You recently concluded a weekend’s worth of work in Kiev as the main analyst for StarSeries 12. Having seen previous iterations of the event putting little to no support for an english broadcast in terms of CS, how did you feel being part of the first dedicated english broadcasting crew at an SLTV event?



I was surprised with how well the event was handled in all respects. When I had attended previous tournaments held in that venue, the Cyberarena, the stage area had been relatively small and there wasn't much for spectators. This time around, they had taken all the PCs out and made the stage horizontally across the room, creating basically a mini version of what you might see at any large event, with plenty of space for a decent amount of live spectators.



On the production side of things, they gave us more room than some of the other events I've worked in the past, so I think we got a good opportunity to put some context around the matches. It was unusual to be working with a different co-analyst each time, I generally prefer that to be set, so I can develop chemistry with them and get a rhythm down, but I knew most of the casters being rotated in, so I think it ended up being fun. That's a key distinction which makes some events more enjoyable to work than others: if they hire people I enjoy being around, since it ensures the experience will be a pleasant one and time will pass smoothly.



In terms of the format, I think this was the best format they've ever run, with the exception of the bizarre scenario where two teams advanced a round and yet went out in last place. Double elimination Bo3 games and a Bo5 final ensured we had a very good sense of who each of the teams were and how good their levels were by the end of the week.



Hopefully Starladder is committed to making future seasons as good, as their event had looked to be dropping down into the tier three level that the likes of Copenhagen Games inhabit, but this event, with six of the top seven teams in the world in attendance, really struck me as one of the best tier two events we have. For context, I consider only the majors to be tier 1, at least right now.





Whilst fnatic didn’t make an appearence at the event due to a less than favorable scoreline in the group stage, it’s obvious that we can see that both NiP and EnVyUS are the teams that look to challenge fnatic for the top position in the world. How do you view the nV versus NiP match-up, and similarly the dynamic the three top teams have against each other?



nV against NiP has been a complete mismatch so far. In their first two finals they were reasonably evenly matched, with nV having the edge due to being a little better on most of the map pool. Then NiP had their miracle semi-final at Katowice, where they somehow rolled over nV in dominant fashion and the French team looked completely out of sorts. Ever since then, all we've seen is nV shitting on NiP as if they weren't even a top 10 team in the world. Consider this piece of trivia: out of their last 10 offline maps, NiP has only won one against nV and it was a narrow 16:14 win.



It doesn't matter what map is played, how NiP approaches it or what positions they switch up, nV just crushes them flat. That upper bracket final was one of the most dominating Bo3 performances we've ever seen in CS:GO between two elite level teams. The final was a complete joke in terms of competitiveness, as nV could literally just run through smokes with any weapon, on CT-sided maps no less, and dominate every conceivable NiP set-up. I can only imagine how demoralising these last two events must have been for NiP.



Previously, as I've spoken about with my "NiP magic" theory, they had always been able to bring the fight against even stronger opponents, but recently nV has been dominating them even worse than NiP used to dominate VeryGames back in the day, which certainly carries a ripe sense of irony and justice.



In terms of the general dynamic, I think nV utterly dominates NiP most days of the week, FNATIC should be a 10-20% favourite over nV and then NiP should be able to make it three maps against FNATIC most times they meet. As strange as it sounds, there might be a better chance of NiP upsetting FNATIC than nV, althought NiP won't even get that far if they have to keep facing nV, most likely.





Naturally, having such balanced teams contesting for the top spot has proved to create similar match-ups in finals. Most recently we’ve seen nV and NiP fight in three separate finals over the same amount of time, as well as both NiP and EnVyUS challenge fnatic’s top position for almost six months now. Do you find the situation of having these almost identical match-ups in every tournament exciting or does it limit your interest eventually?



I think it's great, as these are the best teams in the world and we get to see them play out similar scenarios again and again, so we're not left with questions to ask like "what that a fluke?" or "what if [X] had happened differently." Imagine if the only time we had gotten to see NiP vs. nV was in the semi-final of Katowice and then never again for the next two months. People would still be going around saying NiP had figured nV out and were now going to dominate them in future match-ups. Instead, we not only got to see nV emphatically tell us otherwise in two BoX series at Gfinity, but we had it confirmed and cemented with the two BoX at StarSeries XII.



If nV meet NiP again, the context of those recent match-ups only becomes more significant, as the world looks to see if NiP will get dominated again, setting themselves up as embarrassed whipping boys of a core of players they used to shit on, once upon a time, or perhaps striking back and starting to even up the match-up. Those are both exciting prospects. If you don't like seeing the best teams in the world play each other in BoX series, then perhaps competitive CS:GO isn't for you, maybe there's a soap opera out there you can watch which had lots of crazy plot twists and new characters introduced regularly.



