SmithZz: "We have progressed"

Prior to VeryGames' first match at Mad Catz Birmingham, we got hold of Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux and asked him about the team's preparation for the British event.

The French team travel to Birmingham with hope, rather than expectation, after their last two events ended in disappointment as they finished third at Mad Catz Vienna before placing fourth at Copenhagen Games - their worst campaigns since switching to CS:GO.

All that came on the back of VeryGames adding Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, a move  that many had thought that would finally power the team to outshine Ninjas in Pyjamas, who, however, remain undefeated.

While Verygames' biggest threats to the Mad Catz title, Western Wolves and fnatic, are placed in the other group, the French side will have to work hard to finish at the top of Group A as they will have to tackle Anexis, k1ck, CRG and Infused.

In this interview, Dubourdeaux talks about VeryGames' recent run and the team's expectations and preparations for the British tournament, which will kick off on Friday at 11:00 .

You finished third at Mad Catz then fourth at Copenhagen Games. Were those two bitter pills to swallow?

No, it is okay, we always learn new things that will be valuable in the future... The teams who beat us deserved to win and played really good games. We will learn from our mistakes to come back even stronger. Losing was a bad thing, but it in the end we will be taking positives from that.

How was the team’s atmosphere after the defeat to Western Wolves? What went wrong in that game?

We were really disappointed with the way we went out of the tournament. We have not been able to find a solution against some teams, to adapt to their game. But we have to keep in mind that Western Wolves are a good team and that their gameplay perfectly fits against ours. Congratulations to them!

I think that, unlike other teams, we stay calm after losing. We want to do something with this team and I hope our work will pay off.

Since Copenhagen Games, have you spent any time practicing for this tournament? Have you looked into the team has to improve?

We all met on Monday to discuss what happened at Copenhagen Games and to continue to practice. We played the group stage matches of Raidcall EMS One on Wednesday and we left today for Birmingham, leaving us only two days to fix some mistakes. In the end this is not much time at all and we need to take the right decisions this weekend to take our revenge.

With teams like NiP and Virtus.Pro not attending Mad Catz Birmingham, do you see this is a must win?

Like with all every other event we attend, we will go there to win. I really want to play against fnatic in a best-of-three game and to take revenge against Western Wolves… This won’t be easy, we will need to be at our best to win.

Lately, it seems that some of your tactics just seem not to work. Should the team put more focus on improving that aspect of your game?

We still need to make a few adjustments. Our gamestyle is not universal at the moment, we need to work on that and find some finishing elements. I think our big weakness is at the beginning of the sides, this will be the next big points we will be working on.

At Copenhagen Games, NBK had a 1.05 rating, much lower than that of kennyS, ScreaM and yourself. Was there any particular reason for this, or just a bad tournament on his part?

Since Vienna, he has played less individually, which could be a reason for this «worse» performances. Personally, I don’t think that he was not good. Nathan has had an important role in our victories and it wasn’t his fault that we lost, so I would say everything is good.

You, on the other hand, were VeryGames’ best player, with a sensational 1.28 rating, which was by far your best performance since switching to CS:GO. Were you happy with the way you played?

It is true that I have been feeling better for some time now, but we still do not win. I will be really happy the day we get back to winning.

What is your opinion about the teams you will face in the group stage in Birmingham?

We will pay attention to all teams in our group and will take only one match at a time. I think that k1ck can perform really well, and so can Anexis, of course.

Many thought that after adding ScreaM you would finally be able to surpass NiP, but that has not been the case yet. Did you expect this?

I would say we have progressed, regardless of the fact that NiP are still above everyone else. However, in the last few weeks the gap between the different top teams has started to close.Adil has integrated into the team very well and he will get stronger and stronger by playing with us.

Many people have said that the fact that ScreaM has been playing a different ingame role in VeryGames compared to the one he used to play in Imaginary Gaming is because he has been forced to change from his old MS 3.0 to Razer’s DeathAdder. Has that played a role? Do you think that he is now comfortable with his new mouse?

This is wrong, he has the same position as he had in imG and he has played the same positions since he joined the team. Surely he needed some time to adapt to his new mouse but the DeathAdder 2013 is a very good mouse, so he has adapted to it very easily. Seeing the fact that his headshot rate is not going lower than 80% I would say everything is going well!

Compared to your first CS:GO tournaments, VeryGames’ players seem to be using the AWP less and less (at DH Valencia, for example, there were times where you had three players using this weapon at the same time) and even kennyS has not been using the AWP that much. What has caused this change in strategy?

It is true that we play with one AWP most of the time. This change is probably due to the importance of aggressive play, unlike what happened in CS:Source or 1.6, I think.

But we still try to play with 2 or 3 AWPs in certain parts of the game; you can see that by watching yesterday’s match against fnatic.

A lot has been said about Ex6TenZ’s fragging contribution. Do you think that in order to return to the top, it is necessary for him to put up better fragging numbers?

Many things have been said about my skill as well, and now I frag more than I used to, and because of that we can win! I think every one of us is on a good level but we need to find more solutions on our terrorist sides and sometimes have more confidence in ourselves.

Earlier in the month, you surprised everyone when you quit SLTV StarSeries to focus on practicing for the upcoming LAN events. Looking back, has that decision paid off?

We had to play matches in ESL A-Series, the Raidcall EMS One Cups, the fnatic tournament and the end of the regular ESEA season… And all this after the arrival of ScreaM. It was obvious that after Vienna and our unsatisfying performance we had to invest more time into practicing.

We have not completely changed but we have progressed, and this will be more visible in the next few upcoming weeks. I have no doubt about this.

Thank you for this interview. Is there anything that you would like to add?

Thank you for this interview ! I would like to thank VeryGames and Razer, who allow us to attend all these events in the spring and, of course, I would like to thank our supporters, who encourage us during the whole year, no matter if we lose or win. I hope that we won't disappoint you.