Lexx!: Hey Stermy, how's it going?
stermy: I'm fine, the tournament has just finished for me. My primary goal was the experience and was just an experience for myself, and ability to test my strength in a new game like UT2004 against players who had been playing the game for a long term. I am pretty much satisfied with my style of playing, because I've play rather well for my two weeks experience. I've learned a lot of new things from my practice via internet and this tourney. And this will be helpful for the upcoming tournaments.

Lexx!: Yeah, but you have qualified in your country and passed the group stage, isn't that okay for 2 weeks?
stermy: Yeah, it's pretty okay and my goal was only experience and for the next tournament like CPL Winter or World Tour I will be more ready. The experience of playing against other players on the international level is very important. And every time there's something to learn about every game and every situation.

Lexx!: Do you actually like UT2004, or you have been playing it only because of World Cyber Games?
stermy: I like the game, since I adore hitscan weapons, but there are several things which I don't like such as primary flak's spam or lucky hit-shot with spam weapon or the random headshots thing.

Lexx!: What do you think about Doom 3 and CPL's descision not to choose the game as the official World Tour nomination?
stermy: Doom 3 is a new game with a new style of playing. The game is very good, but there are a lot of things to fix like the netcode and the game needs support from developers like OSP. I've played Doom 3 for some weeks, and I like it. I am waiting for the announcement of the official nomination of World Tour and then decide if I play this game or no, perhaps there will be other tournaments.

Lexx!: What about the Italian UT scene, is it strong? I mean the fact that you manage to beat a lot of players and qualify after playing the game for few days  is quite suspicious... =)
stermy: The Italian community is growing, there are a lot normally-skilled players, but only few good ones. I practiced for 7 days in lan and internet and I managed to qualify thanks to my experience and my aim.

Lexx!: You are very good at new games, I mean adapting to them. Have you tried non-fps ones?
stermy: I've played WarCraft III for fun, and at the moment I am intending to play only FPS games.

Lexx!: Do you think ForresT will be able to retain his WCG champion title this time?
stermy: I think ForresT is a very good player, one of the best there is. But this year we have Germans, who were absent last year.

Lexx!: What do you think about e-sports in general? Is it progressing or no? And the fact that you are still in TuLLs means that you are okay with your current team and sponsorship?
stermy: I think e-sports is growing there are more and more tournaments with huge prizes. And we can see support from developers, which is really great. In Italy the e-sport is growing as well. This october we will have the first professional tournaments called Smauilp in Milan with 25.000 Euro prize fund.  My clan always supports me in every tournament and I am thankful for that. Me and my clan will be there.

Lexx!: Do you like watching football? Or you even play it?
stermy: Yeah, I've even started playing football when I was three and finished at 14, because I was too rather small complexion for professional team.I was rather  good and even played for Sampdoria and Genoa. Then I started playing video games seriously, since I love the competition.

Lexx!: What was your first tournament?
stermy: World Cyber Games 2002 and I won the qualifier in Italy by beating Booms 2:0. So I got into one group with Zero4 and Cooller. It was my first international tournament. I was only 15 and I was the youngest player out there.

Lexx!: Can you compare ESWC with WCG? 
stermy: I think for the spectators ESWC was better, the big stage with huge screens and players sitting there. And the referees and staff were more friendly. The World Cyber Games has a lot of journalists and gets more media attention. Sometime they've made some wrong decisions concerning certain situations, which was rather upsetting.

Lexx!: Well, welcome back to your Home. Now we all know that CPL has decided to use Painkiller as their World Tour Game, what are your feelings towards this? Do you think that this was a proper choice, or CPL has made a mistake?
stermy: From a personal point of view I am happy about this because I liked PainKiller and I did very well at it. I look forward to competing in the World Tour and facing off against the world's best again.  I was in fact hoping for PK or D3 to be picked so I have to be content with the choice.

Lexx!: That's about it, any greetings?
stermy: I wanna thank and greet my team and our sponsors. And I wanna thank my family for supporting me through my path.