Greetings, kassad, thanks for taking time for bo3.gg. Let’s kick our interview off with just a couple of your thoughts about Asian RMR Quals and your thoughts on the level of teams there.
Teams definitely got stronger, we saw IHC doing well, eliminating Furia and Cloud9 on Katowice. Despite the drama with the owners and stuff, these guys played good, they're not like one trick pony kind of thing. You can see that they're working. They're playing a little bit differently than the other Asian teams and they're definitely the best team on the east side of the planet.
Alongside them Rare Atom is a decent one. Obviously, I'm happy for TyLoo because my personal friend is their coach (LETN1 - bo3.gg), but I'm surprised that Lynn Vision lost to them in that final game. I think all the decent teams that should be there are actually going to be on the RMR.
Switching to Europe, I'm a bit biased towards Ukrainian teams. Have you seen any games of B8, Monte to say anything?
So, basically B8 earned their spot and they're going to be in the first group, in group A with Outsiders and others. I watched that game a little bit.
I watched Monte more. I think Monte is more skilled overall because the Woro2k is like super, super sharp. I don't know anything about that dude, personally. Obviously, they have SDY, who came from NAVI and he had the experience before that and obviously it's gonna do good for the team. I think they deserve the spot and, you know, that's another team from Eastern Europe that's kind of under the radar now. I expected something like forZe to be there, and they still are, but I expected them to be higher. So, I think Monte is a bit stronger.
Speaking overall about European RMR qualifiers. Have you got any upsets there, any teams you expected to make it through there but they are not? Personally I am always getting some heartache when I see EYEBALLERS outside of a gig.
I was gonna say EYEBALLERS, but I don't think they deserve it yet. I think every team that qualified right now had some sort of a past where they actually built their possibility to qualify.
Take Apeks for example, they struggled. Take SAW or Falcons or even GamerLegion. The only thing that kind of stands out, that's not in my mind, was supposed to be there, but they surprised me, is Viperio. And then, obviously, the Bulgarians 500. After them everyone played well, although I'm impressed by 9INE. In addition, you have Aurora, you have Monte, you have Eternal Fire who just won the CCT LAN event. So, it should be a very competitive RMR to see.
Surely you realize that first and foremost I wanted to speak about NA closed qualifiers. Let's start generally, what's your overall expression of the teams, the games and level of the performance?
It's very well deserved by Complexity and MIBR. They , for example, qualified relatively easily. I think people expect them to be qualified for the RMR. In South America, Fluxo is one of qualified teams as well, they acquired Zews as a coach not long ago, and it's always nice to see him back in the coaching seat.
From my perspective, Fluxo became kind of more structured.
They have been building it for a while, they have some good pieces. Felps is there, obviously Lucaozy or whatever you call him, WOOD7, and VSM. Those are the guys who have a lot of skill, and Zews helping them get their structure that you’ve just mentioned. I think that's good for another Brazilian team to kind of try to make a run at the Major and try to overtake FURIA as the best Brazilian team.
At RMR, we already have Team Liquid who is going to be there with FURIA already qualified, and then you have a bunch of teams that kind of looking for their chance. I mean teams like this yur team, or SEMPHIS and his lineup of Nouns, or Brazilians from Flamengo, who are trying to surprise someone.
The problem is that there are only five spots in the North American RMR to get to the actual Major. So, it's going to be a little harder than it was, but I do expect FURIA, Liquid, Complexity, and possibly Imperial to be the top-4. And then for the fifth one would be someone from Fluxo, MIBR and paiN. So, this should be an interesting RMR overall.
That's quite the prediction. Speaking more specifically about North American CQ, what do you think about yur team? Seems like the guys came out of nowhere. And they are already straight in the middle of the placements. Is it something telling about the team or the state of the region in general?
I think you're spot on there. When it comes to yur, they have that guy CLASIA, he was in the EG project that he was kicked. And the rest of the guys… I’ve never heard of them a single time, you know, and they qualify, that shows the state of the North American CS.
Basically, there is Cloud 9, who acquired the Eastern Europe roster, Team Liquid have their own team and that's pretty much it. Surely there is EG too, but we know what they're doing right now and what my stance is on that one.
When it comes to teams like nouns and yur qualifying – nobody expects that and it shows how much the whole scene is in disarray right now. And the EG was saying that they're here to save the NA scene, but in fact, they are the ones who are guilty for the NA scene need to be saved.
I'm tempted to disagree with you concerning nouns, mostly because they consistently performed well, winning CCT North America Series #3 and ESEA Cash Cup.
