amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts Last Edited: 2016-08-24 18:42:15 #1



[T/N: This interview was done during the Quarterfinals]



So I`m here with two of the guys from our very own Team Liquid - koosta and nitro. [Hiko and elige joins in later] Unfortunately not playing today, but nonetheless what are your thoughts on this event?



Nitro - It's been fun, besides getting knocked out early, [the] city is pretty. By far my favourite european country.



Koosta - Skybox [in the arena] is really cool, that's my favourite, that's the highlight of my trip. [laughing]



So let's talk about the group play. First game was against mousesports; coming off the major everybody thought that you were gonna beat them, but you didn't. What went wrong? What wasn't clicking?



Nitro - I think we chose the wrong map, I think we should have played on a different map because that's one of their best maps. Our teamwork wasn't on point and we were getting out shot so there`s nothing more than that really.



Koosta - I think we started off sloppy, we kind of picked it up towards the end but it was too late at that point.



Second game - TyLoo, this is a must win, you guys just can't lose against them, they are new to the scene nobody knows them. Do you think they just caught you off guard?



Nitro - I feel like everyone was missing their shots that day and they were out shooting us, I don't think tactically they are better than us; we knew their setups, we knew exactly how they played their CT setup - one statue, one rock and one chicken, we knew they were there but we just couldn't kill them. They had the better trades that day.



Koosta - And another case, we played on one of their strongest maps, so that was a mistake by us.



[At this point elige and hiko join]



Elige - Yeah it's kind of a problem when a team can only play two maps - cache and dust2. So it's also a problem that we only have to maps in our map pool.



So hiko has joined us and maybe you could go a little bit in depth of how was the games -- unfortunately didn't get to play in the playoffs -- but there is still some experience gained and what can you learn from it?



Hiko - I think it hurts the most that we end up placing top 4 at the last major and then don't go out of groups here against teams that are weaker compared to teams that we beat in the major. So definitely hurts, and specifically we just weren't on our game, I'm not gonna come up with any excuses - we didn't play well. Moving forward going to the next tournament which is DreamHack Austin, we will going to hopefully be more prepared, have better practice regiments and come back stronger.



Going back to the major real quick, I just want to know how was the emotions winning that game against fnatic, how was the team spirit back there?



Hiko - So we knew that making it first place in our group that would have given us chance to play lesser skilled team than EnVy, Astralis or Na`Vi or even Luminosity. So we were fortunate enough to get CLG, we played them a lot online we know how they play, they know how we play. And we definitely were feeling after we beat fnatic that we definitely had the chance to go to the finals. Unfortunately we didn't, but that being said the crowd and it being in US was amazing, the cheering the spirits of let's have NA win. Probably the best [LAN] I ever been to in the last ten years.



And just the fact that there was a guaranteed north american team in the semis, everybody was hyped up and then game against Luminosity happened...



Hiko - We played good, but they adapted and we didn't adapt to how they adapted so we got up to 15 rounds and couldn't close it on both of the maps. Definitely using it as a learning experience, when we get up in a situations like that just make it a lot simpler, and yeah, moving forward definitely there will be sour taste in a mouth in similar situations being like let's make sure we don't pull Luminosity versus Liquid and make sure we close these games.



What were the feelings? First map slipped away, well what you gonna do, but when the second map started to slip away was there some sort of thoughts of oh my God it's happening again?



Nitro - I really didn't come in to effect mentally until it actually happened, so not really. Only thoughts were: no, not like this.. [laughing]



So in recent “By the numbers” podcast GBJames was there, and he said that you guys didnt really wanted to take a timeout, why was that?



Hiko - So one of the things with our team and s1mple specifically is that when a team calls a timeout against us, it's like oh hey look, we are beating them, they need to call a timeout. It kind of seems like a weakness, so.. It wasn't all him for sure, I don't like taking a timeout on a round we are going to save, it just doesn't make sense, you should do it on a round when you will buy up. So a lot of the rounds were really close and we all were just like: oh let's try it just one more time, and it got to the point where we waited too long on both maps.



Talking about s1mple, it looks like NA is starting to combine both NA and EU as you are bringing s1mple in and CLG is bringing Pita. Do you feel like NA teams should kind of scout out people from Europe and bring them in?



