We caught up with Carolyn 'artStar' Noquez of our CS:GO Female team to talk about online qualifiers, the changes in ESEA divisions, and how that affects the squad goals. To achieve these goals the team bootcamped at the Sixers Training Complex back in February, which became part of the conversation during this interview.

Hello Carolyn. What have you been up to in the last few weeks during the ESEA off-season?

artStar: Even though it's off-season, we always have an itch to play together! The team's been spending time reviewing all the maps and strengthening our map pool for the upcoming season. We're really excited to be in Main this season!





You have been playing a few online open qualifiers in the hopes of reaching the big leagues. How do you feel these types of qualifiers compare to normal official matches?

artStar: We treat official matches and qualifier matches the same. We play to win, and if we lose we take it as good practice. We go back to watch the demo, learn from our mistakes and continue grinding to someday play in the big leagues. Now that ESL has enforced the rule where only one team from an organization can participate in their qualifiers, though, it makes it difficult for us to achieve those goals.





ESEA recently changed their divisions, now having Advanced as a bridge between Main and MDL. How do you feel about these changes? Was this change needed?

artStar: I feel like these changes were definitely what the league needed. Main seemed to have a huge inconsistency in skill so adding Advanced league and moving the better Main teams up to Advanced will almost certainly balance out the league better. However, I don't agree with the fact that now if you win Open you jump to Advanced. I feel like that would cause the variance in skill to affect Advanced league, but I guess we'll wait and see what happens!





Naturally, your next step is to qualify to Advanced. How hard do you think that will be?

artStar: I don't think it'll be hard at all. We are good scrim buddies with the teams that are in Advanced league. We practice against them daily, so I certainly think we are at that level of skill right now.





Is the main goal still getting to MDL? How is the team preparing to tackle it?

artStar: We like to focus on small goals but getting to MDL is certainly where we hope our path takes us. We are trying a new practice schedule where we play 5 days a week for four hours and some days we focus more on practicing in scrims than winning scrims and have been spending more time with our coach than we have before.





You recently bootcamped at the Sixers Training Complex. How was the experience?

artStar: We had a great time sitting down and talking to all the professionals again, like Billy Lange and Dr. David Martin, to help refresh on all the key points focused on our success. However, the bootcamp itself was pretty rough, but only because we faced a really frustrating challenge where scrims kept cancelling on us every single day we were there. By the end of the bootcamp we didn't get as much practice in as we wanted in CS and we had IEM coming up in a few days. But I personally believe everything happens for a reason and that challenged us to keep cool and stay in it mentally no matter what the circumstance is - something we already struggled with, but we did it! So, though we didn't get to practice in-game we kind of practiced in our heads how to stay focused and keep your eye on the prize.





What made this bootcamp different and/or better than others you had in the past?

artStar: Just the fact that we scheduled scrims weeks prior and almost all of them cancelled on us so we had to last minute find good practice or find something productive to do with our time, like watch more demos, have more team talks about certain scenarios, etc. It was a different bootcamp for us but still helpful.





Dust2 has finally been added to the map pool. Are you already practicing on it?

artStar: When rumors were floating that something was getting removed and dust2 was to be put in, we got so excited. I personally wanted something fresh and new, so it was perfect timing. We practice on it here and there, now that ESEA is removing map of the week and adding vetoes we want to make sure we have a strong map pool.





Are you recycling old known strategies from that map or are you looking for new ways to play it in the hopes of surprising future opponents?

artStar: A bit of both, our old strategies still work so, you know... don't fix what isn't broken! But we learned with the Sixers how being innovative and creative can impact a team in a positive way, so we mess around and try new things here and there.





For one map to be introduced, another had to leave. Cobblestone is no more. Was this the map you think needed to be removed? If not, which one was it and why?

artStar: I think Valve made the right decision on removing Cobblestone. The rotations on that map were ridiculously long and it started to become stale with strategies, you could totally tell just by watching pro teams play it. It was never an exciting map to watch in my opinion.





Any shoutouts?

artStar: Shoutout to the Sixers for front row seats at the Sixers v Heat game in Feb! Hanging out with Scott O'Neil and having him show us around the Wells Fargo Center was a blast!!

I want to thank artStar for her time! Don't forget to check her social media to keep in touch and stay tuned:

artStar's Twitter

artStar's Twitch Channel

artStar's Facebook Page