Titan: "We can be better with Kenny"

Unlike other teams we spoke to prior to DreamHack, Titan wanted to answer the interview as a team with each player taking one question, and their manager Jerome "NiaK" Sudries.

Continue reading to find out what the French-Belgians expect from their LAN debut with Schrub, what they lost in Papillon, and whether they think the break from tournaments helped teams or not.

How have you prepared for DreamHack Summer; do you feel ready for the event? Have you only practiced online or also bootcamped? How do you plan on spending the remaining time before the event kicks off?

Ex6TenZ: During the past 4 weeks, some of us have worked at the training house in Brussels while others played from home. This flexibility in setup came from the fact that I had an exam period and therefore we had less playing time than usual.

I don’t feel we’re completely ready, as we didn’t have time to work on strategies as much as needed to really stay on top. However, in some ways not being able to over think things might be beneficial too, since it’s the very basics of the game that loses us most of the key rounds: rounds against eco, developing stable map control, keeping cool and being able to rely on our communications.

Do you believe the lengthy break from LAN competition since Copenhagen Games will affect the results at DreamHack in any way, or does constantly playing official matches online make up for it? Are you afraid of giving up your game plan too much online?

NBK: I think taking a break from offline events, after having played several major ones in a row, will benefit all the teams. Players need time to improve their game style, and this is the perfect opportunity to prepare for DreamHack Summer. Teams will come in with a good mindset and the results will show the actual level of the participating teams.

Playing official games and public matches online can be bad for you if you’re trying to hide a brand new play style. On the other hand, it can put you in a situation of pressure which will help you improve if you need to practice as a team. As we had to switch a player some weeks ago, I believe that playing online has only been beneficial for us.

Who do you think will be your toughest opponents at DreamHack? Any potential dark horses who have seemed particularly strong lately that you think might surpass everyone’s expectations in Jönköping? Anyone who might disappoint?

SmithZz: To be honest all of the teams are pretty tough, and recently we haven't played our best against any of them. At this event we have to prove ourselves. It's kind of the comeback event, and it will kick off straight away if we face HellRaisers in the group stage, since they knocked us out at EMS Katowice.

What do you make of your chances at DreamHack? What would be a realistic goal for your team, and what would you be ok settling at? Is there any extra pressure for you to perform well at this particular event?

kennyS: We have changed up a lot since I joined the team; I took up all sniper positions which resulted in many consequent team position changes and a change in how we play certain map spots. We still have work to do before we’re playing 100% to our abilities.

Because of the recent changes we don’t expect to be the favourites, I even consider us the underdogs. To be honest, even placing in the top 2/3 would be a really good performance, and for this to happen we’ll need to start off the matches much better than what we’ve been able to do recently, as well as limit the big mistakes like losing rounds 5v4, 5v3 etc.

Player	Age	Rating
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub	19	1.19
Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom	19	1.14
Nathan "NBK" Schmitt	20	1.11
Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux	25	1.05
Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans	24	0.95

How is kennyS fitting in the team the second time around? Has he matured or become a better communicator? How would you compare him to shox, who was widely considered a top three player in the world?

NiaK: Integrating Kenny is going well; we chose to take an unrestrictive approach, leaving it up to him to choose his positions and how he wanted to play. The goal was to test the limits of a more aggressive play style and base it around him, as has been the case in his previous teams.

From there, we made adjustments to build a more thorough and rational game play system which involved the whole team. All this has taken time and we are still in the phase of research and creation.

Beyond his individual qualities, I would say that the main advantage of shox was his ability to bring calmness to the team mid round, he was gifted at improvisation and clutching. The individual skill of Kenny offers us new opportunities as CT trough more aggressive tactics, and as T by creating round openings. But as we have seen in recent days, the locking down of rounds lack a bit of cool headedness and sometimes creativity, which is something we must all work together on.

To answer your question fully, it is clear that Kenny has evolved; he has more confidence in himself and is able to provide new solutions based off of his AWP play. To become fully well-rounded though, he must improve on working as part of a collective.

How has the gaming house worked for your team in your opinion? Why do you think it’s beneficial in the long term to live together practically all year round, instead of simply gather together right before tournaments, NiP-style?

NiaK: Having the opportunity to work closely together is a real advantage in a lot of aspects: it allows us to be 100% focused, promotes group work and in general creates more of a team dynamic around the game.

However, the training house is just another tool; you need to know how to use it for it to actually be beneficial. One must not fall into the trap of thinking: gaming house = domination. This is something we learned during the first few weeks in the house, thinking that the gaming house would fix everything became additional pressures which misled us to do too much all at once.

If I were to give you one likely reason why NiP and others returned to a more conventional model of training, it would be the lack of perspective that comes from living and working so closely together in a gaming house. It’s something one must be aware of and adapt to when scheduling, which is what we have done recently, working with more flexibility and diversity.

At present, although we are working hard, I know we’re not exploiting or misusing the possibilities this tool affords us, and I would never go back to working apart - the future of high-level gaming lies in training together, all in one place.

There's been some doubt among the community after your recent online losses that you may no longer be title contenders after shox's departure, as all of your titles came with him on the team. What's your take on that?

ScreaM: We just recently started playing with Kenny, there is still a lot of work to be done and errors to correct. When it all starts to come together we will be able to show much better results.

Kenny has assets which shox didn’t have, and shox brought things to the group which Kenny doesn’t. However, by taking the time to work everything out together, as a team I think we can be better with Kenny.

By the way, I thank all the people who support us despite some disappointing results, this is a big motivator! Thank you.

DreamHack Summer 2014 won't begin for Titan until Sunday, as they've been placed in group C together with HellRaisers, Reason and a team coming in from the on-site BYOC qualifier.