Well I'll start off my first proper article of the New Year with the typical bad pun.

Having recently been knocked out of the Premier Knockouts by a4n, Peculiar were on the lookout for fresh players and a new lease of life and they have found this in the addition of some new players from aw3some in zwergii, blind-reaper, playing heavy and sniper, a couple of lights in bread and haxz0rs and back up sniper in Charlie.

These may seem big changes but a lot of them have been team mates in various incarnations of aw3some and for the others there is plenty of time to reorganise and work on team-work before the next big event.

The team currently looks like this:

Niklas "pKl" L
Linus "bread" J
Simon "Clemens" G

Lars "zwergiii" F
Sam "sSam" P
Jonas "ryder" J

Patrick "blind-reaper" H

Jonas "stjaerna" S
José Manuel "haxz0r" L
Luis Vega "krm" U

I talked to team leaders Clemens and sSam about their team:

So you have quite a few new additions, could you run through them for us? How will they all fit into the team and which six will form the main line up?

We have indeed, in the past couple of weeks we have added bread, zwergii and blind reaper to our lineup. The three new additions fit well into the team, as expected, as all three are experienced and mature players.

Bread slots into the light team very well, he has bags of talent and most of all know, uses his brain when playing, it also helps him being a former teammate with pKl. zwergii is a well-established heavy on the DoD:S scene and can handle any top flight team, him and Sam are already showing signs of a great partnership when playing together, he has not be able to play with RydeR a lot as of yet, but this is RydeR, the man is like superglue and can bond with anyone after a week of playing time.

Last but not least, blind-reaper, as many teams who have had a sniper problem in the past know, in this day and age you've got a better chance of a player converting to the sniper spot than you have picking up a sniper worthy of playing vs. top teams. We were very fortunate to have blind reaper in with the trio of players, anybody who has played DoD:S in the past few years knows his capabilities as a sniper.

Here is the team in their own words:

Clemens - Really great guy that I have been fortunate to play with for 6-7 years now I believe. A really reliable guy with light and have always tried to push the team more and more. Almost never had a bad day and personally the teamwork with him is just great. A person you can trust no matter what to bring out the best when the team needs it the most. Just bloody brilliant! (written by Stjaerna

sSam - Sam “The” Heavy. He has been in Peculiar for over a year and is a experienced player who has played DoD:S for a long time. We took him in after he had been inactive for 2 years or more and he started to impress us right away. He has definitely been an important part in getting the team to the point we are at now. Sam, besides when he is not at his local pub, he is a social lepar ;) with a great English personality that needs satisfaction once in a while. <3

pKl - With his great aim and game sense he has been a big contributor to why Peculiar has got this far as we are today. Not only has he helped improve the teamwork, he has also been improving the atmosphere in voice with his great personality and being around.

RydeR – He is a great guy and been very stable with the heavy throughout the autumn season. He and Sam have a strong heavy partnership and give us plenty of laughs in voice arguing with one another. But most importantly, he has become a good and close friend to us all.

Blind reaper - Blind reaper is a newly added player to the team and so far we haven’t played that much with him but the impressions we got so far is that he is a calm guy with good communication and a good game sense, hopefully we get to know more about him sooner or later.

bread – The third newcomer to the team and hopefully the last Swedish player has impressed the team greatly with his aim, comments and great personality. We hope to learn more about him in the future with the upcoming leagues and cups.

Zwergii – zwergii is one of the newcomers to the team, but instantly he has shown what a beast he can be with the heavy. Known around the scene for his heavy skill, he can surely fit peculiar's team in upcoming cups and leagues. Fun guy and really calm in Voice with good comments.

Backups:

Stjaerna - Stjaerna has been an important part in building up a team, way back from 5 years ago up to now, since then he has been an important part of making the important and hard choices the team needed to take. I Have never met a more fun and serious player in my DoD:S career and I truly trust this guy 100%.

kRm - One crazy guy, he yells a lot and says strange things that nobody understands. He has helped the team out when we needed a light and we appreciate that and is there for the long run in the Peculiar team.

sinhacker - Great guy with awesome aim with the rifle. After he started getting into the teamwork and comments he started to fit the team pretty good and he has made the difference in matches often. He is definitely a guy to watch out for. Happy to have him in the Peculiar line-up.

Nemo - Ever since he joined us he has been an important part in bringing loads of humor into voice with his laugh and innocent mind. When we need Nemo he ready to help the team in any possible way. He can handle light or heavy well on his day.

How would you rate your team against the others in the Premier Division/Top of Division 2? Which teams are your greatest match/rivals?

If you would have asked me this question a month ago, I would have said we would have been a average Premier Division team, with no real chance of beating the likes of a4n and zP! Gaming. But now with the vibe I’m getting from the team, I can see us in the upcoming months pushing for that 2nd/3rd spot in Europe, looking to give the mentioned teams above a real challenge. Our greatest matches in the past have been vs. all for nothing, vye and clutchmasterz. We are looking to make every premier division team our friendly rivals.

Next big tournement will be the ESL Spring League and also the Triple Twelve #3, which was recently anounced. What are your aims for the future and in these leagues?

We are all very excited and ambitious for the upcoming tournaments, we are aiming as a team to better ourselves from our premature exit from the autumn league. Our main focus will be fine tuning ourselves for the spring league to get somewhat close to the big boys, which is of course First Frag. On the country we will be playing as many night cups as possible for fun.

Any final words or shoutouts?

We have come a long way since last year. For example in the last European DoD:S Ranking we were not ranked among the top 13 teams. We would like to thank everyone who helped us along the way. A special thanks to our North American friends, Joe 'Arachnid' Pinheiro and Simon 'HatreD' Caron. Roll on Peace & Love 2012.

Many thanks to Clemens and Sam for answering my questions. I wish peculiar lots of luck for future events, hope to see them mixing it with the top once again.