Part 2 of our interview series with the female squad from Mousesports, this time, we interview Siberia born Olga ‘Pachella‘ Pak from Team Mousesports.
Firstly, congratulations on winning the Pan European Tournament recently, tell us more about that event and how you ladies did (on a performance level). You beat some of the crowd favorites like Aurora Gaming from Denmark, the Swedes from Pink Zinic as well as the German teams Alternate aTTaX. How did you guys do that?
In the first place, we concentrated on practising a lot. Only the ones who were able to practice daily made it into the team. As you know, mousesports has multiple players in the team, so we had the choice and we made the right one. The five girls who travelled to Poland showed high-class Counter-Strike and had a very professional attitude towards LAN championships. The secret of our success was gathering Russia’s best female gamers in one team.
Where are you from and tell us a bit about yourself which you have not revealed to anyone else?
I come from Siberia, from the beautiful city Novosibirsk. There were lots of children in my family, so I got used to being around many people who are close to me.
My mom was very caring and passed on all her kindness and desire to take care of someone to me. Maybe that’s why I became such a great team captain! (*wags her finger to the girls who disagree with this* 
)
We’re starting to love Siberia Tell us how did you ladies come together as a team?
We all joined the team because of a different reason. The initial founder was me and I managed to convince some talented and good-looking girls to join forces. After fighting with PinCho for the number one spot and continuously exchanging players, we realized that we could start a charming and very promising team with mousesports.
Tell us more about most memorable match/event and why?
My favorite event is the ESWC. Of course, we have great memories from all the events, beginning in 2005, ending in 2008. The happiest moment for me was the match against the German team n!faculty at ESWC Masters of Paris 2008. It was thanks to this game that we were able to place so well.
And nobody expected us to take the first place at the Pan European Tournament, becoming the leading European team in 2009, but we did it! This was clearly the most important event for us as newcomer mice! 
How did you prepare yourself for the tournaments and how are the training conditions within your team like?
Three weeks prior to the tournament, we started practicing every day until late night. Renowned Russian pro-gamers helped us with tactics and communication advice. We spent incredibly much time on getting a decent team play and improving our new tactics. I was very satisfied with our progress.
The rest of the time, and there wasn’t much time left, we tried to play a lot on Russian CSDM servers. The thing is that we decided to play with Razer devices when we started preparing for the PET. Some of us were used to other manufacturers, so I was worried if everyone would be able to adapt to the new devices in time. As you can see, our aiming didn’t suffer at all, it got even better than before!
That’s great to hear that adaptation didn’t take long. What is your strongest strategy and how do you apply it to your game?
If you mean game tactics, our strength is unity. We always tried to get to the positions together and didn’t leave too much space for our opponents. Sometimes, that didn’t work the way we wanted it to, but thanks to quick adjustments we could win all the matches quite easily.
Usually we try to repeat our tactics as often as possible, so that we don’t have to think about their proper execution anymore when we’re in a tournament. We exactly know when player B is in this or that position when we play tactic A, and so on. At the last tournament, we almost perfectly implemented our tactics for the very first time. It’s a great pleasure to acknowledge that!
Tell us the top 3 of your best tips for CounterStrike.
3. Good communicative skills.
2. Passion.
1. Talent. (Sorry, but too much passion without talent is unhealthy and talent without passion won’t bring you anywhere)
Words of the wise. So what‘s next on your sights and what does your team aim to achieve?
Our dream was the ESWC, but now we’ll try to play at male tournaments as often as possible due to the lack of female ones. In the end, it would be great to become a competitor for the male teams and fight for the WCG spot. This comes from the realm of fantasy, of course, but we’ll try our best.
(L-R: Nina “Greeny_R” Omelchenko, Svetlana “Svetaska” Alekseeva, Elena “Meg” Urusova, Anya ‘veNema’ Savvateeva & Olga Pachella Pak)
Who do you think is the best player in your team, and why?
I always thought that Svetlana perfectly combines beauty, dignity and professionalism. She is willing to invest all her free time to prepare for a championship. Any blonde would faint from so much passion, but Svetlana is a very determined young woman and I’m very proud to play in the same team as her.
I also want to mention our new star Polina. She isn’t just a newcomer to female esports, you could say she’s an embryo… but she already gives lessons to pro-gamers and shows a great style of play. Not just in terms of a newcomer, but also compared to seasoned professionals.
How do you feel about the CS gaming community in general? There are rumours that are saying the CS scene is slowly dying down… what is your take on it?
I personally really like my generation of gamers. The stars, the champions… who are those people? They are people we are friendly with and we enjoy that they are a part of our life. The whole young generation is the future’s success pledge. The aged just became the basis. I appreciate our audience, I appreciate that there are people who care about this sport.
The decrease of attention by the business people is just an echo of the crisis. I think that we can be more than a small sub-culture: esports can become bigger and stronger! What the government and the companies are going to see is not just another PR platform, but a new direction that goes hand in hand with the new developments, namely the digital technology.
As ladies, what are your biggest obstacles when people mostly view gaming as a male-dominated activity? What are the biggest stereotypes to being a female gamer?
In male esports, people love the unstoppable supermen who can always secure a win despite all the problems in their teams. That can be elemeNt in MYM, f0rest in fnatic, or LeX at Virtus.pro. There are many examples, but those are solely the public preferences. For me, the ideal players are those who don’t hesitate to do something that won’t bring them any attention but is crucial for the team’s success.
They might have only made one single frag in the whole match but still contributed the most to victory. I have huge respect for the people who always have that special timing.
Apart from gaming, is there anything else you guys do as a team?
In the past, the whole team consisted of players from the same city. Now, we added some girls from other cities, too. Nonetheless, we love to spend time together. We like to visit each other’s homes or just sit on Skype and play some other funny games. Somebody who is being added to our team also acquires loyal and loving friends.
Any shout outs you would like to do to fans of Razer and Mousesports?
I want to say thank you to Razer for the high-quality devices. We always had lots of problems because of unusual computer and monitor settings: At the ESWC Grand Finals 2008, we felt very helpless due to the fact that we couldn’t catch our personal sensitivities. Razer made an “intelligent mouse” (we love this name) that made it possible for us to aim as if we would be sitting at home.
The organization mousesports is a very interesting project and we’re happy that we became part of something as strong and as successful as mouz. We’re happy that we get the chance to contribute lots of victories to this clan and that the national and geographical distance isn’t an issue at all.
What do you currently use for gaming right now?
I use Razer Mamba (link), Goliathus mouse pad (link), Megalodon gaming headset (previously Barracuda) (link), Arctosa gaming keyboard (link), and the new Armadillo2 (link)
Okay here’s a fun question.. Are you single and will you date anyone who’s a hardcore gamer like yourself?
Hah I’m very happy with my life. I have a great, loving young man. So, no thanks! 
Thanks for your time Pachella! It was great speaking with you. For part 1 of our interview series with Svetaska, click here.
Location
Asia-Pacific
中国
香港
日本
한국
台灣
Australia
Россия
United Kingdom
Deutschland
France
Italia
España
Join us on Twitter