David "Xp3" Garrido is currently preparing the Dignitas female lineup for the new year after the less good results in the end of 2019. We talked with him to know what they're working on at the moment, how he sees the evolution of the team in the last couple years as well as the goals for the team and himself in the near future.

Hi David! How important do you think this last Christmas break was for your team? Did you felt they were a bit burned out after the not-so-good results lately?

Xp3: Not really. I felt they wanted to actually practice and not take a break, which is a good sign in my opinion, even though I still think it is good because it helps you reset and get some motivation back to play again. Sometimes they do play a lot and you can easily get burned out or have some times where you don't want to touch the game, but you're still forced to, so I guess it was good they got a break.





But did you feel that they're were burned out in the end of the year?

Xp3: Not, not necessarily. I think the on and off results they produced, like they won, and they got close to winning, and then they lost... it kind of motivated them to keep on going to make sure they're on top next time.





How did you prepare the new year? Are you looking to make any changes within the practice environment and strat-wise?

Xp3: We made changes, but I'm not going to be too specific about it, because we don't know who's reading this (laughs) but we definitely made changes, not in the players, but in roles, and in terms of how they play certain maps. It's a completely new approach on certain things, but at the same time it still falls into the same line of having this goal of progressing and being the number one.





Since we’re talking about what changes from previous years, tell me your opinions regarding the last two years of the team regrading progress, goals achieved, disappointments...

Xp3: I think it's been pretty positive throughout the years overall. Like there's always been some up and downs obviously, but overall there's always more highs than lows, so that's good. In my opinion, this version of the team right now is the one with the most potential to be better than any other version in the past just because of the cohesion, the group and how they get along. It just naturally helps to play better if you have a good environment and everyone is pushing each other in the right direction.





If you had to change one thing from last year, what would it be?

Xp3: I don't know, there's too many things to just pick one honestly (laughs), but maybe I wish that they had this cohesion in the group sooner without needing to make all these changes to get there. I think that they finally found it, they gave everyone a bit more motivation, and I just hope they keep going with it. I think the things that I wanted to change have changed, so I just want to work with the group to see where I can take it.





Going back to the topic in the beginning - according to some of the girls, the team lost some motivation towards the end of the year because of the bad results. Where do you put yourself in that situation? What have you done to try and change/avoid that mentality?

Xp3: Well, first I always try to stay positive. I like to tell them there's always going to be another chance... basically just stay positive so they get out of that dark mentality that you can have after you lose a match or a tournament, so they can try to get over it as fast as possible so they can focus on what to do next. They can't change the past, it is done. I try to stay cool with it... obviously inside I can be frustrated and sometimes I'm upset because they could lose a game that is, like, literally theirs and they shouldn't have a lost, and whatever... I can't show these emotions to them because if I'd show them constantly, it would just break them more. It's just basically try to keep them inside and have the right emotions around them when it matters.





So, are the girls more emotional than you, then?

Xp3: Yeah, I think naturally they just get affected a bit more and they have a harder time getting through it because it's newer for them than it is for me, for example. I've dealt with it for so long in my competitive years that I think I've learned a great deal on how cope with a win and a loss. For them, it's still a learning process. They won more than they lost in the past, so it's always hard to understand why did you lose, where did it go wrong. Like "we won before, we were winning" and when they lose, it's back to reality.





What are your goals for 2020 as a team?

Xp3: As a team, we want to win any female tournament that shows up, straight up. I think it's not too high of a goal to have because there's only like 3 or 4 tournaments a year that are really prestigious that bring out all the best female teams and they can easily do it, if they have what it takes in their heads, to just do it all year long and not for only 1 or 2 tournaments.





And as a coach?

Xp3: For myself, it would be... well, first, to have them win everything for a year a straight or maybe even longer, just be really stable and consistent with winning at the female level and, if that's achieved, I would like to take them to a higher level of playing Counter-Strike, where they can actually meet higher opponents that they've never played before and actually compete against them because they've grown and got better. That's my personal goal. I'd say getting them to, like, MDL in a year or two would be my goal.





Now that the meta is settled, what do you think about the current price of the “budget” rifles and the possibility of second round full-buy with Galils if the Ts plant and lose pistol?

Xp3: I mean, we've been doing it in practice and experiment ourselves, so it's really powerful if done efficiently and you have a plan in mind around it. I think it's harder for the CTs, it changes the game. When you win the CT pistol, you'll not be as confortable as you used to be, because before you'd be like "ok, we've got 2 more rounds coming up for us" and now you'll never know what to expect or even if they plant the bomb and it goes to a 1v1, you know they'll buy. You won't have as much money as them as a CT, even though you won the round. I think a few adjustments still need to be made here and there, but it's in the right direction.





Ok, so you're liking the changes, but being a competitive player for so many years, what's your personal opinion on the approach that Valve is taking regarding the economy, while trying to balance the game a bit more?

Xp3: It goes together with balancing the weapons, because when they changed the money system, they also changed the guns and prices of many weapons - for example, the Galil is much stronger right now and it costs less than it used to be, and it's actually more accurate... so that matters too. So, if they change and keep the weapons a certain way, a lot of things have to be thought out. The way they're doing it... I think it is correct because they have to try it and the best way to do it is to just toss it directly in the competitive environment and see if it works, and if you see people getting adjusted or they're complaining, you just do more adjustments.





Any final words to close the interview?

Xp3: Thanks to you for the interview and everyone for supporting!





I'd like to thank David for the nice conversation and wish him good luck! Don't forget to follow him on Social Media:

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