Hello Happy. For those who don't know you under this nickname, you were known under eMstqd, and you have been revealed to the great public on CS:S during KDX night 3 back in 2007. At that time you were playing with krL and AsP-. In 2008, you had been an integral part of the first French victory at a major event with Epsilon, alongside with RpK and Ex6TenZ. After this, you played in a lot of renown teams such as VeryGames, redline or 3DMAX, but without being as succesful as before. When you look back at your CS:S career, what can you say about it ? Do you have regrets ?

Hello everyone ! I think I can have some regrets regarding my CS:S career . I have only played a few lans, but I always managed to rank well on the podium, whether it was in international or in French events. Yet, it is true that at the end of my Epsilon era, until the end of my VeryGames era can be questioned. At that time I was not playing a lot, and I either stepped away from the game a lot of times, either I was not totally involved in my teams. I really would have liked to be in a strong and unified team for various reasons, one of them being the French domination on CS:S since 2009. I think I took some bad decisions, and that my behaviour was not right at some crucial moments of my career. It's a shame, but it's past. I think my biggest regret is not having obtained this status of "really" great player of the scene. Even though I had the potential, and maybe the skill if we look back at some of the lans I went to. But as I told, this is the past, and I don't pay attention to this now.

Since the beginning of your adventure with apEX until today with LDLC, you seem to have became a player with a great range of skills : your players and your former team mates are unanimous about the quality of your lead, or your abilities at work and rigour. You bring motivation to your team, as your say team demonstrated during your last lan, and you showed a great skill at Mad Catz. Did you really improved on all these aspects, or is this just the alchemy in the team which helps you to reveal yourself easily ? How do you explain this real "explosion" ?

When the team was created, we had some really upsetting line-up changes. Knowing that I only had played with Dan at CPH2011, I had to get to know my team mates quickly and to exploit their abilities the best I can. I also has to adapt myself to the new Counter-Strike and its gameplay. We also had quite a lot of internal issues about team cohesion, and at one time I really felt uncomfortable in game. Despite these disappointments, I think our triad experience of the game made things easier. In the end, I don't think I improved a lot on these aspects, I simply evolved and tried to adapt at best to the new game, and to my team mates. On the other hand, I think the way is long until we can really prove what we are capable of. We missed a few occasions, with different line-ups (ESWC2012 - ESH Prague - Epsilan), but our recent Mad Catz and online results show us that we are on the right track.

Happy during ESWC

Let's talk about your in-game leader role. Back in 2009, you had an interview with Kiwi on VaKarM and you talked to him about your abilities to read your opponents game and to adapt to it. Four years after, how would you analyse your lead ? If we described Ex6TenZ lead as a CPL type, and OZ one as a caller, how would you call your leading style ?

I think I have learned a lot about the basic strategies of teams, which completed my experience over time. It was one of my weak points, which I am improving match after match. About my leading style, I think I am a mix both. I really like CPL strategies, which implies a lot of stuff and principles, but I also like to release my players when pushing some areas, just giving them goals and basic principles. Though, I think I tend towards more timed CPL strategies. In the course of matches, these strategies make a difference, especially when the match is close. I also think that the strategic aspect of CS differentiates it from other FPS like Quake or Shootmania. If we pay good attention to the match details, we can really notice the lead in game quality on the strategies his team develops. Unfortunately, people often tend to forget that the leader takes the huge responsibility to lead his team, and that sometimes he should not be the one to be questioned, but the application of his instructions.

One of your former team mates, who we will not mention, told me you were extremely rigorous during practices and debriefings. Could you explain to our readers what is your vision of team play, training, and how you manage your pracc evenings ?

Haha, I would like to know who he is. What I can say is I try to be very rigorous, because I know trainings can be treacherous. There are various scenarios, which everyone can identify to. For example you can beat everyone on the Internet, all your calls will be successful, you will just win each and every actions and rounds. The problem is when you will arrive in a lan, things will he hard. Your players will not be confident, you will ask yourself how it can happen regarding your practice results. This is where the leader and, if possible, his co-leader, have to be rigorous. They have to analyse what really happened during these rounds, why it did not work, and especially why it worked. It can be a good idea to do action movies, but you can not rely all your game on this, because when your players just woke up in lan, they have not warmed up and they are less warm than the other players, it will disadvantage you. If I was a perfect leader, I would talk more with my team mates, and I think I still have a lot to learn about this, because I am too tolerant. On a more down to earth point of view, we train like a serious top French team, from 8pm until midnight, 5 days a week. We strat when one of my players or myself want to bring new ideas, or if we noticed in-game problems.

