[POD]Cast returns with episode #8

26-6-2013 10:42

After a lengthy break since mid-April, the [POD]Cast crew of Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon and Duncan "Thorin" Shields return for more Counter-Strike talk.

This week's episode begins with a conversation about DreamHack Summer, specifically focusing on NiP's struggles that saw Richard "Xizt" Landström bail them out from getting knocked out in the group stage.

They also discuss Epsilon's strong play and what they thought about other teams who made the trip to Jönköping, and sum it all up by talking about the top seven teams in the world as of today.

cArn & co return with another [POD]Cast episode

The trio then talks about this weekend's upcoming RaidCall EMS One tournament and all of the quarter-final pairings, as well as ESL's idea of hiring a separate person to control the cameras on the stream and streaming in general.

Finally to end this week's [POD]Cast all three hosts make their own predictions for RC EMS One and discuss possible roster changes looming in the horizon depending on how the tournament ends.

Next [POD]Cast is expected to air on Tuesday, right in time for the coming weekend's SLTV StarSeries VI finals. [POD]Cast is available on iTunes and through its own RSS feed.

It was good, especially about streamers.

2013-06-26 10:43

the sound quality of lurpis is shit....

2013-06-26 10:55

No subtitle? :(

2013-06-26 11:01

6 replies

if someone wants to make them, i'm sure carn can put them up... but i doubt any of us have time for that, sorry.

2013-06-26 12:49

5 replies

ups, sry read #8 too late..

2013-06-26 14:04

I was just wondering, when you where talking about tactics. Could it be that we still havn't had that "super-brain"? The way I saw strategy in CS 1.6, and correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed like it was very much the same as GO is now in the start, however at around '02 ElemeNt and Xeqtr came around and sort of revolutionized the tactical element (no pun intended), and a lot of the future tacticians kind of build upon this basic ground they made, could it be that we haven't seen this guy/guys yet?

2013-06-26 18:22

3 replies

i'm sure strategies will evolve over time but i don't think that's the issue - we already possess all the knowledge that everything in earlier counter-strike versions was built on, and most of it applies at least indirectly to cs:go. the information is there, people just refuse to use it, for the most part.

2013-06-26 20:20

2 replies

I see, so it's a more a matter of which team will come out and be build around incredible tactical play first, I guess.

2013-06-26 23:17

1 reply

that's how i see it, and both threat and carn have agreed when we've talked about it. i think people have more fun playing more loose, but eventually teams will figure out how to get an edge by being more strict, buying smarter etc.

2013-06-26 23:32

Horrible sound quality, other than that it seems good so far

2013-06-26 11:05

Cool, will have a listen

2013-06-26 11:11

horrible sound quality of lurppis can't listen =/

2013-06-26 11:15

So... another player from CW getting kicked? Interesting.

2013-06-26 11:34

my mic gets fixed a little after we started, i didn't realize at first that skype was using my laptop's mic instead of my headset's

I thought I just got use to it:D

2013-06-26 14:49

Yeah guys, sorry about sound quality, or rather the lack of it. As Lurppis said, it gets improved like 10 minutes in the Podcast so hang on there!

2013-06-26 11:45

4 replies

I think if everyone was as passionate as Taz, the scene would be much more interesting.

2013-06-26 12:15

get subbtitle for tricon

2013-06-26 12:42

will you be at the EMS finals in cologne?

2013-06-26 14:42

No, I won't be there.

2013-06-26 18:55

please let valve watch this .. if u guys cant affect them, nobody can...

2013-06-26 11:59

true

2013-06-26 12:06

2013-06-26 13:46

An interesting watch. I think players should be encouraged to stream more. Imo it'd be great to have more streams to choose from. As said there however are too many negatives to it atm.

2013-06-26 12:24

11 replies

Even when GTR and f0rest streamed dm/mm/pug/gather a few weeks ago they got 2k+ viewers. If they get a decent layout and set up everything profesionally they could easily reach 3-4k, which I believe gets them a decent amount of $$$. Maybe Valve could/should reward the pro's for streaming...

