Let me get you some information on "In Bloom" for you who dont know them that well. They are a Swedish clan who aren't that old at all, but in some way they have climbed all way to Division 1 already. When i look at this clan i see some good material, for example they have "Janozh", "Cero" and "Case" amongst others. This is a very good lineup - all experienced qw players with good routine and might very well make a good team together.

Division 1 contains some outstanding and well-established teams, but if you were looking to bet on an outside chance, In Bloom might not be such a bad choice. Nepra caught up with their co-leader, Cara, to get the lowdown on the clan itself and their chances for the upcoming season.

Name, Age and Country?

My name is Erik ?hman and I am 17 years in december. I live in the northern Sweden in a rather small town called Boden with about 30k citizens. Boden is about 30 km from Lulea.

Your QW-history?

I don't know exactly for how long I've played but I can give you a somewhat truthful answer. I recall me seeing my brother playing against reaperbots in the late -97. I was 13 years old in the seventh grade and boy was I interested in killing those lame coded bugbots. After a while of playing against Omicrons our father gave us the capability to play on a LAN (peer-to-peer), we played and played, rising his phonebills on the internet with 200ms/6pl. Since my parents are seperated and I am living with my mother the internet gaming decreased more and more. But I loved Quake, so what can I say? I played Omicrons almost every day at my mother's. But then one day - we got a fast 56k which was inserted into my CPU. I played with 130ms/1pl and joined SPR (Team Supreme), but the only remaining HPW-clans back then was TopGun and SPR more or less. The fact that Telia (a big phonecompany in sweden) was digging broadband in the neightborhood made me continue playing as a HPW to be in the best possible shape when I was going to be a LPB. I was so happy when our ADSL finally arrived that I was running around like a little baby! The clan Team Supreme went LPB as Clan One with a few former members. After a while I left Clan One and joined up the finnish clan Paranoia. I never felt comfortable with the finnish people even though they were really nice guys, so my journey proceeded into In Bloom, with my old QuakeWorld-friends Laxer & Scratchy (from Soul Assassins when I was playing at my dad). If you're interested in what happened after that in a detailed story, please visit: http://www.in-bloom.net/?content=history.

What do you see in the future for IB?

We have recruited members to get the most activity with the least members (about 6-8 members). We've also begun practising versus other clans to get into shape for NQR3/SD5. NQR feels a little more professional this season (creds!) then the previous ones. We are taking it serious and we hope to get all games played with good results. But mainly all games played, that's really important to us.
People is starting to show up at our channel #bloom now. We have about about 15 visitors all the time which is alot better then the usual 8 during the summer. This is a good sign how I see it. So come pay us a visit, we're not as horrible as we look.
I'm planning to keep In Bloom alive and somewhat active as long as the QW-scene is(!) and that is forever, isn't it?

If you would get into the playoffs. What are your chances, do you think?

If we reach the playoffs I would be amazed! It's not impossible, far from, but not likely either. Many good clans is participating so I can almost say that I would be pleased with just reaching the playoffs. After all, it's the 8 best QW-clans in Europe. If you want your question answered I can only tell you that the chances are small. Aim for the stars and reach the treetops I guess.

Do you like the rules/maps in this version of NQR?

I like the rules more now then in the previous versions. But as you all probably know by now I'm a bit conservative, so I would prefer just the big three (DM2,DM3&E1M2). The whole system is totally renewed to something better I hope, we don't know for now since it's totally new for NQR, but I think it's better since no clan can wait to play for a long time and then play all the clans with lots of points to reach the top faster and easier. The rest of the rules seems to be the usual settings on the server and on the teams. The only thing that might bother me this season the server-question. Yes, I guess I could play on a german server with 56ms against some other clans since the average ping is the same, but I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I do with my usual 39ms as I get here in Scandinavia. But there aren't so many teams in division 1 that is from elsewhere so it should work.

Any things that you would want to see in the future of NQR?

Not that I can think about right now, no. Perhaps a scandinavia-server group only. I just hate that lame ms when I know I COULD have good physics. Yes, I am very selfish in this question, I know.

What would be the greatest final?

Legeartis vs Slackers doubtless! Who doesn't want to see this gigant clash? FF vs E, FF vs SR, LA vs SR. Following the pattern! I think these teams would be the best ones if they were in a somewhat shape with good physics.

Who do you think will win NQR3?

I think that LA will win NQR3. It's just a feeling I have. Maybe it comes from the same source as the conservative stuff comes from. FF should stay at the top no matter what; it says. But todays QW is very unpredictable so any team might win. I think HF has the same chances as LA to put up some good games. Let me list the clans I think will be good competition for the first spot in a random order: Hellfire, LegeArtis, Clan Malfunction, Firing Squad, Slackers and The Viper Squad. There might be other teams who stands a great chance also, but let's wait and see, only time can tell.

Thanks for you time!

Thanks yourself. You know I would do anything for you nepra!