Like apEX told it during our Mad Catz debrief, you have a solid core with Maniac, Atlantic, apEX and you. If I ask you to give each of them an adjective to describe their playing style, which ones would you choose ? As a result, how do you exploit these individualities ?

Well.. I think I know my players well enough today :

apEX : A very good entry fragger, with a good aim. He knows how to manage clutch situations (2vX, 3vX..). Despite his good in-game ideas, to use him at his full potential, you have to give him liberty as a player instead of using him as a co-leader.
Maniac : Really solid and smart, he is efficient when in revenge killing position. Moreover, he is calm in-game as well as in real life, during debriefings. He is a complete player.
atlantis : Versatile player, he brings a lot to the team stability. He learned us a lot of things from his 1.6 past experience, and allowed us to diversify our game principles. He is also a very good awper and played some good games at Epsilan and at MadCatz.
Our last player : Excellent aimer, we use him as a second entry fragger. He lacks a bit of experience but we are all happy to play with him.

Team LDLC before Mat- out

You have a hard time finding two players to complete your core. You found atLaNtis, but within a few months there was ioRek, Sf, mshz, skall, GMX, MaT, GMX again, and AREA in trial... According to my sources, Sf is once again playing with you since recently. How do you handle these multiple changes ? Is Sf the good one ? What makes you choosing him instead of someone else ?

Actually, we were often forced to change players. Iorek, mshz, sf, mat and also AREA. We would have liked to keep the same line-up since the beginning of the season, as we now how important it is for a team to be stable, in order to create an efficient game. The trial period of our 5th player is not over, so I will not talk about it, but we hope we will not change again until a long time. For our 5th position, we are looking for a good aim, a entry fragger. GMX played this role and despite the good work he accomplished, I think he needs something else, to open up. In any case, I have full confidence in our 5th player.

Because there is a lot of people asking this : what happened during this defuse against ESC ? (Editor's note : Happy was defusing the bomb against ESC when the defuse stopped, which gave the win to ESC)

Well.. I think I will never know. I remember this moment, but I can't remember what my left hand did. Two hours long, I was holding my head in between my hands. I think it's the biggest fail of my whole career. Of course we have to put things into perspective : we were winning 1-0 in overtime in CT on inferno, with a map lost against ESC. Even though the action was a shame, the game was started badly, but indeed, it got us completely down and we were not able to score the following rounds.

Before ending this interview, I have to ask you a technical and a bonus question. Technically, you had a good skill since you "exploded" on CS:S, then you were a little bit less decisive when you focused on your in-game leader position. How do you manage to reconcile these two things today ?

I think I always had potential, but I could not exploit it at the right time, I was resting on my laurels too often. It sometimes cost me a lot. I always had this fault to be pretty good and to let things go, which is very dangerous. I think I reach a constant level since the EPS finals with redLine (Rodo, soulm8, ScreaM, Uzi...) as an in-game leader. After this, I kept up with my good performances, especially at CPH 2011 and at Epsilan 9 against Tt.dragons with Malek & co. I would like to point out that the many updates, and especially the recoil ones affected my skill badly. I still hope that a patch will fix the many exploits of the game, or at least balance it correctly.

Bonus question : you are known for being the player who changes its nickname the most. You went from eMstqd to happy, and at Mad Catz you were named MIRACLE^. How should we call you today ? Why do you change so often ?

Everyone who talks to me calls me Vincent, but I think that Happy is my standard nickname now. I changed at PXL without any reason, I just found this nickname more beautiful. At Mad Catz I chose MIRACLE^ because we were in a mix state of mind, and it would have been a miracle if we performed great at this lan (with MaT forfeit). Though, we managed to be 1st of our group and to play an interesting game against ESC. In the end, I think it brought us luck.

Thanks for your time Vincent and good luck in the future.

I hope I answered as accurately as I could. I'd like to thank VaKarM and Aks for this interview, team LDLC.com for their support as well as Marty who helped us big time for the Mad Catz. Keep supporting us, we'll need it!