2013-06-26 12:47

10 replies

there is a TON of minor but cool things valve could/should do that'd net them profit... if only

2013-06-26 13:02

9 replies

If only Valve would actually take input from the community :/ Btw, an interesting topic for next weeks podcast might be the NA Revival thingmajiggy.

2013-06-26 13:41

8 replies

i honestly have no idea why that would ever help anyone in any way. lots of fuss for nothing as far as i can tell, why would streaming for 24 hours do something for the community?

2013-06-26 14:07

7 replies

Personally I don't have a clue how/if it'll change anything about the current state of US CS, but nothing bad can come from it right? Perhaps you could discuss the NA Revival subject, after which you move on to 'what WOULD help US CS grow', in which you each bring your own ideas?

2013-06-26 14:27

i don't think anything bad can come out of it, but i also can't imagine how something good could come out of it - therefore to me it's just a waste of time, and we have more important (imo) subjects to talk about on [pod]cast.

2013-06-26 15:04

Yeah I suppose there will be more important things to chat about. Was just making a suggestion anyways. Looking forward to the next [pod]cast!

2013-06-26 17:10

it would be cool to see a current pro-player join in as a guest EG TaZ, GTR etc.

2013-06-26 14:58

we'll try to get some guests in the future, we had some planned in april (and even brought in semphis) but scheduling conflicts messed it all up -- we'll be sure to bring guests on soon in the future though.

2013-06-26 15:05

get some1 from valve

2013-06-26 16:48

+1 I wish

2013-06-26 17:56

Really good podcast!

2013-06-26 12:32

You should get better microphones after all .... even that headset doesn't sound well

0:08:22 lurppis' face :D gyazo.com/7f8ab40904d5203c91e6b0fef0f15d..

2013-06-26 13:05

Really nice job guys! Would be a nice thing to add the topic discussion times. eg. 00:00 - 14:34 Dreamhack 14:34 - 26:32 Stream

2013-06-26 13:14

2013-06-26 13:42

Great podcast!

2013-06-26 13:50

At 53 you can see how lurppis says that CS:GO isn't popular enough and then suddenly: Technical issue. Valve-mafia strikes again! jk :D Good show. I wished you would have explained how Virtus.pro managed to "fuck up their lineup" respectively loss some strength by picking up a player many people call "the best AWP player in CS:GO". Also I'm a bit disappointed you didn't talk about the situation in fnatic. I mean you had their manager on the show...

2013-06-26 14:00

we could talk about that next week if they still struggle at ems but basically it boils down to this: they were sort of like a well oiled machine with adren; everyone knew what to do in all maps, their roles were clear, they had stuck to the same lineup for a long time (i want to say since nov but can't recall for sure) and they were simply a good team overall. now they have a player who doesn't speak/understand(?) russian perfectly, which is causing issues. those issues will get smaller and smaller over time, but guardian just joined and even if he spoke russian they still wouldn't have had enough time to sort everything out, as he is a completely different type of a player than adren (awper vs rifle, for example). that means they will have to change their playing style, change lots of spots both as a ct and in terrorist side strats, etc, and it's a long process -- remember that virtus didn't break out as a super good team till early april; months after their lineup was formed. it's been what, a month since guardian joined? their potential ceiling as a team is now higher because you can't argue that guardian can potentially help virtus more than adren, but it will take some time to get there. if they keep this lineup and continue practicing and guardian wants to learn russian, they will wind up better over a longer period of time. to sum it up, adren is too different as a player in comparison to guardian for the transition to be quick and painless. edit: there isn't much to be said about fnatic (and understandably[?] carn won't say too much about his own team despite his knowledge) as they simply aren't a very good team right now. no point talking about them for a long time.