I agree with nouns. But they have been here for a while in NA they're even competing in these different qualifiers and cash cups and all these things. And they seem to be doing better and better. I don't know how good it is, but it's better than it was before. And the rest of the scene - you can see the whole situation there. It's just quite depressing. To say the least.
I spent four years in NA. I was there when all the best lineups were there, like Boston Major Winners Cloud9, Liquid, NRG (then EG), and the Brazilians and FURIA and Luminosity – all these teams. When they were in NA, that was a strong continent to be playing CS. And right now it's just a joke.
It's not a secret that Valorant hit, probably, NA the most.
It's the COVID. That's the problem. The COVID really made a shit show there, but the orgs, they didn't really help and tried to save the sinking ship which was a North American CS.
Am I right to assume that you mean kind of organizing academies?
That's one way to help it.
It's like a common practice already. NAVI, for example, they're not even considering looking outside of their own dominion for players anymore.
About a year ago, I had presented this idea on Twitter of the Academy League in NA with 16 teams, but even eight should have been fine for the first year. Let’s say that ESL and FACEIT could provide some resources together to organize four LAN finals for four seasons throughout the year. And you would see in about eight or nine months - how many talents you would develop through those and put in the main team.
NA desperately needs somebody who understands the North American scene, that understands the business side, that understands the building of the team. Somebody like Sean Gares, for example.
Coming back to RMR, I want you to provide just a couple of words about Complexity because it's always difficult to place them into the ladder of world CS:GO.
The thing is, like with complexity, first of all, they're partners with ESL and Blast. They have guaranteed spots in their events, which requires you to have a good team. They haven't had a good team in the past two years, and we have to be honest with that. They have bad results, they accomplished nothing and spent a lot of money. That was true. One can say it was similar to EG, but they did improve. They went to boot camp, they changed the system a little bit. They changed the AWPer, they exchanged the junior for Halzerk, and they changed their approach.
We spoke with T.c, their coach, about it on Katowice. And he said what they actually changed and how they approached the game and how it paid out. They made progress. They almost got to the playoffs in Katowice. It's something that needs to be respected and commended because it wasn't like a one type of best of three. They played the whole event with different kind of style, different attitudes, different body language, different energy and different performance overall. So it's something that we need to pay attention to.
But we do need to address that and see if they can actually rise up to be a decent contender for a playoff spot at least. That's what I'm looking for. To be in the playoffs, to be considered as the best. They don't need to be championship material. They just need to be the playoff team that always has its place in group stage. And then it starts small, but it can roll into something really, really decent. The pro league is starting tomorrow and we'll see what they can do. And then, obviously, they need to qualify for the Major and see what they can do there.
About Australian CS:GO. Seems like after Renegades, the whole continent grew silent for me.
It is still silent. There is nobody to take charge of the scene at all. For example, the person capable of doing that is Chad SPUNJ Burchill, but he's occupied with his work as a commentator, as a CS personality, and that's fine too.
The other person is Chris GoMeZ Orfanellis, Renegades ex-manager, he tried to do something, but didn't have enough funds. I'd also like to see AZR, who is very experienced to go back and try to assemble a team that's gonna be at least a threat to someone at the event. Unlike Greyhound, which has some okay pieces, like Liazz and Vexite, and Sico. They don't have a lot of talent coming up, but that was always their problem right now.
It would be interesting to see AZR and GoMeZ teaming up to take charge of the Greyhound team. Those two personalities would be good for the Australian teams to come back and actually try to do something. Right now, the Asian teams are taking over the position of the best teams on the whole continent, on both continents, honestly. When I was there, when we were in Renegades, we were the best team, by far, nobody could touch us back then.
From what I’ve heard from you so far, both NA and Australian CS:GO scenes will hugely benefit from the expertise of talents. But I do feel that these guys right now are kind of afraid to step into the Henry G shoes, you know?
Yeah, they're afraid to deal with the stubborn organization owners sometimes, right? We are not some sort of saviors or anything. We are good for those positions because we have years of experience. I, myself, operated as a coach, operated as an analyst, I was in the broadcast, I understand all the aspects of everything. That's my contribution, because I have all these years of experience. Right now, you just need those people and they're not getting into those positions.
Last question: are you still open to a coach position?
After my last experience my motivation went a little bit away from the coaching position into a broadcast. But you never know for sure. The right opportunity comes and you can always come back. I noticed myself, I had this desire to compete back in IEM Katowice 2023. I noticed it again, right? When I was watching the games in the Hall of Heroes. The desire to compete is here, but the right opportunity needed to be in place for me to go back.
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