n0thing: CS:GO in einem Jahr so populär wie Dota

n0thing: CS:GO as popular as Dota in a year

Cloud 9 was Bootcamping in Berlin until Wednesday to prepare for the ESL One Cologne. readmore.de took the opportunity to talk to Team Captain Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert about their current preperation, the recent move to Cloud 9 and the future of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

readmore.de: You changed your organization recently. What is the major difference between Cloud 9 and compLexity?

Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert: Well, we changed to Cloud 9 because they were able to offer more financial support for events and salary. So I guess this is really the main difference.

As far as I know you weren’t paid a salary at coL. Now you’re getting paid and you’re able to attend more events – Can you tell me how many events you plan to attend in the future?

Every major event that is worth it for the organization. Something small like Dreamhack Valencia we’re most likely not going to but all the majors and the domestic american tournaments for sure.

Have you negotiated the sticker money split in your new contract with C9?

Yeah, I mean I can’t give out too much information but we have a way of sharing money.

With the rapid growth of CS:GO, do you think teams should be more careful when signing contracts in the future?

You mean the sticker stuff? Yeah, I think any way you can bring in money for your sponsors is worth it and you should consider that.



On the subject of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s rapid growth, are you surprised by the current boom of CS:GO?

Yes and no. Yes because you don’t really know when this will happen. And no because Counter-Strike has been around for so long, I think it is more about the skins and the betting and all the excitement around which is really helping to grow. I hope this continues.

Do you like the way Valve is going with CS:GO in terms of crowd funding the tournaments?

I think Valve could be a little bit more generous with Counter-Strike. Now that they see it has potential, I would like to see them supporting Counter-Strike as much as they support Dota 2.

If you could ask Valve for one favor, would this be „more support for Counter-Strike“?

Yes, just more efficiency. With the 250.000 US-Dollar event coming up in Cologne, if they could have told us about this at the beginning of the year, sponsors and teams could have planned for that. So more effort for the schedule of CS:GO events.

So you would also support something like an International for CS:GO?

Yeah, but I don’t think that would work as well for Counter-Strike, I think they should divide the prizepool. So instead of one five million dollar tournament, five one million dollar tournaments which would have much more impact.

Where do you see Counter-Strike in one or two years?

I see CS:GO as big as Dota 2 in one year in terms of popularity but maybe not the player base.

How was your travel to Germany?

Well, for most people it has been pretty good. I have been already here before but this time unfortunately, I had a delay in America since they lost my bags but otherwise it was pretty easy.

How did you prepare for ESL One Cologne so far?

Well we booked our bootcamp last minute since we just joined Cloud 9 and we weren’t able to get the best gear. So we have 60 Hz monitors for most parts and low fps computers but our host, did a very good job accommodating us at the very last minute.

Do you feel adequately prepared?

Uhm, not as prepared as we would like to be, but it seems that we have a lot of skill and I think a lot of people underestimate how much skill we have. So we are not scared that we are underprepared, we are more scared that we are not being focused enough on a map like cobblestone or something that surprises us.



Now that you’ve had a chance to practice the new maps, what do you think about them?

I don’t really like overpass too much, the fact that the bombspots are so close to each other kind of bothers me. Cobblestone is alright but I don’t like this hole drop over on the b bomb side, I think this is kind of stupid. I prefer more maps like forge from the 1.6. I don’t think this was smart from Valve to throw them right into a major, they should have just pressure tested it on a an event like Gfinity for example.

What do you think about the new map veto system?

Well, I still don’t fully understand it, I talked about it with my team mates. I think with so many maps, it is kind of necessary but for Bo1 the randomizer is kind of confusing so I’m still not sure what to think about this.

You’ve been placed in group D together with Titan, Vox Eminor and Team Dignitas. What do you think about this „group of death“?

Yeah, Titan is obviously an excellent team. They worked really hard lately to improve since they lost shox, and dignitas played very well at the G3 in London. So they have a lot of confidence in their play. They are going to be executing with tons of distinction, so we have to make sure to not let that happen to us and play our own style.

Who will win the ESL One Cologne?

I think the best bet I have in my mind, which is also a little bit biased, is Virtus.pro, us or NiP.

If you win, what will you do with the money?

Well, I’ll put the money on my bank account and I’m going to flashbang-dance on stage.

Thank you for your time and good luck. The last words are yours.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting Team Cloud 9!

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