Hiko - I think it's the nature of the american scene right now that there is not many up and comers that even show much promise. There is too many people that just play for stats. It seems like all the up and coming players are pretty much the same role: they all just want to be the star fragger, they all want to be the second, third guy in. So there is definitely shortage of diverse players. So when you are looking for a player it makes more sense to look European, because usually most of the times they are better and usually most of the time there are different roles than just star player.



So I guess that's just maturity of EU? play for the team, play to win not just for the stats?



Hiko - Well in NA it seems, it used to not be as bad, but it seems like teams that are in, well say tier 4 american teams which is like ESEA Premier, everything under ESEA Pro League and CEVO Pro League a lot of the teams won't even give you a try out for their team unless you have a certain stat in pugs. Which you know, if you get a tryout off of a basically solo MM kind of a rank, is kind of stupid. But it's what everybody does and it encourages people to play for stats, it encourages people to have that same star role; and it's just kind of a mess of just most of the the lower tier teams having four, five people just running around trying to get kills with no thought of no mentality of “how do I get better”, “how do I counter what other team is doing”. They just want to run in and just kill everybody.



Elige - I think that also applies to tier 1, tier 2 NA teams; players getting cut that aren't the mad fraggers, so it's like let's kick our support player and try to get another fragger. That's just the mentality of NA because if you aren't on top of scoreboard every game you will get cut, so nobody wants to not be on top of the scoreboard. It's just how NA is developed where nobody wants to be the support player.



Hiko - And if you look at examples of players like adreN to a some extent, when you are up and coming player you don't want to be the guy who is kind of dedicated to be “- this person + this person, or BOT adreN or BOT whoever”. So I understand why nobody wants to have the support role but at the same time you need those players on a team.



Quick question for koosta. Before you were aquired by Team Liquid, you were playing minds out for Selfless and being this up and coming star of NA. But after you joined Liquid for a lot of people it seemed like you kind of fell off and wasn't that amazing talent. Any comments on that?



Koosta - Well it's mostly because in my old team everything was based around me, so when I started getting frags early in the game it was a lot easier from my perspective to just keep hitting shots and eventually you just never miss in that game. But on TL I`m just trying to play a role, making sure that we secure rounds for our team. In old team I was just that mad fragger. [associating to earlier question and answers]



And last question.. There has been big drama going around about these injuries and wrist problems. Have you addressed it in your team?



Elige - I always talk to the team about doing stretches for your wrist and hand because it is important and it will catch up to people eventually. I have a Starcraft background so I know about the injuries that people have had... Just top players ending their careers because of the injuries that could be prevented.



And that will wrap up the interview, any last words you want to say for your own Liquid fans out there?



Elige - Thank you to all of the fans who support us through all the good times, the rough times, thank you all for the support. And of course our sponsors - “HyperX”, “HTC”, “Twitch”, “J!nx”, “Quest”. [T/n: He noted only these ]





