CEVO Articles

Currently EG.usa is 7-3 in CEVO Counter-Strike 1.6 Season 9. Are you happy with this? How do you think your team will do in the rest of the season?

I’m satisfied with it.  I think that our 3^rd loss (to MoB on de_forge) is the only one that realistically should’ve happened.  Our overtime loss to devastation was a bit of a shocker to me, and our loss to Ferocity was played (valiantly, mind you) with four people.  MoB’s a great team, so as a manager you can’t really be upset with your team for a 4-point loss.  The other two I wasn’t thrilled with.

The teams first loss came against Devastation in a close 15-16 match. What went wrong and how come you guys weren’t able to seal the deal?

You know, I’m really not sure what happened there.  I was listening on Ventrilo for that particular match, and it seemed like we just got into a mental rut.  That’s been this team’s biggest challenge thus far – mental endurance – and that’s what I attribute the Devastation loss to.  We had a number of opportunities to take control of that match, and we just didn’t.

EG.usa was one of the first true tests for compLexity LA in CEVO 1.6. What are your thoughts on compLexity returning to the 1.6 scene?

I’m grateful for it.  I’m thrilled that they came back.  They’re going to be a major force by the end of the season going into WCG USA, and I applaud Jake for bringing them back into the thick of things.

Your recent addition of Fadil ‘Nepo’ Canovic for Scott ‘evolution’ Cavallero caused quite the discussion. Many claim Cavallero to be one of the best North American players. What are your thoughts on this and why the roster change mid season?

It’s funny – competitive Counter-Strike has been around for nearly ten years, and people still don’t seem to get that top fraggers are allowed to be top fraggers by their team’s intent and teamwork setup.  So, just because we lost a “big numbers” guy and replaced him with a team-player, and not a huge fragger, people assume that we’ve decreased in quality as a team.  In reality, we have two other guys in chE and NineSpot who can step in the “big numbers” role along with n0thing.  You can’t have five guys simultaneously putting up huge FPR’s; it’s logistically impossible in this game.  Nepo’s great because he understands that he’s not coming in to tear up the scoreboard every single half (although you’ll see him up there from time to time).  He, self-admittedly, is the kind of guy who makes other players better; this will allow them to share the spotlight on the scoreboard in Scott’s place.

Most recently your team suffered a loss against the number one team MoB.Gaming in CEVO. What makes this MoB team so good in your eyes? How can you guys overcome them in future games both on LAN and online?

Well, first, I want to address this notion that’s for whatever reason spread through the NA community since x3o qualifier #4; that we’ve fallen from grace.  I just don’t agree with it, and I won’t support it.  I don’t know why we’ve dropped so much in people’s eyes, but prior to that tournament we hadn’t lost an American LAN in over a year; that’s a hell of a thing, and one dust2 loss to MoB doesn’t change that.

Regarding the match on forge, I’m not particularly concerned about it.  We’re not going to blow them out every time, and we’re not going to beat them every time.  As far as I’m concerned, the dust2 and forge matches both could’ve gone either way, and I trust my team to win when it really matters.

Many critics would be quick to point out the aforementioned roster change might of caused the loss. What are your thoughts on this? Did it play a roll in the loss at all?

I think that people would be accurate in pointing that out, but not for the reasons that they’re probably thinking.  With our playstyle, any time there’s a roster change we’ll need a month to get fully acclimated.  We don’t just stick players in a site and say “do this”; there are dozens and dozens of situational strategies that Nepo will have to learn, and that’s just going to take time.  I think it’ll be quicker than usual because Nepo has such a similar playstyle to us, but it’ll still take time.

EG placed a 5-6^th spot at GameGune earlier this year suffering a loss against Amazing Gaming in the Quarter Finals and being eliminated by mousesports in the Lower Semi-Finals. Talk to us a little bit about the two losses and how your team plans on improving at future LAN events.

The Mouz loss was really tough, because we had that match.  We couldn’t hold inner on CT in the second half, and it just destroyed our money.  Every round they won would reward them with at least one or two bonus ECO’s, and we were just playing uphill the entire time.  So, it was very tough.  I think as far as improvement, right now we’re working on fitting Nepo into the lineup, and the other big thing to focus on will be our mental endurance.

Only two USA teams played at GameGune, the other being x3o who placed 4^th. What are your thoughts about the current USA 1.6 scene?

I think it’s much stronger than people give it credit for, and I think that we’ll all show it on our home turf in San Jose at ESWC.

EG.usa was recently invited to play in the ESWC Grand finals in San Jose later this month. Your team failed to qualify because they attended the KODE5 Final while the ESWC U.S. Qualifiers were happening. How do you feel the team will preform? At the ESWC Masters event, the team failed to make it past group play. What do they plan to do differently this time around?

We obviously have a variety of different things going on for ESWC in San Jose compared to Masters; we have a different lineup, we have more experience, and I think we’re more mentally disciplined.  I think that San Jose will be Nepo’s first true test.  The x3o finals are a very important tournament, and we’re in it to win it, but I don’t think the pressure will be quite the same for him as it will be in San Jose at his first international Major.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 4:44 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.