Amanda "rain" Smith is part of the Dignitas CS:GO female team. We reached out to her to ask about the new ESEA Season starting now, the changes they’re making in their mentality compared to last year, the team's goals, and her hopes for the future development of the game.

Hello Amanda. We’re now in a new year and with that comes a new season of ESEA. This will be your second time on the Main Division. How are you feeling towards this season?

rain: I'm feeling good! Even though we're just coming off the holiday break, I'm feeling refreshed and excited to be competing again with the team. We had some good practices leading up to our break, so I hope we can start the new year off the same way.





How did the previous season make you feel and why was the environment less positive back then? What did the team do to make it more positive?

rain: Last season was tough in the beginning for us, and we ended up making some big role changes mid-season, but it seems to be going well and we're just working on our small mistakes now. Our chemistry has gotten a lot better, and we're more comfortable in our roles, so I think that will be the biggest difference for this year and our overall confidence as a team.





Last season didn’t go as well as you would have wanted, not being able to qualify for playoffs. Can this result end up becoming a psychological barrier you will need to battle during this next season?

rain: I'm confident we could make playoffs. As long as we can shake off the holiday rust and pick up where we left off, we could have our best year yet.



Realistically speaking, what are your goals towards this new season in its entirety?

rain: I want to see the team continue to grow and develop our chemistry and communication more with each other. My end goal for this season is to make playoffs and Advanced division!



A new year also means more open qualifiers to participate. How are you leaning towards them? Are you considering playing on as many as possible or just aiming for some of them?

rain: Of course! We're not able to play in all of them due to some schedules, but we love to play in as many as possible since they're great practice (most of the time).



Do you see these open qualifiers as an opportunity to practice or as a real tournament with hopes of qualifying for the LAN stages?

rain: We mostly see it as practice, but we're always hoping to make it through to the closed qualifiers/LAN!





Is there any aspect in your game you’re all trying to collectively improve the most at the moment?

rain: We just need to work on our small mistakes by reviewing ourselves more often, especially against higher tier teams that play in these qualifiers and continue to make positive progress as a team and individuals.



What are your hopes regarding the development of the game for this next year?

rain: I hope Valve becomes more involved and listens to the community a bit more this year especially since Fortnite/Epic Games set such a high standard of that in 2018. It would be nice to finally have a better demo UI & upgrade their MM servers to 128 tick to make it a more viable option for casuals.





Valve has been pretty active on CS:GO updates during the end of 2018. What is your opinion regarding these last few updates, namely Danger Zone and the new iteration of Cobblestone?

rain: I'm glad Valve made an attempt to have some good updates near the end of the year, but a lot of them come with FPS problems, so that’s still frustrating. I hope they can continue to listen to the community because danger zone could become the next big thing!





Which maps would you like to see revamped? Which one do you want to see added and which one should be removed?

rain: It would be really cool to have a new map in the competitive map pool in 2019 or have the maps in the pool already revamped more often to make the game less stale.



Would you like to leave any closing words to your fans?

rain: Thanks to everyone who supported me and the team in 2018! I hope we can achieve some great things this year and make you all proud. Shout out to the Sixers & dig fam <3





I want to thank Amanda for her answers and want to wish her good luck for this new year! Don’t forget to follow and keep up with her and the team in her social media:

Twitter

Twitch

Facebook