2013-06-26 14:20

Thanks for the answer. To be honest: I'm not sure if they will become stronger than they were with AdreN. IMO people underestimate the value of AdreN. He was an extremely agile player who constantly switched position and was really hard to predict. as CT he did a great job in reading the opponents mind and as a T he often made the important entry-frags. he was a very strong rifle-player (like angel and almost like dosia) and very crucial for the team-play. there's a reason why this guy managed to deliver surprising results with just 4 mediocre players from Kazakhstan. on the other side I watch GuardiaN who does an awesome job with the AWP (he often makes an early frag with the AWP what definitely helps his team), but plays more stationary than AdreN (he's often too late for the retakes, maybe a result of the different languages) and with the rifles he often fails. He really NEEDS an AWP to show his value. IMO in CS:GO you don't necessarily need an outstanding AWP-player (who needs a lot of money), and Virtus.pro already had a (or even two) player with good AWP-skills (Fox; maybe he wasn't as good as GuardiaN but it was enough and he's also a good rifle-player). just my opnion. future will tell if the new Virtus.pro is even stronger than the old.

2013-06-26 14:32

4 mediocre players? are you serious? dosia was a top5 player in the world in 1.6 and he's headed there in cs:go. fox is very underrated, and ange1 is one of the top three in-game leaders (both in leadership AND fragging) in the game. kucher hasn't been that great yet in cs:go (though to be fair he was always an awper in 1.6, and he doesn't get to do that in go), but his teammates are anything but mediocre.

uhm, you misunderstood me. I was talking about the k23 lineups (and not the Virtus.pro lineup) ;) okay "mediocre" is still a bit harsh, but let's say "not on the level of other top-players".

2013-06-26 14:36

oh, in that case i agree -- although imo it's important to note that k23 was never a legitimate top team, and adren hasn't been as good at cs:go as he was at 1.6 (imo).

2013-06-26 15:00

He meant the Kazakhs but I see you see now

2013-06-26 15:19

good watch.

2013-06-26 13:54

good stuff

2013-06-26 14:10

What I did miss in the whole discussion is the lack of professional mentality within the teams when it comes to starting times. I come from the SC:2 scene and now focussing a few months on CS:GO to pick it up (never played / watched CS 1.6 or CSS) but my biggest problem is that teams DON"T start in team. How can I take the scene serious when they are supposed to start at 9 o'clock and I am planning my whole evening to make sure I am there in time and when I logg in at 9 o'clock there is nothing......i have to watch for 20 or more minutes to a screen where people maybe come in and before they really start it could be delayed for more than 30 minutes.... And the most stupid thing is that the people who cast then say; "Yeah, I know there is delay but you know guys, this is CS and that happens often" At that point I am really pissed, why is it normal in the CS scene that there is delay? Why can't everyone not logg in at time and make sure they are ready in time instead of fixing everything when they are supposed to be ready. Maybe it's normal in the CS scene but it should improve because otherwise it will push people like me away who just want to watch some games but don't have the spare time to wait whole evenings for games to start... CS scene should grow up on this point imo!

2013-06-26 14:59

i fully agree - i was talking to lpkane about this all the way back in esea invite season 5 finals and i told him that instead of the current system where team's can wait until 15 minutes past start time (e.g. 20:15CET, if the match is scheduled for 20CET) to get started and can't be forfeited until 20 minutes past doesn't work. i suggested he change it so that you're supposed to join prior to 20CET, and you can report a forfeit win at 20:05 - just five minutes past the starting time. obviously it would result in some forfeit wins early on, but ultimately everyone would adjust and we'd all be better off that way. i do have one point to make though - SC2 is one-on-one, so all it takes is one responsible individual to start on time. in CS you might have 4 responsible players, but just one lazy player can delay a match.

2013-06-26 15:03

i agree with your suggestion. it seems better in every way than the current 'rules', so why didnt they do that? i guess it would have an impact on LAN delays caused by players too

2013-06-26 15:24

it probably wouldn't change anything for lan yet, but you have to start somewhere :)

2013-06-26 15:29

I feel for you on this issue...don't give up on us yet!

2013-06-26 15:22

lurppis come to quakecon this year so i can beat your face in!!

2013-06-26 19:36

yes, let me just fly halfway across the world to visit an event i have no interest in being at. you're welcome to do that at esea though, assuming i'll be there.

2013-06-26 23:33