Interview: Laid back is not just an attitude for him 08.07.2016, 16:40

99Damage: First of all congratulations on the win against mousesports. First I want to talk about the maps you played, especially at this tournament there has been a lot of cobblestone and train. Do you think there is a specific reason for that or are those just maps that teams can agree to play on?

Josh ' jdm64 ' Marzano: I think just in general that cobble and train, a lot of top tier teams have that in their mappool and they're actually pretty good at it. So most teams are like pretty good at cobble and train. Especially for our group or the teams that are in our group like those maps specifically so I think thats why its propably played the most. Maybe Valve also riggs the randomizer, I don't know (laughing)

Mousesports picked Mirage, generally a pretty good for mousesports, especially NiKo had some very good performances on it. Did you expect to win Mirage that clearly or was there already a plan for Dust2?

I honestly didnt think we would take it like that clearly but we prepped so hard for it. Last night we spent five hours going over demos of mousesports. So we analyze a lot of things and most of their strats that they played were actually exactly the things that we studied. We were ready for it. We knew we were getting to decide and we knew that mousesports is good on Mirage, so we started CT obviously but we wanted to make sure we started out strong and just tried to keep the momentum going for us and it did. We lost pistol and the two ecos or whatever, but I think we won every gunround except for one. So we kept our momentum going.

With the second legend placing in a row for Team Liquid, they have both been with s1mple. How much of a factor does he play in the major performances of Team Liquid despite not being a part of the team anymore as of now.

I mean s1mple wants to win, thats the only thing for him. And thats the whole mindset of the team, thats exactly what we want to do. At the bootcamp his attitude is a problem, but he is a young kid and he's insane, he's a very talented player. In my opinion, if he fixes his attitude he might be one of the best players in the world. But this whole tournament he had a positive attitude and he's been working on it, just as he promised to do.

But you are not going to pull an adreN again and keep him on the team, right?

I think Pimp is on the team when we get out of the major.

With the win today and possibly even going further in the tournament, is Liquid now the definitive top dog in Counter-Strike?

I would say so. I thought just me moving to Liquid and bringing in Pimp and s1mple temporarly right now, I think we are the top dogs. But also I think we still have a lot to proof and everyone on our team knows what we are doing. Our whole attitude is winning, thats all that matters to us. In the end just give us some time and we are going to grow and getting better and better.

You mentioned Pimp already. He is quite a different player from s1mple. Do you think you have similar success with him or does he have different qualities he can bring to the team?

I don't know how we necessarily bring pimp in, I haven't really thought about that, I just kinda was focusing on this major but I'm sure its going to work out. I know he is a good player and he might be taking on a different role from what s1mple is, but thats fine. He can awp too, so we can do a double awp setup like me and s1mple do right now. But honestly i didn't have the time to plan that far ahead yet.

Lets go back in time a little bit. You were on CLG just some time ago. What do you think CLG is lacking and whats keeping them from being a top team, not just in america but in the world.

I dont really necessarily know. They are going through roster changes right now after I left. I really didn't talk to them about their plans after I left. If I see them I say hello and go talk to them, but I dont necessarily know what they're doing and what their mindset is. I really dont know what the problem is. I hope for the best for them and they figure it out, because they are really skilled players and great people in general.

Do you think they value friendship higher than actually winning? Was it a hard decision leaving CLG for potential success but ultimatly having to leave your friends behind? Back then you only rejoined CLG after they had some moderate national success. How hard was the actual decision of leaving CLG?

It was actually really hard. I built such good relationships with them, that they are like considered my good friends. I would kick it with them any other day other than playing CS. We did everything together. We were living in a house for over a year, so we built good relationships. That was the hardest part. The thing is I'm playing CS as a job and I want to win so bad. I'm a competitive player and person and I want to win not just for me but for north america because we were always seen as a kind of joke in the CS Scene. I always been motivated and hungry to want to win. I work so hard to trying to improve my individual skill and help improve our team. I keep putting in the time and I always will, no matter if we win the major or not. I never have enough, even if we perform good in this major, or the next one, it's still not enough. I want to keep going, I want to make a statement for NA.

Do you think Liquid as an Organisation is kind of a frontrunner of pairing new talent with established players, for example pairing nitr0 and EliGE with HiKo and adreN? For example TSM and Cloud9 that went down a fairly similar road? Do you think that Liquid is a good indicator of what these young american rosters can achieve?

I do. You can tell from what Liquid was able to do for me and Pimp. Before they brought in s1mple. So they want to help the team win, which is our mindset as a team. So if you have the organisations with the exactly the same mindset, it works so well. They have done so much for me already that I'm just grateful for this position at all. I think every other organisation should look at Liquid and what they are doing. If the team needs to do something, make it happen. Maybe NA CS will be the best in the world, you never know. But I think we have a lot of young players that have skill, that just need experience. Especially like TSM. They have two young players, twist and sick. They just need time to develope as players and they will be getting eventually really good too and attend majors. Eventually if the teams want to work and want to win, it's all about positive attitude. Thats one of the biggest things I guess. There is never a point where you are going to be perfect. The only way to improve yourself is to admit that you are doing something wrong and take criticism. When someones one you and telling you that you are doing something wrong, you have to accept it and listen to it. Ego is kind of a big thing, but it's a team game. If every team in NA can do that and these young players they dont have an ego, I think the future for NA CS is going to be bright.

In League of Legends Gaming Houses have pretty much been established for every successful team. CLG was one of the first team to establish a Gaming House for their CS:GO Team. What are the advantages and what are maybe the bad sides of having a gaming house and being around your teammates all of the time?

The pros are the fact that you end up building relationships with your team and in the end its just chemistry and everyone enjoys hanging out with each other. Thats the main thing, building the chemistry. The cons is that its in another state or somewhere else away from your hometown. It can be a little too much for some guys. I am used to it, because i went to college, I was always away from my hometime so it wasnt a big deal for me. But other people are not used to leaving their hometown and thats something new and thats something they have to get used to. They could get homesick or getting weirder around everyone because they dont want to be there. I think there are more pros than cons.

Whats the deal with the lounging? Is it purley comfort or are there other reasons like health benefits? Is there more to it than the obvious?

I been playing like this since I was 10 years old. It was something that I just was doing. As I was just casually playing CS with super high sensivity I just relaxed. So I kind of got used to how I played and thats just how I always played and it stayed the same. But I have lowered my sens over the time. I didn't know anything about health benefits towards how I sit, but now I am finding out thats actually good for the back to sit like that. Hopefully there will be more loungers later on. Thats just always how I played. Its important to be comfortable, it makes you play at your optimal performance. So I think just the way I sit makes me relax and it keeps me calm pretty much.