CEVO Articles

Sam Oplaid Lingle recently had a chance to catch up with the GM for the Dallas Venom, Alex Conroy.  He was able to ask several question following up on the recent CEVO championship that the Venom won.

Congratulations on your victory - how does it feel to be CEVO Champions?

It feels great to have defended our championship and once again come out on top. CEVO is not just a small flash in the pan tournament, both in its length or in it its scale, so for the guys to have something to show for their months of work is great.

You guys faced a familiar face in Carolina Core in the finals after taking them out earlier in the winner bracket. They managed to take the first map from you before you shut them down. Did they give you a little scare there? What did it take to come back after losing the first map to finish them off?

I can’t say whether or not it “scared” the guys, although judging from the final result I’d say it did not. I think dropping the first map gave the team the kick in the pants they needed to focus and take the other two.

You guys took the CEVO win hot off your CGS Individual World Final victory - do you feel like you’ve earned the right to call yourselves the best CS:S team in the world?

I can honestly say, from an outside perspective, my guys are playing like the best CS team in the world right now. They finished CGS #1 on LAN, both in the US and the world, then came home to defend their CEVO championship against the best North America has to offer outside of CGS. So yes, at this current moment in time, I’d say my guys are on top!

Despite your victories, things have to be a bit bittersweet - your team lost your only match in the World Final, and a CS:S victory would have meant Venom advanced. How did it feel to lose that one important match while having success in so many other cases, and how did you recover mentally to continue strong play in things like CEVO?

I’m the first one to call a spade a spade. My guys dropped the ball, and lost the San Fransisco match for us. Whether they were over confident or rushing the match to try and get the W, they played worse then I’ve ever seen them play. With that said, in their entire time together as a team, they have had one bad half of Counter-Strike. It happened at an inopportune moment, but it only happened once. Their worst loss all season was 11-7, I’ll take it. While I am sure they did not simply get over the loss, they knew it was time to refocus when CEVO playoffs came around.

What’s the toughest thing you guys have had to overcome this season in order to have the successes you’ve had?

I think the toughest thing the team had to deal with was having to refocus on cevo during CGS. The internet at the apartments was good, but when all five players were playing online matches, the conditions were less than satisfactory. We knew we would have to deal with this going into the season, so the team put in the maximum effort before leaving for LA in order to make our entrance to the playoffs as easy as possible. Also the map rotation differed from our CGS rotation. Going into maps cold, while our opponents had time to practice them, definitely hurt our cevo play. The slump in the middle of our season was a direct result of the aforementioned setbacks, however when playoffs came and the guys were back home, they showed up.

You guys were one of only two CGS teams to compete in CEVOp this season. How much do you think the extra competition in CEVO helps your performance for things like CGS? Why did you decide to continue CEVO competition, considering you had the CGS season to contend with?

Charlie Plitt has built something in Cevo that I really admire. Not competing, especially when we had a championship to defend, didn’t even cross our minds. We felt an obligation to our fans, and as the returning champions, to play under whatever conditions we could and at least make a go at the repeat. Of course cevo was great practice for us. Playing against other strong North American teams in a match environment helped the new squad come together and deliver this season, both online and offline.

How would you compare the top non-CGS competition in CEVO, teams like Zomberlz, Devastation, the Knicks, and others to what you faced regularly in the CGS?

You’d have to ask the team that one. They are strong teams, but in my opinion, not on the level of the CGS squads. This is why we saw Carolina vs Dallas in the Finals. With that said, I think all of those teams have some very strong individual talent that we will see wearing CGS jerseys next season.

Do you feel the CGS experience has given you an advantage over players who have not played in that kind of professional environment?

Having an entire summer to practice and play on LAN together definitely made the team more cohesive and prepared than some of our competitors. The CGS practice environment allowed the new lineup to come together much quicker than online practice would have.

Do you consider this year overall has been a success for you guys as a CS:S team?

Absolutely, they went from a team that was last place in last years cgs, to the individual world champions. The transformation has been great to watch and the guys have worked extremely hard (as well as put up with me hounding them!) to make sure they are the best. I am very proud of them.

Now that you are CEVO Champions and the CGS is over, what’s next for Venom CS:S?

The guys will be competing in the CGS Pro-Am tournament as well as any other tournaments that come up between now and the draft. Getting to the top was hard work, but staying there is even harder, so this is not a time for the team to rest on their laurels!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Coverage Central. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.