CEVO Articles

Recently CEVO had a chance to ask Nick Fitzsimmons from x3o several questions regarding their Counter-Strike 1.6 team.  Below are the results of those questions.

Most recently your team competed at the ESWC Grand Finals and were one of two American teams to make it into Group Stage 2, finishing above MoB Gaming. What are your thoughts on the event?

I think ESWC 2008 Grand Finals as a whole was a great event. The venue was set up well with plenty of space for all of the teams, and the PCs ran Counter-Strike flawlessly. The staff and tournament admins were knowledgeable and stood by their rules, which is important in an event of that magnitude. We are proud of our performance and only wish that we had the opportunity to have advanced beyond Group Stage 2.
What does this mean to the team to be the American team who placed highest? What do you think this says about the American 1.6 scene?

I think that it means a lot, however we definitely keep things in perspective. Though we outperformed our fellow Americans EG.usa and MoB Gaming at this event, I have yet to see the consistency of performance over them to say that we should be considered without question the best team in North America. The American CS 1.6 scene still needs more time to grow back to where it has been in the past, however hopefully with continued events like the Dust-Off® Championships, WCG and ESL we will see it fill out by the end of this year.

Do you believe the U.S. 1.6 scene is falling behind the European scene? If so, what do you believe are the main reasons this is happening?

I’m not sure if we were ever on the same par as the European scene, however we have definitely taken a step back since the DirecTV CGS was announced and the North American community split to play both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike Source. I think there are several key factors that played into this. With almost all of the top teams in North America transitioning into the CGS, a lot of funding and stability left with them. Other then sponsorships that were previously formed major companies like nVidia, PNY, Shuttle, and more have not returned to support new teams. Without support from sponsors, it is very difficult to have the opportunity to travel and compete against European teams.

Professional gamers are not born great; they train for it. When you can play the top teams in the world on a weekly basis, you are bound to improve beyond teams that do not. Hopefully as the North American CS 1.6 community continues to re-grow, we will see more sponsors get involved, and more events come to U.S. soil, which will continue to attract the Europeans here.

X3O recently took first place at the Dust-Off® Championships Final. Tell us a little bit about this experience and what it means to win the tournament.

Winning the 2008 Dust-Off® Championships Final was a great success. All of the top teams from North America including EG.usa, MoB Gaming, 50 CAL, PoV, Frag Dominant and more came out for what has been the largest national event of the year. It was also the first time that X3O, MoB, and EG.usa have ever competed in the same event with their current rosters, and the first time in 2008 that X3O beat EG.usa on LAN. While this is a big win, we will be looking for consistency in our performance at WCG USA Finals and ESL Continental Finals later this year.

In future LAN tournaments, what do you feel the American scene must work on the most to go up against the European powerhouses?

As I mentioned before, the biggest help will be to play them as often as possible. There is only so much good we can get from playing North American teams again and again, especially when we win most of ours scrims online. If you can’t play against the Europeans, the best advice I can give is to watch demos. Watch them individually and as a team. This will not only help you learn new tactics and positions for you to play in, but get a better feel for how to adapt when playing against them.

Switching gears to CEVO 1.6 Season 8, at the time of interview, X3O sits currently on top with a 15-4 record. Do you feel that you are currently the best American 1.6 team?

I personally feel that we are the best team in North America, and one of the best teams in the world; however like I said previously, we have yet to prove that. We are definitely going to be looking forward to fighting for this season’s championship title, which will make X3O the first team to not only win three CEVO titles, but the first to win them in back to back seasons.

What have been some of the harder matches so far this season? Who are you looking out for the most among the competition?

I think that our biggest consistent competitors online are the same as one LAN. We’ve beaten and lost to both MoB Gaming and EG.usa once this season, and I think that those matches will continue to be close. It can be tough to predict out comes for teams like Ferocity that have never really attended a LAN, however in general I think we’ve gotten back into a solid momentum and are looking forward to finishing the season strong.

In the sixth round of CEVO Season 8 X3O played against LA compLexity, a team who recently returned to the 1.6 scene. What are your thoughts on the team? Should they of stayed in the Source scene or are they welcomed by X3O back into the 1.6 community?

I think complexity is comprised of some of the most talented players in the game, however will continue to have a hard time balancing both titles. Even though Jake and the team have come out saying that this is more for fun than anything else, it is hard for the community to see one of the most popular teams to ever come from the U.S. lose so often. X3O of course welcomes all teams to the community, however if they don’t completely move to CS 1.6, their results will continue to be the same. What people need to remember is that CSS is still their main focus, and that they are playing CS 1.6 for the fun of the game.

Team EG recently acquired Fadil ‘Nepo’ Canovic for Scott ‘evolution’ Cavallero. What do you think about this roster change? Do you feel the team is stronger or weaker with Canovic?

A lot of people have asked me this, and I still stand by my opinion. Fadil is a respectful and honest person, and a great player. His strengths are solid and consistent aim, and the confidence to take control of difficult situations in game. While these are great attributes, he still lacks the experience needed to play on an international team. I think that recruiting Fadil prior to the 2008 Dust-Off® Championships Final and ESWC 2008 Grand Finals definitely hurt EG’s performance - however will pay off in the end. Once Fadil has played with the team for a couple of months including WCG USA Finals and ESL events, he will gain the experience needed to grow into one of the best players in the U.S. I see this player acquisition as an investment in EG’s future, and will be looking out for a stronger team in 2009.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.