[Aus] Interview with MF Naked

One of the faces of organisation Mindfreak is Albert 'NakeeeZe/Naked' Nassif, known as one of the hardest striving people in console Australian eSports. Naked has played against the best and has used that experience to become one of the well renowned players in Australian eSports. Albert joins us today to enlighten us on his gaming career thus far.

Decerto: For those that don't know who you are, could you please give us a brief introduction on yourself?

Well my name is Albert "Naked " Nassif, and I’m a 20 year old living in western Sydney. I work full time while studying via correspondence as an optical dispenser. As many people would know, I am the captain of Mindfreak eSports Xbox 360 MW3 division, and eSports has always been a hobby of mine ever since I was at a young age, however it didn't really hit me at how big it really, was until I joined Mindfreak.

Naked at the ESGN Melbourne LAN in April.

Decerto: Mindfreak has once again gone under a pretty massive roster change, with Nikolai ‘Kritikal Motion’ being dropped from the Mindfreak roster. How did you, or the team come to the decision of dropping Kritikal?

It seems like now is as good as time as any to shed a little light! Contrary to popular belief, it was a team decision and was even discussed with people outside the team who we could trust. After changing disciplines from 5v5 to 4v4, it took a while for some players to adapt, but some stood still and stopped pushing the boundaries that were needed to make ourselves internationally competitive. This became frustrating for some and led to the team needing to make the necessary changes to get to where we are now, or risk other players quitting. We had a team meeting with our managers discussing what needed to be done in order to gain the right to play overseas.

In that meeting everyone was told to step their game up and prove why we deserve a chance to play overseas. After that meeting, some took it upon themselves to put more time into the game on their own accord and better themselves as players. We didn't feel Kritikal was doing the same, despite the previous meeting and discussions. With performance, commitment and enthusiasm issues creating frustration throughout the team we knew something had to be done.

Despite being in a team with him for a year, and making so many sacrifices together, we had a team meeting and it come to a head that we needed a change of direction for the team. We needed a 100% pro-active team who wanted to push themselves to be as good as they could possibly be. We had to do the right thing for the longevity of the team and find a replacement. During discussions there was only one player that stood out that could fit our needs both in game and out, Macka. I then spoke to him over a day and a half and talked about our plans and he liked what we had to offer as a team.

Decerto: You went under a roster change prior to previous LAN events, that being dropping Rapture for FluenZa. You managed to come away with a 2nd place & a 1st place from the April LAN events, is there a case of déjà vu coming into these LAN events with another roster change? If so, has preparation differed from last time - or is it much the same?

Previously, we went had replaced Rapture with Shockz. We had Shockz in the team for about a month before making the decision to replace him with FluenZa. In about 3 weeks we just built up our CTF work with FluenZa, and neglected our attention on SND as we were very lazy. That decision came back to haunt us as we didn't win any SND's at the first April LAN against any other top 4 team. The week gap between LAN's gave us time to work on our SND, and that we did as we picked up a lot of the slack that cost us games previously and managed to pull away with the win at ACL. I believe we are a lot more prepared than we have been prior, even though we have neglected to put time into our SND again, we now have Macka who is widely regarded as Australia’s best SND player, and his smarts, team work and work ethic have increased our SND strength tremendously.

Naked & his team with former team-mate Kritikal Motion.

Decerto: With the pick up of Macka, do you feel that you guys have the edge over the competition?

With Macka, we know have 3 players that can play the smg role perfectly, but I have decided that I will be assault rifling on some CTF maps as I am the in game captain and I call most of our spawns and flag routes. This change from a fast paced SMG to a relaxed AR player allows me to concentrate on running the team better and still gives me the option to break out and SMG if we need to.

Decerto: Going into ACL Melbourne and ESGN Sydney, how do you think you guys will do?

I have never been more confident in a team, we have the big game players and have proven constantly when we are down we are not out. I would honestly be disappointed with anything but 1st at this stage, but in saying that, the new apeX line up could be very interesting and I'm not sure what they will bring to the table at this stage. The loss of Sten couldn't be to good, considering his consistent performances for them and the fact that they have never won without Sten could also mean something. I'd be dumb to count them out, or even Cruelty Incarnate, as on the day it’s whoever's playing better and picking up the necessary kills.


Decerto: What are your thoughts on apeX entering the Australian scene?

It could only be good for an international Organisation to take a dive into our scene. We are still very new and this will hopefully mean great things for everyone and especially for Buzzin and team as Buzzin has been one of the biggest influences on the Australian 4v4 scene since before i even started gaming competitively. This also will attract a lot of attention from other European organisations and even fans who will come check out the great battles of apeX v Mindfreak at LAN events.



Decerto: Do you have any plans to attend European events in the near future?

We are looking to attend EGL8, but only if we believe we are up to a international standard, winning LAN events in Australia 6-5 isn't the greatest thing, we need to prove that we deserve a chance at international competitions by winning consistantly. A lot of other teams are happy enough to go overseas and treat it like a holiday, this often shows in there results, when we go i want to prove a point to our sponsors and the Australian community that we can hold our own with the best of the best, and hopefully warrent another trip overseas to do it all over again.

Albert at ESGN Melbourne

Decerto: Is there anything you would like to say to the community?

If anything I’d like to tell them to stick out together with amateur teams more often. Not everything works out straight away and is perfect; the top teams in Australia have been around for a while and have put a lot of effort to get to where they are. The saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" comes to mind. People need to also make use of their time; there isn't any point in playing 10 hours a day and not actually learning anything. Whenever you have the time to scrim or strat with your team, you should use your time efficiently. Quite often, people spend their night’s scrimming but don't actually achieve anything in those scrims.

Decerto: Any shout outs?

First off, a shout out to my team mates Macka, FluenZa and Haxoid. Also dazed, Legendz, Rapture and Kovak. Also to our sponsors: SteelSeries & ScufGaming, for their enormous support in the past and for the future that looks ever so bright with them. Finally to Mindfreak eSports and everyone who is involved in Mindfreak for the support over the last 18 months and everything they have done for us! Also please like our twitter https://twitter.com/#!/mfcod360

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Good to finally hear some justification for the controversial decision surrounding the line-up change. Should dispel any rumours.

Macka was still obviously bought though.

Nice Interview!

Loving the copy of qlimaxzu in the first picture lol

Finally get the story behind Krit , as always a great read.

great read, and a shout out, OMG I'm famous

Great read!

haha oh my naked.. Good read - MF too dominate with macka.

never been more excited to see the results of an upcoming ACL event

Nice Interview!