over the years.

You've played for a long time, in different teams and lineups. Is there any special period / team / lineup you like or miss more than others? (stryker)

I think we had really nice time when Archi and ins played for us. It was two busy years (2007-2008) when we travelled a lot including two turns to Los Angeles which was a blast.  But to be fair, every new player that has joined us has brought something new and all changes that has been done were justified and I´m still in love what I´m doing.

 What do you think about NaVi? Are they "one-tournament-miracle" like MYM? (amigo)

As I answered earlier, I think they are really talented and motivated but there is hard to predict how they deal with the pressure. At the IEM finals they came pretty much from nowhere and crushed all top teams, now the eyes will be on them and it´s going to be exciting to see how they deal with that.

Obv you've been playing alot, but what was your breakthrough really, or how did you come to the top, is there any tips you can give to all the middle class gamers to help us reach a greater level in gaming? (darkmatter)

I think I´ve always increased my skill. There are a couple remarkable stages in my career when I consider myself really good invidually and the first stage was probably when I joined and played for ArchAngels(2002-2003), everybody thought I used shady settings but I proved them wrong offline. Another stage I remember was 2007 when something just happen to my game after recovering the previous year from my 2005 years´ hibernation.The key moment in my career has always been that I had the luck to been picked up from stronger teams, this is situation I think you need to put yourself in, in other words: make everybody know you are really good by playing online and your day will hopefully come!

As the strat caller of your team, can you tell me what exactly do you talk about and the type of stuff you call during freezetime and during mid-game? (jayrardo)

The first thing we do is to check our money situation, next up is spawns where we decide if we gonna rush or not. Depending on the previous mentioned one, we try to adapt to our opponent and decide the round we are about to execute. Usually we plan all our rounds beforehand but sometimes we need to adapt and I just tell everybody where to go and what to do. I consider mid-game calls the most difficult one since you need to get an idea where everybody is and with your teammates observation come up with a decent decision where to attack.

What do you think about the future of esports and which roll will Counter Strike have in that future? (element)

Counter-strike will always be the game we can look back to and know it took e-sport forward. In fact CS has been competitive for almost 10 years and no other title(Quake have four editions) and it´s just a matter of time when the next big title take over. Im not certain when this is but let´s realize we can´t play and push forward e-sport with just the help of a 10 year old game.I believe E-sport will continue blossom but it´s going to take time to make it mainstream since there are so many companies attacking the business in different angles.

Playing games can loosen stress, but as a professional gamer, playing games can be stressful sometimes. What do you usually do to loosen stress after matches? (SSEDA)

We try to joke a lot and play around before an important game. Im more than happy to make a fool of myself knowing it will remove some tension from my teammates and increase the overall spirit in our team. Sometimes it´s hard to find a good combination trying to remove the stress while still knowing a serious match coming up, but we do have much experience so this is not a big issue for us these days.

As ESWC being reborn again in the late 2009 and as fnatic had been unable to achieve 1st place in the past for one of the most prestigious event in eSports history, how do you see the event & competition overall? In terms of, how prestigious is it now compare to the old ESWC before their downfall? And, as a team leader of fnatic, how does your team approach ESWC? Is it still with same kind of hunger for ESWC trophy as in the past or is it more of a new and fresh motivation? (bourNE)

FnaticMSI did actually win ESWC Masters Cheonan in 2009. Obviously this is not as huge as winning in Paris so I guess we will have to change this 2010 when ESWC return. Even that they had some financial problem causing some anger from not paid teams I´m sure the ESWC feeling will still be there and it´s gonna be a pleasure participating the upcoming event if we get the chance.

Now, since you're in London, do you work in the fnatic office like a regular job and play for cs team or you're only a player still ? (Haris)

As I mentioned earlier, my main task is still being a part of the FnaticMSI CS1.6 team. Besides from the practise and tournament, I work at the office with Sam sorting out day to day things like sponsorships, travel arrangements and content on the new website.

You've recently said that, as expected, Threat brought some new tactics to the team. I was wondering whether he's also influencing your role as a strat caller during the game itself - is his tactical knowledge only used in pre-game preparations or does he have any word in your calls? Does this role remain solely yours or do other players (or Threat only / perhaps more than the other teammates) help you out in deciding what the strategies are going to be? (LadyValentine)

Everyone in the team are more than welcome to give feedback to the tactics, not only pre-game but also in the heat of battle. Threat has an history being ingame leader so it comes natural for him helping me out, probably the most together with dsn.

Do you think that everyone in every age can be a profesional gamer? and this where he is from it's not problem to be a profesional gamer? (A.B.C.-D.)

I dont think so. You are probably looking at your peak around 18-25, before that you are likely to not be mature/ready for all sacrifices you have to make with all the travel that comes being a progamer. The latter mentioned age, 25, was just a rough estimate but of course your reflexes and coordination will decrease when you get closer to 30. I can´t really prove it except looking at all great players of yesterday that retired, usually it was not because they decided, they just started to fade away.