SPUNJ: "Not just there to fill the #s"

Vox Eminor first surfaced last fall at MSI Beat It Finals, where they placed 4th after losses to VeryGames, fnatic and SK, and wins over some of their Asian competition.

They were knocked out by Xapso in the quarter-finals of DreamHack Winter's on-site BYOC qualifier, and had to watch the game's first major take place as spectators.

Vox were then invited to EMS One Katowice, but suffered a narrow 13-16 loss to LDLC on de_inferno, and were then knocked out in the group stage by Danish 3DMAX.

Now the Australians are back, having won the Oceanian ESL One qualifier over Immunity, and face another tough task of trying to advance from groups in Cologne.

How have you prepared for ESL One Cologne so far? Do you have a bootcamp planned for the final days leading up to the event? Do you feel adequately prepared?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: Our preparation has been quite minimal in the lead up to ESL One. The short period of time between when we qualified and now didn't leave us with much time to put in a bootcamp. We are aiming to put a few solid days in at our hotel but we will have to split the time with our battlefield 4 team due to limited resources. I think we are as prepared as we can possibly be considering the time constraints that we have had to overcome, whether or not that translates to us taking home the W on game day will be a different story.

At ESL One you’ve been placed in group D together with Dignitas, Cloud9 and Titan. Can you go through each team one at a time, and tell us what you think about them, and your chances against them?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: All of the teams in our group are the best in their respective Countries. They are all teams who will be well prepared and have the potential and drive to make the top 4. None of the matches will be easy so we know we must give 200%. I feel we have the element of surprise verse all the teams in our group so I think we have an equal chance against all of them.

What are your expectations going into the event? I realize everyone will say they are in it to win it regardless of stature, but would you be happy with a quarter-finals exit? Top four?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: Showing the world we aren't just there to fill the numbers is our number one goal. We have been at the top in our region since the beginning of CSGO and its time for us to break through to the next level. Expecting to make the quarter finals is a bit overzealous considering our group but to be honest I think we can do it.

Do you have a clause in your contracts regarding the sticker money that will be coming in from ESL One? Is that something you had added later on specifically with Cologne in mind, or did it exist in the first place?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: I'm not sure if our organizations finances is something that should be publicly discussed but without going into too much detail we put most, if not all of our income from prize money, sponsors and now sticker money into funding our trips overseas. If we continue down this path and the organisation continues to grow it may be something discussed regarding our contracts, but for now we are grateful for the opportunity to attend international events.

It’s now been weeks since ESL announced the new map pool, featuring de_cobblestone and de_overpass. Now that you’ve had a chance to practice them, what do you think about them? What do you think about the new map veto system? Do you think these changes will work for or against you?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: To be honest, I think the new maps and the new veto system with the best of 1 group format sucks. I personally think it’s making an already brutal group stage a lot more brutal.. and much more random. The maps are terrible, there is too much going on, they don’t have a natural flow and they are being forced on us. Throw 2 terrible maps in with a veto system which means teams can play games before the match has even started is ridiculous. Teams are going to be able to hold off on vetos forcing the other team to drop overpass and cbble or risk having to play them.

Also for our region specifically, no other teams have any reason, will or desire to practice us on those maps. This immediately puts us at a huge disadvantage even if we had any desire to learn them. Plus the qualifiers didn't even include these maps, which meant we couldn’t even get a trial run on them in the lead up at all.

I feel like all the other teams are drinking the volvo cool-aid or they are playing mind games pre-ESL One. Ideally when brute pulls his head out of his ass and releases tuscan, that coupled with a fixed de_train would be the perfect 7 map pool.

Or am i now playing the mind games? Maybe we wasted our entire bootcamp learning 2 new maps that we will never play. Stay tuned!

At both of the previous majors we saw a new team win a title (fnatic, Virtus.pro), propelled by new players rising to stardom (flusha, schneider, byali, Snax) . Do you expect another new team to rise up this time and if so, who could it be? What about new players?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: Unless its us, I don't see another team rising up and having the same success as fnatic and virtus. However players like fxy0, rain and aizy have all been showing great performances and I would expect this to continue at ESL One.

You’ve added jks since EMS One Katowice. He’s been doing really well in Australia, but how well do you expect him to do in Cologne with the added pressure while playing against the world’s best?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: It's hard to tell. Everyone handles the pressure differently. He is one of the best players I have ever seen when he is playing at his peak and so far in our bootcamp he has played his own game and showed he doesn't have any problems fragging with the best of them.

You came close to beating LDLC in Katowice in our last international event. Do you think you’ve improved more as a team since then than the scene in Europe has in general? Is it possible for you to catch-up while located in Australia?

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill: Obviously it’s really hard for us to catch up in Australia, we don’t have as many events and opportunities to play against the new styles and the communities meta gets very stale very quickly. This may work in our favour as we can work on interesting strategies and surprise teams, we are the unknown which can make us a darkhorse. I feel the lineup change has made us a better team on all fronts and hopefully this time we can take a scalp.

Vox Eminor will begin their campaign at ESL One Cologne at 18:00 against dignitas. In the stacked group D with them are also Titan and Cloud9.

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon "I don't fear any team"

Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin: "We've been more effective"

Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund: "Time to win a major"

Kyrylo "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow: "I like the [new] maps a lot"

Nicolaj "⁠Nico⁠" Jensen: "Our A-game can beat anyone"

Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer: "Tired of quarter-final exits"

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: "We haven't reached our peak"

Pål "⁠Polly⁠" Kammen: "We are here to stay"

Henrik "⁠FeTiSh⁠" Christensen: "There is no I in team"

Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell: "We can surprise a lot of teams"

iBUYPOWER: "Too many mistakes"

Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin: "You are in for a treat"

With one day remaining before the $250,000 major kicks off, we have three more interviews coming up featuring members of Wolf, Titan and dAT, as well as our preview.