Hello everyone and welcome to a Trackmania interview, powered by Trackmania eSports. My name is Nelkey and I will be your host for this interview. As this is our first interview, feel free to leave feedback! This interview will be with MnM SPeedy from Austria. Welcome Speedy!

For those who don't know you yet, can you tell them something about yourself?            

Sure! My name is Alexander "Speedy" Köllner, a 20-year old Austrian playing for MnM-Gaming right now. Next to gaming I attend university right now, trying to get the Bachelor in Computer Science - yes, you can call me a geek. :P My big love next to gaming is programming and designing websites, whenever TrackMania gives me the time to do so, since TM is my main focus for now. My other hobbies are playing football and streaming (whenever my PC allows me to do so)

How and when did you discover TrackMania?

Back in 2006 I came across a game called "TrackMania", today we would call it TM Original which I kept playing for some weeks but then put it aside again as the interest in Canyon and Co wasn't that big. Years later, 2013 to be exact, while casually walking through a local store I came across a game called "TrackMania United Forever" and from there on my journey started by playing Nascar, Fun-/Fullspeed and since late October 2013, Tech aswell.

At the moment, you are playing for MnM Gaming. You have been playing for iGn and A New Era in the past aswell. You have been growing fairly quick in this period of switching teams. When did you realy got the feeling you were going to be a good and maybe even a professional player?

I've always had my goals, not to be the best nor beeing professional at first but it evolved over time. Back then when I started with Tech my biggest goal has been to drive with top players in a team. Especially PokeR back then inspired me alot, not only because he was one of the few Austrian players in the game, also because he is among the best TrackManiacs in the world. Since then I always set goals and they keep me motivated to push.

The first weeks or rather months were stressful though, often thinking of it beeing a bad idea to put so much time in the game with the skill-increase beeing so small, till the day I got promoted in the Core team of iGn, playing in Division 2 with great players like Sani0, NovisO, Sabre and many others. From there I would say, the skyrocketing increase in terms of skill and motivation began, to the point I am right now and I'm proud of it.      

Now that you are officialy a professional Trackmania player, do you think about going to big LAN parties like Gamers Assembly?

Definitely! Not sure if it will happen in 2016 though, I'll be aiming for upcoming LANs such as GA, ESWC and hopefully more to come. Sadly there are no TrackMania LAN parties in Austria from what I know and in Germany they aren't happening that frequently either, so going to smaller LANs has proven to be quite troublesome, yet the big ones are still there.

Also, ESL CPS17 is happening at the moment. What are you expectations of this tournament?

With MnM the goals are high. Getting Top 3 again like last season should be the minimum so far, though the competition will be alot harder than in CPS16, with Dignitas beeing back and PkD going nuts lately, but surely MnM and me will try our best to succeed and grab the title!

We started this project with the tought to bring the community closer to eachother. I have been asked by a few people if we started this project because Frostbeule left the scene. Do you think the retirement of Frostbeule will affect the community?

He has been one of the most influencial guys I've seen in this game. His casts, his skill and passion, every stream you could feel it. Loosing him for sure is a big loss, though the Community, even if it is a small one compared to any other eSport title, will be strong enough to compensate and hold together. I also want to wish your project best of luck and I hope it will work out as that surely will be a great thing for everyone!

Everyone had been hearing people saying that this game is dying out because of the lack of players if you compare it with the past of Trackmania. Do you agree and why?

I never really been into the "active" part of TrackMania, which for sure was during TMN ESWC and TMNF. Yet I have to say that I don't feel that the community nor the game is dying. The release of TM Turbo brought many new guys in, ZeratoR is pushing it aswell and even the Community itself is keeping the game alive. In usual Stadium Cups there are still more than 40 teams with more than 500 players, it might be smaller than it used to be and not advertised as it deserves, but not dying.

Which tournament was your best achievement so far?

Must be Nations Challenge 10 with Austria. Beating France 3-0, winning the group and then unfortunately loosing to the later NC winner Spain, was a blast and surely the boost I needed to make it to the point where I am right now. But not to forget the only Solo-Tournament I won so far, the Dave's 21 Cup Season 2, a race that was enjoyable and not too exhausting when driving while there are ongoing tournaments, looking forward to a 3rd season, whenever it starts!

Who is in your opinion the best video maker in the community and who is your favorite?

The best is decided between Shortz and Noxx, both been dishing out outrageous edits, but also non Stadium Moviemaker like Andriv or Ozon are insanely good at what they do. But I also enjoy the new Moviemakers that are learning and trying out new stuff, meaning I'm open for new styles and fresh air!

Your twitch channel has been growing pretty fast lately! What do you enjoy the most about streaming matches?

It indeed has been growing fast, that was also thanks to my team MnM that are promoting me and other MnM-Streamers. What's fun about streaming? Pretty much everything. The interaction, the highlights and having something to look back in some years is reason enough to stream matches, especially with the crazy MnM guys on TeamSpeak, it's never getting boring.

After winning the 2nd season of Dave's 21' Cup, how did you feel?

Great, I always have had doubt in myself when it comes to individual performance since the beginning, but then winning Dave's 21' Cup gave me a big boost in confidence and gave me the motivation needed to push further. Also the aspect that there was prizemoney made the win even better, as playing finally "pays" off and you get something in return for all the time you put into it.

Is there any tournament you are desperate to win?

Obviously every tournament that pops up, yet one of my favourites to win is the Nations Challenge by ET, driving for my Country and seeing how far we can go, just take a look at NC10 for that, makes me proud and gives you the confidence you need. In terms of Solo Events, kinda obvious, the ESWC in Paris. Big dream, loads of work to do, that's my style.

Who is in your opinion the best allround Trackmania player? And who is in your opinion the best player ever?

The best player has to be fought out by KarjeN and Carl Jr. for me, the best allrounder is also hard to say, Marius89 and also riolu are great in pretty much any environment you place them. Tending more towards riolu though, as seeing how consistent he is and how fast he can be when hunting for Nadeo records.

The interview is coming to an end so its time for some regular questions. What is your favorite game besides TrackMania?

Rocket League for obvious reasons, I like to drive around with cars :D and also Counter-Strike:Global Offensive with MnM guys and many other TrackManiacs. Besides that I'm pretty actively playing Diablo 3, whenever TrackMania is giving me the time to do so, between Tournaments.

What is your favorite food and drink?

Food is easy to answer, Wiener Schnitzel and Pizza, I'm the classic Austrian in that regards. Drinks are a bit harder to call, but I like all kind of fruit juice aswell as typical softdrinks, Coke, IceTea and so on.

What is your favorite movie/tv show?

I'm not really into watching TV anymore since some years, yet I enjoyed watching The Walking Dead, Scrubs and Big Bang Theory aswell as various Animes, especially One Piece but also Pokemon and Co. In terms of movies, it's either Saving Private Ryan or Interstellar, as I'm into both, history and space since I can think of it.

Thank you for your time Speedy. I wish you the best in your carreer with MnM Gaming!

Thank you for reading this interview with MnM Speedy. This was Trackmania eSport's first interview and of course, we hope you liked it! Be sure to send us any feedback so we can try to make these interviews even better!

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