Well it's mainly just practice of course. Every major tournament is offline, and seeing as my brother is a really good FIFA player, I normally train with him. It's important to be on top form for whatever you are training for. So, I make sure my game is on-point. There is no special training: mainly just constant practice until I feel that my game is at its best.

Yes, I was looking forward to GameOn. They made it out to be a massive event and when I heard it was canceled, it was a big disappointment. Although the Xleague studios were not the best location, in my opinion. At the end of the day, it had to be played somewhere and I'd rather it have been played than canceled.

Yep, I have TI Sensation in winners-bracket round five or six, I think it is. Sensation is one of the best UK players; I can see him beating me mainly because of the rules. I haven't played with custom formations for a long time. I just play default. So I'm not expecting much against him.

Well, I've always preferred offline mainly because of things like no lag etc. The thing about online is that a decent player could beat the world's best. I find offline is completely different: there is just something about it that makes offline more competitive and skillful, in my opinion. That's why offline tournaments are always going to be where the big prizes are, compared to online with smaller prizes.

Quick-fire Round Two

Sensation or Klash?
Klash

Online or Offline?
Offline

French or German players?
Germans

Infinity Ward or Treyarch?
Infinity Ward

Well, the players from mainland Europe have different playstyles to the players in UK, in my opinion. But, both play to their strengths. There is not a massive difference: both sets of players are always going to play their own way and what suits them best, but I would definitely say that the UK has the most depth in great FIFA players.

Well, in three weeks time, I'm going to Denmark for the Ex LAN: it's a tournament for FIFA PC. The reason I'm going to this is for practice for the WCG UK Qualifiers at i37. I haven't yet played PC and, from the looks of it, it is a completely different game. I'm going to have to practice hard for it. Around mid-August, I have the EA MeetYourMatch Finals with its five thousand pounds first prize. I'm hoping to do well and will practice for any and every tournament that I come across. After that, I think that's pretty much it for FIFA 09!

Yes, from the reviews so far, it looks like I'll carry on playing FIFA! Introducing the new feature '360 dribbling', I can see it being a big hit on the game. To be honest, we will just have to wait and see when the demo comes out which hopefully isn't too long. But all in all, so far I am very impressed.

Well, I'm going to base this just on the Xbox 360 players, and in no order and not including myself (UK) TI Klash, TI Sensation, YYT Hughjarse, dignitas ChrissyB, dignitas Bazza, and in the world, henrique (Switzerland), Mustliniho (Germany), Vijay (Netherlands) and Dries (Netherlands), and me because I can't think of anyone else!

That's right, you can contact me on Xbox Live on DignitasClassic. Obviously, I don't want to give stuff away for free, but it is cheap and a good investment I must say! I'd also like to give a shout out to bensimo, cyber and dog train and all of dignitas.

First part of interview

Images courtesy of Team-Dignitas.org

Gerard Comerford ©