Yesterday we announced the addition of Lars "Naikon" Olaisen to our Counter-Strike division. Today we provide you with an interview about him with questions concerning Olaisen's gaming-career, his opinions and of course his future.

Lars was born on the 31st of December in 1983. After several years it came to light that he got the "determination" to be a high-level Counter-Strike player when had his first experience with the game at the age of 16.

The Norwegian Counter-Strike star already played with some teams during his past like eoLithic, NoA and Catch Gamer. No doubt that eoL was surely some years ago one of the best Counter-Strike teams in the world, but also Team NoA profited by giving Lars a spot in their team. Team NoA managed to win the CPL Winter 2004 event against EYEBALLERS. It was the first time a team that came up from the lowerbracket would win this tournament.

Of course Lars got in contact with other international superstars by being such a success. It isn't surprising that he already played with today's
MeetYourMakers members Preben "prb" Gammelsæter, Geir-Stian R. "juve9le" Svendsen and Sondre "REAL" Svanevik (Catch-Gamer) as well as
Ola "element" Moum (Team NoA).

At that point everyone knew that "Naikon" is a born CS player.

Hi Naikon, you are a well known player all over the world. Could you introduce yourself to the readers?
Hi, I'm a 23 yeard OLD norwegian guy living in Narvik. I've been in the professional gaming scene since 2001 playing for teams like Massive Attack, Spacebar, eoLithic, NoA and Catch Gamer. Now after a years break I've joined up with MYM.

Why did you choose MYM? What makes the stay at MYM comfortable?
I've known all of them for a while now. We have never had any disputes or trouble socially. I'm really looking forward to meet up with them after a year away from the scene. Without a good team chemistry, it's impossible to do good gaming wise in the long run. I'm sure we are gonna do great at the upcoming events.

How will you prepare for the ESWC-finals in Paris? Bootcamp, or?
We're gonna practice online for the next couple of weeks to get things going. To do the final touch we're going to have a bootcamp from june 27th in Copenhagen at NetHouse 2000 before heading to Paris.

What is your tip for the final results at the Counter-Strike tournament at the ESWC Grand Final event?
I really haven't been following the scene the last year. Don't know what teams are doing good at the moment, or the rosters :) The only thing that matters is for us to do a great event.

What do you think, how do you and your the team will perform in Paris? It's a while back since you attended a LAN-event.
Things haven't changed that much since I was around last time. If we practice hard the next couple of weeks we're gonna be challenging for the title.

So you aren't nervous before the event since you haven't played that much lately?
Not really. I'm just eager to compete again. It's not like I haven't been playing cs for the last year. I've kept in shape with ladder games and some offical games for XpreZ and Team Norway. Just have to adjust to the ingame tempo.

How hard do you think it will be to reach the level or perform better than the old Naikon?
Hard to say. I've never been a good internet player. Don't get the old body going until it's gametime on LAN :) There's no doubt in my mind ill be just as good as I was back in the day and hopefully better since i'm more motivated to play again than I was last time around.

How do you think eoL whould have performed if you were to play today?
Haha. We wouldn't stand a chance. Only me and element have played cs for the last year. The game has evolved a lot since they were playing, but if we had some time to get the old guys going we could probably beat some crappy teams.

So would the team stand a chance if they would have continued playing counter-strike with it's members?
If they had kept on playing the last years and we still were a team I don't see any reason why we wouldn't still be one of the best teams around. There was a reason why we were so good back in the day. They would have evolved as players just like the game has.

Will MYM be so good as eoLithic was?
They have already proved that they are a world class team during the past year. So they are already at that level in my eyes. The only difference now is that now there are more great teams out there so it's harder to dominate every event.

When did you start playing Counter-Strike professional?
I got into the professional scene after we won the Norwegian CPL Dallas qualifier back in 2001 with Massive Attack. We managed to get a respectable 4th place at our first major tournament. The rest is history from there.

What would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
Winning the winter CPL Dallas 2003. That was my first HUGE win. Winning from the loser bracket was an awsome feeling. Especially with our bad performance at the summer events that year finishing outside the top 10 at ESWC and CPL summer.

Did you start your Gaming-Career with Counter-Strike or another game?
Yeah pretty much. Played some quake 3 at local lans, but never on a serious level. The only thing I played prior to starting with cs was of course Championship Manager.

What fascinates you on Gaming?
It's not the game that fascinates me. My drive in gaming is being able to compete at the highest level at something. I wouldn't play games if there wasn't a competitive side of it, and meeting a lot of great people along the way it's great also.

Thank your for the interview. Do you have any last shoutouts?
Just like to thanks for all the support i've gotten after getting back. I really appriciate it!