This is Jason Bass writing from Inferno Online in Sweden.  After a long day of travel yesterday we have arrived at Inferno Online this morning to set up for Arbalet Cup.  The guys were very excited this morning and woke up real early.  We were the first ones to the LAN center this morning and are still the only team here.  We are all set up at this point and are warming up.  For me, this is one of just a slew of tournaments I have attended over the years in different capacities, but this is the first time I have been at one as the manager of a team.  In the past, I have pretty much always been in a media or event management capacity.  So I am nervous and excited all at the same time.  This is also the first time I have met these players in person.  Some of them have seen me around over the years but we have never really spoken in person.  The guys are all very cool and easy to get along with.  They are very responsible and really don’t need a whole of lot of guidance. 

Yesterday most of us arrived around 9 AM local time and then went and checked into the hotel.  The hotel is really nice especially if you are American as it is not a traditional European hotel.  The rooms are a little large and one of our rooms as a huge balcony on the top floor of the hotel that over looks some of the city.  After checking in we went to eat lunch.  We got some true Swedish culture and ate at Burger King.  I think we will branch our tastes out tonight and eat at Hard Rock Cafe 😉  After lunch we did a tour of Inferno Online and the players all set up to practice for the afternoon and evening.  Christer from QPAD came by and picked me up and we went to his office.  It was pretty cool to see the manufacturing process of the mousepads and see where all the magic happens.  I spent the afternoon talking to Christer about all of the new products QPAD has coming out and touching many of them.  There are some exciting things to come for QPAD in the months to come.  After leaving his office, we went back to IOL and hooked the players up with QPAD mice and the brand new Complexity pad hot off the presses.  I then went over to Christer’s house, where his wife had cooked us a great dinner.  We sat and talked for a long time.  It was a good night and great to meet all of the people involved with QPAD.

The players are all excited for today and don’t really seem nervous at all.  Their first match is against Mousesports and it will be a difficult one to start off the day.  The good news is it should be all downhill from here.  I have high hopes but since we are a relatively new squad I am really not sure what to expect.  We have a fairly tough group but honestly who doesn’t at this tournament?  This will be an exciting weekend of the best CS teams in the world competing.  I will check back in periodically and will be providing videos and photos of the event as it happens.  Stay tuned to Complexitygaming for live on site coverage of Arbalet Cup.