WinOut

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg has been a name known to Counter-Strike fans the world over for more than half a decade now.  His early success placing 2nd at ESWC 2004 with spiXel coupled with the "broderna wallenberg" series of movies, edited by and co-starring his younger brother miniwalle, have made his penchant for incredible quickscopes and unstoppable AWPing a talent known to all followers of top level Counter-Strike.  The latter part of walle's career has seen him take the NiP name back to the top in 2006 and now in 2008 he stands out as one of the game's premiere in-game leaders.  Most recently he picked up his second WCG silver medal and overcame those who had denied him the gold, mTw.dk, at the Dreamhack WGT finals.

You'd stated in the past that it's unlikely the world will see another Wallenberg produced movie yet the public still seems to hold out hope they will.  Are you glad those movies were made in terms of showcasing the skill of those kills?  Do you look back on them with any nostalgia?  Do you ever wonder how good a modern day walle movie could be featuring your best kills against the current world elite?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  I'm glad we did the movies, I'd say they're cult-movies in the scene and it will be nostalgic looking back at them in a few years.  I already released a movie of my own a few years back, after my brother had gone inactive. One thing is probably certain, there won't be another movie to the Wallenberg brothers trilogy.  If I have another made myself, time will tell.  There is no plan to right now.  I would like to have a movie made for when I quit, that'll be something to think about :)

If one watches any of the br_wallenberg movies or any of miniwalle's POV demos it appears he possesses the same capacity for doing incredible things and playing amazing Counter-Strike as his brother does yet his career took a drastically different route to that of yours.  While he was a member of spiXel he seemed capable of playing against the best but his later ventures in speedlink or one of the last NiP line-ups with you seemed rather underwhelming by comparison.  Can you put your finger on why you made it to the top while he didn't?  Do you ever wonder what might have happened if the spiXel sponsorship hadn't disappeared?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  My brother was always an underrated player, a lot of people took for granted that he gained off of my name when in truth he was just as good.  The difference between the two of us was that his head wasn't into the game as much as mine.  He was never that interested in the life of a professional gamer, having his girlfriend and friends on the side.  I think that is one of the reasons he stayed with his friends in speed-link for such a long time, he just enjoyed that more.  I don't think that things would have panned out differently had spiXel as an organisation been more successful, seeing my brother values his real life too much to sacrifice it for Counter-Strike.

As far as your individual game goes how does walle see himself as a Counter-Strike player?  The outside perception of you is largely of the highlight reel AWPer who pulls off crazy quickscopes.  It seems as though you've improved through every year of your career though to the point that you can now execute those kinds of rounds against any level of opponent and in any match.  How has the course of that evolution been charted out and how has being an in-game leader added a new dimension to it?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  I've evolved a lot as a player in different ways, during the years.  I started out in LuLAN, spiXel and EYE as the madfragging kind of player who would pull off match-deciding stunts.  When I came into NiP we didn't have a strat-caller so we simply went with me because I more or less volunteered, or rather, no one else wanted to take on the role.  From that point on, I went from being the first guy into a bombsite to falling back, getting an overview and making the decisions of who's gonna do what, trying to make sure the round was run the way I planned.  I think that becoming an in-game leader made me sacrifice a lot of my individual skill in favour of smarts, and more team-based decisions.  I have a lot of faith in myself out-thinking someone, but not as much out-aiming as I used to.

Me and RobbaN has always been working together on strats and game plans for matches, I've been the main in-game leader though.  After our failure at WCG I simply asked him if he could consider taking over for me.  My strength is in reading opponents which doesn't necessarily mean I should call rounds, which RobbaN does now and has done since before Dreamhack. I focus more on mid-round decisions, and of course making strats and game plans with RobbaN, as always.

What can you say about your style of AWPing?  You've clearly got a talent for quickscoping but how do you see any of the other elements of your style or AWPing in general?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  There isn't much to AWPing in general.  Of course, you'll benefit from being good all-around with an AWP.  For example, there are players who will hit you through double doors on de_dust2 a lot, like cogu and Sunde.  Every AWPer has his own style of how to use it and it's more a question of what kind of positioning and technique you are comfortable with.  You gotta know your surroundings and ways to take advantage of them.

There are a lot of people who can pick up an AWP and fast-zoom a guy but there aren't as many who will be consistent with an AWP.  Players like these are Sunde, cogu and RobbaN.  My own specialty used to be close-combat with an AWP before the delay was introduced and that's where I'm best, whilst other AWPers might have an edge on me reflex-wise.

I'll give you a series of AWPers whose styles are familiar to you through having played with or against them in your career and you give me your thoughts on them.  What qualities stand out to you from each and what can you say about their strengths or overall style?

miniwalle

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  miniw and I have basically the same style.  It will look more like showing off then actually AWPing, a lot of flick shots and no-scoping in close combat and I think that's where we are most comfortable.

RobbaN

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  RobbaN was an AWPer back in Begrip and he was amazing with it.  He doesn't play as much with it now but he's still got it, he's got his routines down on the maps he uses it and he's very efficient.

cogu

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  Cogu is one of the fastest I think.  He's very good both close-range and long-range.

Sunde

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  Sunde, I'd say is one of the best positioners with AWP.  He knows exactly what he wants to do in all his positions and he rotates around very well when he needs to backup.

Amongst fans and across forums it appears Sunde is now heralded as the best AWPer in the world, in large part thanks to mTw.dk being perhaps the best team in the world overall throughout 2008.  He is clearly a talented player but in terms of pure technical AWPing ability one could argue his tracking shots or flicks shots are not as impressive as some of the other names mentioned above.  As you've mentioned he seems to be very good at positioning, using his fast reflexes in being able to fire at a target appears in the center of his crosshair.  Using these tripwire shots he seems to be very effective as he can fire as quickly as anyone out there.  How do you balance up these positive qualities and these criticisms in comparison to the world's best laid out there?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  I think he's one of the most consistent AWPers during matches.  He's got his game down and I think that his biggest strength is for sure his positioning, not necessarily relying on reflexes or flick shots.  He's been doing this thousands of times and knows what to expect from where he's at.  You have to be able to counter players like these.  For example, de_inferno CT side is one of Sunde's strongest AWPing maps and at Dreamhack we managed to pull off a 16-5 win starting as T.  We didn't leave him any room to pull his stuff off and get away with it.  Instead of backing down we brought it to him, if I remember correctly.

What can you take from your recent Dreamhack victory?  It was significant in being over mTw.dk who appeared to be one of those teams SK.swe was still in the process of figuring out how to beat when it matters most.  How much balance out giving credit to your team in balancing up playing well and the mTw.dk may yet bounce back and win the next big event? Also what can you say about your victory over MYM 2 maps to none along the way?  What about their style enables SK.swe to handle the Poles while other teams have real difficulties playing them?

Dennis "walle" Wallenberg:  At Dreamhack the whole team really stepped up on an individual level and I think we really managed to play our 'A game' as a team and as individual players during the whole tournament, which we failed to do during the finals at WCG.  It doesn't matter how good a round you're gonna run if you're not able to get your guy.  You can't afford to be losing the rounds you're supposed to have, or not make the frag you're supposed to, it could cost you the match in CS with this money system.

When it comes to MYM, I think that history will show you that they have a very hard time playing us and our way of playing the game.  They run a game of a lot of fakes and we don't buy into that too easily.  It seems that somehow though, the past few times we've played each other we've gotten off to a good head start and not let them into the game.  I think that this is their biggest weakness.  They are good at leading the pace in a game, but not at catching up.

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