Also, it's not as if every series being played is the same story over and over, such as nV dumpstering NiP on the regular. No, a great example of a phenomenal match-up I can barely contain my anticipation for is when TSM play Virtus.pro. That has developed into a fantastic battle of wills between the two teams, with VP winning two of the three series, but seven of the eight maps played being closely contested.



Then you have the eventual and inevitable meeting of nV and FNATIC, the two dominant offline teams, in a BoX, hopefully a Bo5 final. That has the potential to be the best CS:GO series we've ever seen, both in terms of the excitement heading into it, what those teams are capable of, their levels right now and their shared map pool.



Finally, we have exciting underdog teams who can take maps off the top teams and have their own unique flavours. So in Titan we have the best player in the world battling with a genius in-game leader to create these Terrorist side masterpieces, as they looked to be the best offensive team in the game in Kiev, but then barely able to keep it together on CT sides, even on heavily CT-sided maps. Or how about a reinvigorated Na`Vi, with the addition of flamie, hoping that they can add some big fragging from Edward and flamie to those inconsistent but spectacular GuardiaN games you're good for once every four or so maps.



I don't really care about group stages or watching Keyd Stars play against Virtus.pro. Give me the top 5-6 teams all playing each other in BoX series every month and I'll gladly tune in to watch.





Similarly, with another semi-final finish at ESL One Katowice and now their 3rd place finish at SLTV, how do you view TSM now in regards to their past in dignitas? Have they finally reached that coveted spot as a top 4 team?



I think TSM were already the fourth best team from March to August of 2014, back when they were Dignitas. Their problem was that they were the only member of the top four who were incapable of winning a big tournament, they would simply thrash all the teams below them in the rankings. Has that changed now? A little, in as much as their win over VP in Kiev did seem to hint that they're going to be more competitive and might be able to score some upset wins, having beaten both VP and FNATIC in Bo3 in 2015.



With that said, they still fall apart in high pressure third map T sides and device still looks like Darth Vader is off-camera with a force-grip on his throat when it matters.



I think the next three months will decide the ultimate fate of TSM: are they to become legitimate title contenders or are they destined to forever bash on the 5th-10th level teams and always usher the elite teams into the finals, like doomed Danish doormen to the championship? They are the literal definitions of gatekeepers right now: beat them and you can reach the final, lose to them and you weren't good enough to.





On the topic of TSM, the “choke” has by now almost been branded over each and every one of the players participating in the team. Mentally, this must be a burden for the members and their close win versus VP at SLTV was truly something that brought it to a whole other level, given VP’s current form not being the best. Is this still reason enough for you to be a bit reluctant on putting TSM in the top 4 position, and if not, do you think it’s the choking that legitimately stops them from being a top team at this current time?



VP winning a tournament over TSM helps VP hold onto that fourth spot, so I think TSM still have their work ahead of them. With that said, VP have looked shaky at times this year, so if VP fails to be consistent, then that is a way TSM can sneak into the top four, much as they did in early 2014. I think it's undoubtably choking that costs them deeper runs in big tournaments. You look at the talent level of their team and the way they can play against the same teams online and earlier in tournaments and you see a team who seem to go down 20-40% in effectiveness once they hit a semi-final or a top four opponent.





CS seems to have now entered a second golden age, far exceeding that of it’s predecessor 1.6, and seemingly being in a position to challenge some of the larger titles currently around. Now you’ve already made a video discussing the tournament structure in the game, and it seems as if you are in the field that thinks the current tournaments strucutre CS:GO has is the optimal one for esports in general. Many teams however do wish that the ongoing mass of tournaments would simply boil down into one single league or event like the current LCS-system. Is this something you fear could become a reality, and why do you feel that it doesn’t stand up towards the current system?



Teams may wish that, if we define organisations as teams, since they like saving money on travel expenses, knowing exactly where they'll be in X months and being able to sell sponsors on stable exposure levels. Teams, in terms of the individual players that make up the best sides in the world, seem almost universally against that kind of structure, across nearly all esports team games, based on my discussions with them off-camera. I think most competitors like having numerous opportunities to show their skills, reset mentally and even out problems like poor seeding, meta changes and off-days.



I think an ideal world would have a CS:GO major three times a year, with a 3-5 month gap between each, and then say 7-8 tier 2 events, which top teams would attend by their own preference or based on which they qualified for. Beyond that, there should be no reason for top teams to be attending tier three events, unless they choose to. The prize money and time needed to win the big events should take care of how saturated the scene is.



