Jason “Moses” O’Toole is a former CS:GO pro turned caster and analyst, and he's one of the featured personalities for Turner’s ELEAGUE. He sat down with theScore esports during the tail end of the Group A group stage to talk about team performances so far and the national TV broadcast on Friday.

Any big changes or revelations since you started up on the ELEAGUE analyst desk?

No, not really. m0E and I are having a lot of fun out there, which is really cool. He’s been awesome, he’s been kind of the big question mark coming in, because people have seen dusT do his work and his improvement, but for m0E, this is the first time he’s been on the desk.

I think everyone on the first day, that first segment, was a little nerve wracking all things considered, so everyone was a little tense. But since we’ve lightened up, everyone out there has gotten a little bit more loose and having a bit more fun.

I did notice this morning, I think some nerves were showing, but for [m0E] I think he needs that momentum going. He needs to warm up a little.

He’s a streamer, so he’s used to being in front of the camera. He’s used to being just an entertaining personality and we told him that. We were just like, “You know, you have all this experience playing, so apply that. You might not know all the individual stats like dusT does, or all the nuances of all the actual statistical things, but just be yourself. Be your personality.” And he’s really been thriving in that, I think.

In all seriousness thank you all for the positive feedback. It means alot to me and i hope you guys enjoy this entire week. @EL — mOE (@m0E_tv) May 24, 2016

Have you been getting any feedback from production?

Yeah, we had a post-production meeting last night and everyone was very happy, we haven’t gotten anything negative. No one’s been fired yet, so that’s all good. Haven’t really sat down yet though, maybe after the first week. I know some of us are searching for some of the executives, some of the guys with the traditional sports experience and asking them, “what can we do better? Camera presence, is there anything that we can work on speaking-wise, or anything that we can change, or work on or improve?”

There’s so much experience here, it would be insane for us to not take advantage of that.

How have the games been from your perspective?

They’ve been good all things considered. I think Group B will probably be stronger and be more exciting in terms of a more consistent level of competition, but we’ve seen everything. We’ve seen some overtime games, we’ve seen some close matches. We’ve seen some matches that should not have been lost that were lost, those big comebacks that Team Liquid have suffered.

So, it’s not the best Counter-Strike that’s going to be played throughout the season, but it’s certainly not lacking in terms of excitement.

What’s your read on the state of Team Liquid right now?

You know, I think everyone is very much in the sense... just cause these losses have been happening in this fashion, I think everyone is very much in the mindset of, “Liquid sucks.” But you look at being able to go up on Luminosity that big is a huge accomplishment.

It’s not that they don’t have the skill, it’s not that they don’t have the talent, it’s these small things. At this point now, they’re also battling themselves mentally, which teams like Astralis have dealt with and struggled with for a long long time. This is a team that is it’s own worst enemy, essentially. They’ve got to get some things figured out.

I think that move to pick up peacemaker as a coach is going to be very important for this team’s development and I think that needs little bit more time. It’s all about, when are these losses too much. That’s kind of the scary part, are they just going to call it quits before they let [peacemaker] have time with the team.

I was talking to SPUNJ about that actually. In the first match of ELEAGUE, actually, Renegades got the first Ace of the league, but then Luminosity had the first 16-0 of the league.

I was talking to him about it because [Renegades] came back on Day 2 and 2-0’d Liquid, and I was like, “How did you come back? How did you bounce back from that 16-0?” And his opinion was like, “Oh, the 16-0 was just, we just kinda threw it out. Like, that was just a loss we accepted, basically.” But for Liquid, they’re having these insane first halves and just dropping the ball; SPUNJ kinda felt that that’s almost worse.

Oh yeah, it’s much easier when you get blown out. It’s much easier to just forget that and move on… though 16-0 is probably a different animal, obviously; I don’t want to experience that ever. But it is those games that you have “won," when you’re up 12-3, 14-1, whatever it might be, those are the ones that are really really hard to swallow. Really hard to get over.

It’s gotta be a struggle for them at this point, it’s been happening so frequently, so very often. That’s going to be a big deal for this team to get over.

GG c9 and LG, we finished 0-4 today.



Frustration level over 9000 — Spencer Martin (@Liquid_Hiko) May 24, 2016

What about Cloud9 and Slemmy, how do you feel about their performance in ELEAGUE?

It’s pretty much gone as, well, maybe not as expected, but I didn’t expect them [to beat Liquid], but I think that was more of the fault of Liquid looking so bad [on Day 1]. It’s one of those things that, I don’t think they’re capable or ready to compete on an international scale quite yet, they could get there, but I think right now it’s going to work wonders for them in the region, that’s always been the big question mark.

This team does have the talent to be dominant in North America or consistently at the top, but for the most part, they should be a team that’s always competing for that top spot in North America. It just comes down to all these teams in North America need to have that loftier goal of international competition and that pick up of Slemmy is a little bit scary. Gonna have to see what he develops in terms of strategy with their coach Irukandji to really help this team against the Fnatics, the NiPs, the Luminositys, these teams that are really strong internationally.

Any expectations for the Friday?

No, I don’t even know what to think of yet for Friday; that’s going to be crazy. I mean even Tuesday, the first day, being in this setting, in the studio, being at Turner Studios, it is kind of surreal. It was kind of the first time that I’ve felt nervous before a broadcast.

Really?

Well, maybe not the first time I felt nervous before a broadcast, but the first time in a long time. The first time eight to ten months, so a very long time. More nerve wracking than being in Cologne in front of a 13,000 person crowd, certainly. But, Friday is gonna be another beast, so that’ll be weird.

Will any of your friends or family be watching?

Oh yeah, yeah, they’re all going to be tuning in.

Well, you may not know what to expect just yet, but have you been mentally preparing yourself in any way?

No, everything has been focusing on these first three days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Making sure we nail down the show, get the feel for the flow, get to understand how I’m going to be working with m0E or dusT or whoever it might be on the desk and making sure we have those parts down.

I think looking at it, that big picture of the entire show and being on TBS and being on national television, that’s when mistakes can be made, that’s when things can start messing up. So I think mostly just focusing on those smaller parts that I’m involved in, I think that’s the key to making sure that nothing bad happens.