Clausewitz, captain of Benelux: Spoiler  | Q. It's not your first Cavalry Nations Cup, however it is your first as a captain. How do you feel about being in this position now ?
Clausewitz: I've played as a member of the team under Felix in 2014, and as a vice-captain under Martastik in 2015, and I feel like I've certainly learnt a lot about the Benelux community as a whole being literally in all three positions (member/vice-captain/captain), which in my opinion is helpful when it comes to leading a team.
Q. The Benelux community has kind of a special situation, having both french and dutch speaking players in it. How do you deal with that fact in the team, and is it an issue ?
Clausewitz: I think the language barrier was never really an issue, in the beginning we mostly had Dutch people and Belgians who spoke Dutch. Only since last year have we had french speaking Belgians, and we decided back then that speaking English was the best way to go to include everyone in the team, and to create that tiny bit more cohesion in the ranks. Everyone got over the language barrier quick, and I think we managed to get a nice little community regardless of the different languages. I have a french speaking vice-captain, so there really is no communication problems whatsoever in the team.
Q. Your team has faced Spain twice last year, once during the group stage, which you have won very closely, 8-7, and another time in the bronze final, which you've lost 2-8. Spain is in your group again this year, how do you feel about that and what do you think of this team compared to yours ?
Clausewitz: The Spanish team has always been our biggest opponent in my opinion. They have always been a strong team, and have always performed extremely well against us (and other teams). I think the Spaniards will put up a good fight against us, but I'd like to keep hope and say that it's going to be a close match. We'll have to see what the match brings, and I hope it'll be an enjoyable fight regardless of the outcome.
Q. Your team has only played one match so far, so you have busy weeks ahead. How are you planning to manage the team, and prepare it for the upcoming big matches ?
Clausewitz: We have prepared properly in my opinion with the numerous friendlies we had against Italy and the Germanic Countries. I trust my players, who are all mostly veterans of the cavalry community to work on their performance in their own time. I'm confident that we'll be able to field a strong team against our opponents this way.
Q. What comment would you give about the group your team is in, the teams in it and the possible outcome that would come out of it ?
Clausewitz: I feel as though we have two major powerhouses in our group, namely Spain and Germany. This was to be expected, considering these two nations are veterans (like ourselves) of the Cavalry Nations Cup and have always performed well against whoever is in their group. We'll have to win a match against either of them in order for us to go through to the next stage of the tournament, which is going to be hard. I think our team is strong enough to at the very least put up a good fight against both these nations. The other nations are fairly new to the tournament and I hope therefore that we'll be able to win from them with some effort. |
SernisThausten, captain of the Czech Republic and Slovakia:
Spoiler Q. This is the first ever Cavalry Nations Cup that a Czech & Slovakian team attends. There had been an attempt last year but unfortunatly it failed. How do you feel about leading a brand new team into this tournament ?
Sernis: On the one hand it's kinda awesome to try something new, and to be the first one to achieve that. On the other hand there is a lot of pressure going with it. Bringing a team together was a hard task, and everything is not perfect in it. More than half of the people in my team never played a single cavalry 1v1 before, so in order to keep going into the tournament, we'll have to work very hard.
Q. How did you work with both the Czech and the Slovakian communities ? Was bringing everyone together an easy thing to do ?
Sernis: The Czech and Slovakian communities always work together, in everything that regards gaming. However bringing a team together was pretty hard because there is practically no Czech and Slovakian cavalry community, and the few cavalry regiments there are do not play competitively. We still had a few volunteers, which was good to see. We have people from both the international and CS regimental communities. In the past there was some bad blood between some people, but we've managed to put all of that behind us in order to just enjoy the CNC and play all together in it.
Q. Your first two matches were really not easy ones to play for any team, since they were against the United Kingdom, then France. How did you prepare for those matches, and did you tell your men anything in particular before playing them ?
Sernis: We knew it would be difficult, I told my men that. This is my very first CNC as a captain, I can't do everything perfectly, and we didn't have as many trainings as we would have liked. Some of my men did train a lot, some others didn't. We don't have as many experience as those two veteran teams, so we didn't actually know all we had to do to fight them as best we could. The UK and France played very well. I wanna thank the French team in particular for their sportsmanship, as they balanced the numbers although we did not bring the right amount of players. I wish them the best of luck for the rest of the competition.
Q. Your two upcoming matches are against Italy and Poland. Both are cuirassiers teams. How do you think these matches will go for you ? Are you planning to train on special things before those matches ?
Sernis: I think it will be pretty hard. Fighting against cuirassiers will need more preparation for the CS team, and I think both those matches will be very hard challenges for us. We will make sure to train against heavies a lot before those matches, and we'll do our very best to put up good fights and maybe win thanks to the experience we'll gain from this training. We know Italy and Poland have way more CNC experience than we do, but we'll make sure to give them a good challenge, and not just give them 3 easy points.
Q. As an officer and the co-leader of the Nr.3 Husaren-Regiment, you are an active member of the international community. Would you say that participating in this Cavalry Nations Cup has given you the opportunity to get closer to the Czech and Slovakian communities?
Sernis: I've got in touch with many more people, both in the CS community and out of it. It sure is a good experience to just discuss of our past experiences in the community with these people, and to expand the friendships. I think this also goes for the rest of the team, some of my members just got to know each other a bit more and became friends, which is good to see. I hope these friendships will continue after the CNC and even in other games. |  |
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