I spoke with Zellsis of Swole Patrol to talk about the team going forward and the recent additions of MarkE and swag.





Starting pretty general with Swole Patrol, how has it been with your time on the team and how do you feel about your teammates?





Well this is technically my first ever REAL team I guess you could say, so it’s been an interesting ride for awhile now. I really enjoy my time here with the personalities of my teammates, and just the overall goals we have as a team. I feel great with this new five we currently have, I think we have a lot of potential in the future.





Nice, I think so too. Going back to your previous teammates, SileNt has been a team mate of yours for a while and I'm sure you guys are good friends. What was it like having to get someone to replace him?





So yeah, with SileNt he’s been on the team awhile, and it was kinda sad to replace him I guess, but this is a business and friendships can only take you so far in terms of skill / success. Honestly replacing him wasn't the biggest of difficulties, no shots at SileNt, but I think MarkE and swag have super high skill ceilings, and if we can put together our roles, and spots on maps we'll do a lot of damage in the scene.





Alright, so 2 seasons ago in MDL, you guys came so close to qualifying to Pro League. What was the team mentality like coming home from that season's Global Challenge?





We were all kinda shocked/depressed if I’m being honest, we were so close to 2-0ing eUnited

in the MDL finals, and then after throwing that lead, and losing to them we had to play a bo3 against Splyce right away and frankly we got shit on. The next day after that we beat torqued pretty easily, and then a rematch against Splyce. Which we got close but sadly Rickeh played an INSANE series against us.I think we just all wanted to get home, and continue grinding in terms of qualifiers to make LANs, and overall playing to get better individually.





Yeah, I can imagine it had to be tough. Looking ahead, what are your thoughts about the team's performance moving forward after the minor?





Personally I had I think the lowest performance of my career against NRG, which is kinda sad considering the score line, but moving forward after we bombed outta the minor was kinda awkward. Lilman didn't really feel like playing cs anymore, and it showed in his attitude/game play, but we just kept playing with what we could. We also tried switching around a few roles at that time, like our caller and doing practices differently, which practices went kinda good for a bit. After a few tournaments or whatever we played in after MDL matches and frag online qualifier, we talked to Lilman about him not having to play anymore cause it just wasn't fair to keep making him play, and for our team environment. We had MDL playoffs a few days after I think? or something around there, and we used our coach/6th/friend I guess "clown" against gorilla gang and it was close, but we couldn't close it out. Fyb also lost at that time, so we just wanted MarkE and swag. because they're obviously super individually skilled, and know how to play the game.





Good segway into the next question. You said that swag and MarkE both have a really high skill ceiling, but was there anything in particular that made you guys decide to go for both of them. Especially with swag as having him on the team gives up any chance of qualifying for the major as of now.





Well we always liked MarkE, just watching his matches, and playing with him sometimes so we just wanted him in general. and the thing with brax or swag is he cant play in the major or anything like that to do with valve, but our main focus is kinda just qualifying for EPL and other LAN tournaments right now, and worrying about that later, maybe using a different 5th for the minor or something.I think just cause the IBP guys are banned from valve sponsored events doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be given the opportunities other players get, I think a few year ban is fine, but for life is kinda unfair imo. So I don't really worry about those types of things right now.





Aside from the majors, almost every major tournament organizer has lifted the ban which gives you guys lots of room to do damage. Going on to another one of your team mates, what has it been like having someone with as much experience as Freakazoid? I'm sure having him has got to help a lot. What are some of the things he has brought to the team from previous experiences that has helped you guys develop?





Yeah I went to my first ever LAN with freak, so he's kinda been here for awhile with me. In game and out he helps a lot mentally, his experience in the game is actually insane for an individual, i look up to him highly. He calls for us right now, and is always learning or watching demos to help the team so that's pretty nice. Personally I think he's taught me a lot about the game, and life. he's a good mentor just in general and I'm super happy I’ve been apart of this journey and he's been here with me.





That's really cool to hear, to wrap it up I thought we could go back to where you started. Your history in the Counter-Strike pro scene is relatively unknown to the community, how did you come about linking up with the original Muffin Lightning core?





So before I linked up with muffin lightning, I actually had my own roster for awhile. we were called GosuCrew as some of the people in the scene probably know or don't, I was on that team for about 4 seasons? so roughly a year or so... some things happened once we made MDL, and long story short I kinda just left and started to try and find a team that didn't die mid season or someone left for another team. I wanted to make a team with freak/cooper for awhile, and silent had a roster that he was completely rebuilding, so he just decided to pick us 3 up, and that's how this all started.





Awesome, thanks so much for your time Jordan, it's been great to get to talk to you. I wish you guys the best of luck in the upcoming MDL season and all of the qualifiers. I can tell this team is going to be dangerous.