If that all sounds like too much, with too much travel and too many tournaments to play in, I'll point out that this is a full-time career and these players are professionals at the top of their game. In Tennis they have four majors and something like nine ATP 1000 Masters tournaments, with elite players attending practically all of them, unless they have a specific preference to take time off. That's part of why Tennis has such a fantastic and reliable seeding system.



With that said, they do schedule their events well in Tennis, not just spacing them out identically, but having specific tournaments scheduled to be run-ups to the majors, so teams can choose how hard they want to go and peaking for a specific tournament or skipping one to concentrate on another. At the top level of Tennis, you only get something like 2-3 weeks off at the end of the season, unless you choose to purposely skip events.



As arduous as such a schedule may sound, these are the years in which the top pros are competing with each other to establish their enduring legacies, not the time to be relaxing and playing one game a week. Secondly, I think it's better to have a frenetic 3-4 days of a tournament and then a few days off than the constant grind of tournaments like LCS in LoL, where players and teams struggle massively to retain and maintain a kind of consistency, due to being forced into a continual cycle of play and practice for three straight months, in some cases. I'd rather have time off between and then the option to skip events, so teams can decide for themselves how active they choose to be.





The newest balance patch has seen one of the franchise’s signature weapons in the AWP be nerfed, and now grants more benefits to a defensive style of play, rather than an aggressive, effectively limiting the ways to play the role. As an adamant fan of Brood War, where balance patches were infrequent and so called “flavor of the month” styles of play often came and went, how do you feel about the limiting of a weapon’s or position’s power in esports in general?



I've spoken at considerable length about balance changes, so I'll outline a general philosophy that prefers more gradual changing, to see the impact and effect of such changes on the top competitive level, over these out-of-the-blue drastic buffs and nerfs. Secondly, I'd rather nerfs were only applied to those features which can be seen to be incredibly powerful and yet easily used, breaking the game in that sense. Something which is very powerful but requires a lot of skill to use, such as the AWP prior to the recent changes, should not be changed. We are here to see fantastic players showcasing their skills by having weapons which have high performance ceilings.





If we look at your own shows and content, the thing most people probably react to is the sheer amount you seem to be producing. Do you have a process in terms of what you finally decide to record and put out, or does every one of your almost daily entries of “Thorin’s Thoughts” get uploaded?



I will collect together topic ideas and see how they develop mentally, so I know which are ripe or ready to be processed, as it were. There will also be events within the scene which lend themselves to being the topic of a video. Beyond that, I typically just think over what I have brewing and pick the one which excites or interests me the most that day. Every episode I've recorded has been uploaded so far.



The bigger issue for me is that it's a lot easier to record a Thorin's Thoughts than to work on a longer video. I think I now have a notion of how to balance out the two, so we'll see if I can manage to implement it successfully.





Is keeping the entries “low tech”, as in it being a very simple overlay accompanying the video, integral to keeping the sheer amount of videos constant?



I simply think it's unnecessary for them to have accompanying video or graphics, as these are often philosophical or lyrical monologues on topics I think have an inherent vitality and meaning. The show takes places in your reasoning centres and in your mind's eye, not on the screen. If the monetisation systems of our world were different, perhaps they would be published only in an audio format - who can say? I certainly don't want to add any additional rendering, editing or processing time to the process, though. These videos are not my full-time job, at least right now, they are something I do on the side of my more in-depth work, such as articles and interviews.





InsightonEsports, the joint channel you and MonteCristo currently run, has been described by the latter as a “long term partnership”. How do you see the platform developing in the future in regards to what kind of content it will feature?



For right now, it is a home for me and Monte to host our shared content and some of the newer shows we are developing, such as my 'Incoming Aggression' LPL preview show with Froskurinn. The ethos of the channel is to create the kind of detailed, topical and exploratory content we began with 'Summoning Insight'. In the future, beyond developing more shows involving the two of us, together or seperately, I'd also like to one day be able to act as a kind of label or publisher for the content of people whose work I respect and admire, allowing them access to our monetisation and shared promotional networks. That's not something which is feasible right at this moment, though.



I think Monte and I will continue to work together in a shared capacity for a number of years to come, beyond even competitive League of Legends, as I think it's a natural fit of work ethic, talent, personalities and philosophies on how esports could be.



Duncan "Thorin" Shields har varit väldigt upptagen på sistone. Utöver att producera närmast dagliga inlägg i sin YouTube-serie "Thorin's Thoughts", där han talar i varierande längd om diverse ämnen inom esporten, har han spenderat tid som expertkommentator på ett flertal CS:GO-event. I vår relativt långa intervju så framför han sina synpunkter på EnVyUS dominans över NiP, "NiP magic" och TSM:s svårigheter som lag.