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[T/N: This interview was done during the Quarterfinals]Nitro - It's been fun, besides getting knocked out early, [the] city is pretty. By far my favourite european country.Koosta - Skybox [in the arena] is really cool, that's my favourite, that's the highlight of my trip. [laughing]Nitro - I think we chose the wrong map, I think we should have played on a different map because that's one of their best maps. Our teamwork wasn't on point and we were getting out shot so there`s nothing more than that really.Koosta - I think we started off sloppy, we kind of picked it up towards the end but it was too late at that point.Nitro - I feel like everyone was missing their shots that day and they were out shooting us, I don't think tactically they are better than us; we knew their setups, we knew exactly how they played their CT setup - one statue, one rock and one chicken, we knew they were there but we just couldn't kill them. They had the better trades that day.Koosta - And another case, we played on one of their strongest maps, so that was a mistake by us.[At this point elige and hiko join]Elige - Yeah it's kind of a problem when a team can only play two maps - cache and dust2. So it's also a problem that we only have to maps in our map pool.Hiko - I think it hurts the most that we end up placing top 4 at the last major and then don't go out of groups here against teams that are weaker compared to teams that we beat in the major. So definitely hurts, and specifically we just weren't on our game, I'm not gonna come up with any excuses - we didn't play well. Moving forward going to the next tournament which is DreamHack Austin, we will going to hopefully be more prepared, have better practice regiments and come back stronger.Hiko - So we knew that making it first place in our group that would have given us chance to play lesser skilled team than EnVy, Astralis or Na`Vi or even Luminosity. So we were fortunate enough to get CLG, we played them a lot online we know how they play, they know how we play. And we definitely were feeling after we beat fnatic that we definitely had the chance to go to the finals. Unfortunately we didn't, but that being said the crowd and it being in US was amazing, the cheering the spirits of let's have NA win. Probably the best [LAN] I ever been to in the last ten years.Hiko - We played good, but they adapted and we didn't adapt to how they adapted so we got up to 15 rounds and couldn't close it on both of the maps. Definitely using it as a learning experience, when we get up in a situations like that just make it a lot simpler, and yeah, moving forward definitely there will be sour taste in a mouth in similar situations being like let's make sure we don't pull Luminosity versus Liquid and make sure we close these games.Nitro - I really didn't come in to effect mentally until it actually happened, so not really. Only thoughts were: no, not like this.. [laughing]Hiko - So one of the things with our team and s1mple specifically is that when a team calls a timeout against us, it's like oh hey look, we are beating them, they need to call a timeout. It kind of seems like a weakness, so.. It wasn't all him for sure, I don't like taking a timeout on a round we are going to save, it just doesn't make sense, you should do it on a round when you will buy up. So a lot of the rounds were really close and we all were just like: oh let's try it just one more time, and it got to the point where we waited too long on both maps.Hiko - I think it's the nature of the american scene right now that there is not many up and comers that even show much promise. There is too many people that just play for stats. It seems like all the up and coming players are pretty much the same role: they all just want to be the star fragger, they all want to be the second, third guy in. So there is definitely shortage of diverse players. So when you are looking for a player it makes more sense to look European, because usually most of the times they are better and usually most of the time there are different roles than just star player.Hiko - Well in NA it seems, it used to not be as bad, but it seems like teams that are in, well say tier 4 american teams which is like ESEA Premier, everything under ESEA Pro League and CEVO Pro League a lot of the teams won't even give you a try out for their team unless you have a certain stat in pugs. Which you know, if you get a tryout off of a basically solo MM kind of a rank, is kind of stupid. But it's what everybody does and it encourages people to play for stats, it encourages people to have that same star role; and it's just kind of a mess of just most of the the lower tier teams having four, five people just running around trying to get kills with no thought of no mentality of “how do I get better”, “how do I counter what other team is doing”. They just want to run in and just kill everybody.Elige - I think that also applies to tier 1, tier 2 NA teams; players getting cut that aren't the mad fraggers, so it's like let's kick our support player and try to get another fragger. That's just the mentality of NA because if you aren't on top of scoreboard every game you will get cut, so nobody wants to not be on top of the scoreboard. It's just how NA is developed where nobody wants to be the support player.Hiko - And if you look at examples of players like adreN to a some extent, when you are up and coming player you don't want to be the guy who is kind of dedicated to be “- this person + this person, or BOT adreN or BOT whoever”. So I understand why nobody wants to have the support role but at the same time you need those players on a team.Koosta - Well it's mostly because in my old team everything was based around me, so when I started getting frags early in the game it was a lot easier from my perspective to just keep hitting shots and eventually you just never miss in that game. But on TL I`m just trying to play a role, making sure that we secure rounds for our team. In old team I was just that mad fragger. [associating to earlier question and answers]Elige - I always talk to the team about doing stretches for your wrist and hand because it is important and it will catch up to people eventually. I have a Starcraft background so I know about the injuries that people have had... Just top players ending their careers because of the injuries that could be prevented.Elige - Thank you to all of the fans who support us through all the good times, the rough times, thank you all for the support. And of course our sponsors - “HyperX”, “HTC”, “Twitch”, “J!nx”, “Quest”. [T/n: He noted only these ]Interviewer: DearDave Editor: Amazingxkcd CSS: FO-nTTaX Graphics: DearDave Photo: Dreamhack The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings