After our interview with Anna "MIU" Danyliak, we continue the Manager's Talk interview series with  team-roccat's manager -  Shayan "Shayan" Taleb.

How did lurpp and the others begin their relationships with Shayan? Who is who in the team, where is roccat heading? Find out the answers and much, much more in the interview below!

Could you please introduce yourself?

Hellu! My name is Shayan Taleb, 19 years old and still kickin' it high.

You've been the manager of lurpp and co for 3 years already, how did your relationship began?

Yow, well. I think it all started when I wanted to become their manager when they won some CS.NU eurocup or something. Don't remember all i know they won vs TeG. Don't remember to be honest but it was a long time ago.

And that was back in wings days.
Team wings is considered a legendary team and is still highly respected by Finnish CS community. What do you think was Team wings' highest achievement?

Well, the team got to travel to all over the world but i think the main achievement the guys made was in CPL Spain where they got to kick Team3D's asses :)

Nearly everyone from your team said WEG was an awesome tournament. Could you please give us a short statement on your thoughts regarding the tour? 

It was (awesome). I wasn't personally there, a good friend of the members got the chance to be there with them instead but as far as I'm concerned, It's probably the best event there is.

I see,
What can you tell us about serious-gaming? Why were you recognized by organisation hoorai?

I left serious-gaming for a short period, had some disagreements with the owner. Hoorai sounded so perfect in the beginning but turned out to be a total flop when the management just turned out to be complete idiots..

Could you please in detail, inform us about that conflict? What went wrong?

Pretty much everything, I was told that the management would be professional, which turned out that the head manager was a kid. It just didn't have the good basic needs it needed back then. But now I bet the hoorai organization is a very good one, since i know the owner pretty well he's a very good guy

Were there any promises that were given to you but was not forfilled?

To me yes, to the team. No.

So basically you had another conflict with hoorai and guys from the team supported you and left organisation?

Well, we got a really good offer which I'm really glad we accepted so that's why.

You mean the offer from roccat?

Yes.

So before you were renamed as N69E28, the roccat deal was finalized? The name N69E28 was only for PR Campaign? Could you please tell us a little more regarding that PR-trick?

N69E28 was a perfect PR-campaign with the coolest company in the world. It was, what, confusing?

A Little bit, a little bit.. But still, i just want to know how that idea came to you? You knew what sort of reaction would follow from cyber community?

The reaction was only expected to be something never happened before basically. And the idea wasn't mine no. It was the company's; I think it was a dude called ragnar's :)

Will team roccat going to expand to other disciplines?

Unfortunately not.

There has been some negative comments regarding WCG 2007. What are your thoughts about that tournament? Did you have some problems with the admins?

Well first of all, seems like at least from my own and many others point of views, the admins during this event wasn't taught, or even informed properly about the rules. My team, we suffered some problems against A-Gaming, it's not everyday you have it recorded that a team talks when they're dead, even though it says clear in the rules that it's against the rules. There were a few other things during that game, some of our players comp crashed.

What do you have to say about lurppis's comment regarding disabled the player from  yourname? His comment shocked many.

Nothing myself, or the rest of roccat support. He's learned his lesson :)

What are your thoughts on the Warcraft 3 team, 53°N 8°E? They are now hoorai's WC3 division, is it some some what like a triangle? I mean, you were in hoorai, then renamed as N69E28, then you became roccat, the same idea coordinates and they become hoorai..

The whole coordinate-idea was from the beginning ROCCAT's and no one else's. Probably, the owner Jerome, wanted to make something fun out of it. At least it was a good laugh for us all.

Could you please comment on plastE's transfer? Looking back on it, do you think picking up someone else would have been better?

Extreme Masters in L.A was the first event I went to with the team for a long time and there I realized the guys picked the perfect piece. I don't think anyone else would in fit as well as he has in our team.

Team was unable to achieve any good results at ICC, WCG or from other league matches. What are your thoughts on their performance during such a short, critical period of time?

Teams always have a period where their play and their skill just doesn't work, a bad day is a wrong word for it. A bad summer is what we call it.

Could you please talk about your guys, who is who in the team?

I'll start off with Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen. He's the captain of the team and the one that also speaks the best english. So basically he's the one that takes the command when the guys are outside of Finland. He's probably one of the best captains there is, and always has things on his mind :)

I can proceed with his brother Niko "naSu" Kovanen. You don't need to say so much about this guy, he lives his own life, does what he want and basically kills everything that's in his way.

Then we have Juuso "contE" Sajakoski. A calm, and a pretty shy guy that ingame just shows the demon inside him with his fierce, violent game.

Max "ruuit Aspe. This guy has relatives everywhere in the whole world and he's a icehockey freak (as the rest of Finland). A cool dude.

Then we have the last dude, Samu "plastE" Aalto. If you say his whole name, Samu Kalle Pekka Aalto, you would think he comes from the fantasy world. He recently won the Qpad Tour and that's why we recruited him.

Where is roccat heading now? What are your future plans?

ROCCAT company is heading towards product launch and the team is heading for ASUS/Dreamhack, nothin 100% yet. But we also hope that the G7 teams stop sucking their own balls and showing them, so CPL Winter will be realized

A pretty confidential question but what can you say about the player salaries? I know this maybe a closed theme for discussion, but people are interested. How much salary do the players get from their organisations?

I can reveal other orgs salaries, but not my players. They get enough.

Will team roccat play CS:S or CS ProMOD?

What i know, we haven't even tried promod, and cs:s? I love that game, cause me and botman frеn mtw are still unbeatable in that game, 2on2 anyone?

Was there a question that you wanted to answer that I haven't brought up?

Just like questions about my personal life and such.

Then who is Shayan Taleb outside of the cyberworld?

Nah, I the guy that usually skates his ass off and makes money out of soccer.

Anything else you would like to add?

Well, thanks to the coolest company in the world ROCCAT. Lets us travel the world and do what we all love! Shout-outs to KFA & my fiance Katarina

Thank you much for the interview, hope you enjoyed it and best of luck for the future. See ya.

Thanks, peace out!