By Blaze

With the holidays approaching, many of us have stress and very little time in real life. And it was not different with the [357]QsQ—the ever-ready Slate had to jump in again and again in the past days. And just like before, this did not degrade the performance of the team in the slightest.

The first day of the second cycle was promising, so much so that it seemed a little too easy. At first there was the team of [Duel]Do You Even Lift, but not enough of them, so after the time was up QsQ went on to the second match of the day without as much as lifting a finger. Another victim of the holidays?

The second opponent that night was a group of friends and scrim buddies from [LION]Lions eSportsKlubb. Even though both teams had clashed in friendly games so many times and they appeared equal in those, QsQ proved once again that they are a tournament team by dominating both games in the series.

Actually I did not witness any of these matches due to real life events myself, but from what Insomnia told me, those games were awesome and he was proud like a father. I only got the very last bit of the last game when I came home and they all were really happy and satisfied with their games that day.

The next day, the current champion of the Diamond Division was waiting for them. But on this Sunday, as we all remember, there were some ripples on the binary pond and many matches including the Diamond ones had to be postponed. NoVa made plans for scrimming all week to get even more training for the coming challenge and everyone agreed.

But once again the busy schedule of the holidays struck. The days went on without much happening at all, first because of the servers, then because of members of the team stuck in real life. We got some scrims going—against LIONs mostly—and some of those were fun, with actual in-game dinner cooking and eating breaks included (hence the title).

Although there was some scrimming after getting the login issues from last weekend fixed, not all of it was really helpful. One rather half-hearted game caused some dissatisfaction among players; while some had taken it easy, others gave their all in this game as they always do and after the game was lost, there was a bad mood. I can understand both sides, to be honest. On the one hand, there is a big opponent waiting for you the next day so you want to get training, and what is the point of playing scrims if you don't focus? On the other hand it had been an exhausting and troublesome week—holidays and server problems are the natural enemy of professional gaming.

The bad mood hadn’t cleared yet when the match against [tdM]Trademark eSports started and even though tdM experimented a little by picking Rally and Empath, they clearly won against QsQ. Thinking back now, the atmosphere felt like the day when I first joined them, after almost getting kicked out of the Diamond Division the first cycle. So I have confidence that QsQ will once again rise to the challenge and continue on their path.

NoVa gave a big speech after the loss against tdM and also engaged the players individually to get motivation up again. They also planned on a lot of scrimming before Saturday the 22nd. In fact, while I’ve been writing this they have been playing for more than 2 hours already, and will go another 2 at least, end of the world or not!

So watch out on Saturday. I can't promise anything but I have the feeling there will be big plays!


On a side note: It has been 4 weeks now since the guys have taken me in and allowed me to peer into their business without restrictions, and I would like to thank them all for that. It has been a great experience so far and I am sure this will continue to get even better.

Have great holidays, and "Guten Rutsch," as we say in Germany.

Shoutout to the ever-worried and helpful Insomnia, Jonassomfan the awesome backbone of the team, NoX and Malle who always make the silliest comments while still playing on top level with ease, NoVa the awesome organizer who is the support for the team in every aspect, Style with his manly voice and his youthful attitude and of course Slate, a player who you want to have with you for any emergency! Also a big shoutout to LIONs and their excellent manners at the dinner table and of course to my most knowledgeable editor and boss Jeremy!

- Blaze
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