​ During a lengthy opening weekend to the ELEAGUE Major: Boston, DBLTAP’s Vince Nairn caught up with caster and analyst Jason “Moses” O’Toole to talk about the first week of games and his upset Vega Squadron predictions.





Vince Nairn: EnVyUs was eliminated today, but how much does it hurt a team when they lose a player like that mid-tournament with RpK, and what do you think comes of this team now?





Jason “Moses” O’Toole: It’s really demoralizing. They kind of looked a bit lost together even before RpK had to go to the hospital. I think it has to mean there are roster changes. They can’t keep up with competition without some form of player change. If you go back and listen to interviews, it just wasn’t very inspiring. No belief in themselves. But then what’s unfortunate is RpK goes to the hospital, and even if they win and qualify, they could no longer use RpK. That’s a silly rule, and it’s not Envy’s fault. I think it’s dumb they can’t start if he gets put out because of a medical reason. Just a very tough thing to deal with as a squad.





VN: What are you expecting from the teams waiting at the Legends Stage?





JO: I think we’re gonna see some pretty well prepared teams. They have an extra week, so they have an idea of what’s coming. I’m just expecting a very close major like we saw last year at ELEAGUE. SK with felps is still a scary team. Astralis is out there. Dev1ce is gonna come back. They’re probably rejuvenated from the end of the year. I’m pretty excited for the level of Counter-Strike we’re gonna see. FaZe Clan is there. That’s a pretty strong group of contenders.





I forgot to mention G2. The G2 we saw this week, that’s the level of G2 I expect. It was cool seeing shox individually return to that level. If that carries through, they’re gonna be a very tough team to beat. Faze Clan as long as they perform. Astralis, SK, G2. That’s four teams right there that could all do some damage





VN: You caught the community’s eye with your predictions this week, especially with Vega Squadron. What were you seeing that others maybe weren’t?





JO: The one everyone’s eyes are on is Vega vs FaZe. With FaZe, I saw some weakness showing. They seem to have same kind of problem NaVi does. They have all this firepower, but at the moment it seems none of that firepower is comfortable getting involved in the game. Seems they’re sometimes kind of lost. For all the firepower they have, it’s not being realized in the server. I saw that out of Faze the first day.

Vega looks phenomenal. I also had a little behind the scenes information on that one that FaZe just doesn’t like practicing against Vega because they just don’t do well and they hate it. Those two things combined helped me make that pick. And then with G2, I was 70 percent doing it for the fun and 30 percent thinking they could do it. They’re just kind of a fun team, and I think when you get into those BO1s, anything can happen. Vega is very good. I know they had some difficulties practicing and getting here, but the skill level regardless is very, very high. The only thing missing is some of the teamplay and tactics, everything like that. The notion of “this team should beat this team” is fading away to a certain degree.





VN: What’s one thing you’d like to see more in Counter-Strike this year, or one change you’d like to see?





JO: I think 2018, I really want their to be a better effort maybe out of the community, definitely out of tournament organizers, to have more fun storytelling content built. I think we’re very good at running tournaments. For the most part, tournaments are very similar. And they’re well-run, and it’s great. One thing we need to develop is content that drives the narratives forward. Stuff you do out of a broadcast. You go behind the scenes and really get to know the stories and these players really well.





Maybe that’s a 5-6 minute video. It can be a lot of things. But I think we can do a better job of building storylines people can follow and use to get involved in the game. Janko (“YNK” Paunovic, fellow caster) has become entranced by the NFL this year, and it’s because he loves watching the NFL Films docs and stuff like that where he really gets to learn why he should care about these teams and players. That’s something we can do better in esports.

​​Photo courtesy of Turner Sports/ELEAGUE