zEVES: "C9 can surprise in playoffs"

LGB are going into ESL One Katowice as one of the underdogs, having qualified from the main qualifier last month through Copenhagen Wolves and Flipsid3.

The Norwegians have been drawn to one of the favourites EnVyUs alongside Titan, as well as PENTA, who have recently changed Hendrik "⁠strux1⁠" Goetzendorff for Tobias "⁠Troubley⁠" Tabbert.

Read through the pre-interview below to see what Morten "⁠zEVES⁠" Vollan Christensen had to say on various topics mainly considering the next major taking place on March 12-15.

How confident do you feel with your preparation going into ESL One Katowice? Are you having a bootcamp or only practicing online? Is there something you focused on in particular?

Our preparation into this event has been more or less pretty good. We have been practising a lot for this event and we are bootcamping for one week in Oslo. Our focus has mainly been on a few maps that we don't feel confident on and work on our CT setups. 

What do you think about your group? Can you go through each team and tell us how you think you match-up against them? Which two teams should be advancing to playoffs out of EnVyUs, PENTA, Titan and yourselves?

We knew going into ESL One, a major where the best teams in world are gathered, that every group we are going into would be hard. Every team is worthy and hard to beat. 

EnVyUs alongside Titan are two teams we have had huge problems against in the past month. Both teams have an extremely high level of individual performance. With that said, we feel that we have somewhat found a way to play against them without going in too much detail. The German side PENTA is a team we have never played against and rarely practised against them - Litterally we don't know what to expect of them, at least now when they changed strux1 for Troubley. 

We feel that EnVyUs will pass right through the group stage, considering they are a top2 team in the world right now. Then the three remaning teams will fight for the last spot and it will certainly be some close matches. 

What is the minimum placing your team will be satisfied with in Katowice? Do you feel any pressure to succeed, will you be extremely frustrated if you fail to reach your minimum goal?

We are aiming to get out of the group stage and if we do that, the rest will be like a bonus for us. If we don't make it, we will just do everything to qualify for the next upcoming major.

I think every team has some kind of a pressure on their shoulders. Some are eager to succeed on a more individual point of view, other teams might have some pressure from their organization/sponsors and some might have pressure from their fans. Everyone will feel pressured. 

I think the frustration will be there of course. But we've got a nailbiting group and as I said, everything can happen, so I think the frustration will pass fairly fast.

The professional scene has probably never been as competitive as it is now going into this major, but who do you think will end up in the top four? And who do you see as the most likely surprise, whether to win it all or get out of the groups ahead of some big favorites?

Indeed, the scene is growing pretty fast and you can see that more and more teams are competing on a higher level. But right now, I think the top4 position (in no particular order) will be NiP, Virtus.pro, EnVyUs and fnatic. 

FlipSid3 is a team that can suprise and pass the group, but Cloud9 might be the team that can suprise a lot of teams in the playoffs if they come that far. Everyone has to think about that this is a BO1 group stage where everything can happen. I will not be surprised if we see some of the clearly favorized top8 teams fail in the group stage. 

Is there a player or two in your team who you will hope to make the biggest impact in order for the team to achieve its goal?

In order to perform good on this level every player on the team needs to play well and hit their shots. It will be exciting to see how we do, and maybe especially how me and jkaem do in our first major. It will also be crucial that RUBINO and rain keep playing strong and how Polly does with the AWP now that he is fully focusing on AWPing and not calling. As it's bo1 in the groupstage, I really need to do the right calls every round, and every player needs to play at their full potential to go through the group stage!

How would you compare this LGB lineup to the previous Norwegian representatives at big events, London Conspiracy and H2k? What are you better at that they lacked?

I felt in a long time that they lacked a proper in-game leader. Polly was great, but his individual performance was pretty inconsistent. It is hard to aim and be fully focused on one angle/target and still talk to the team and be able to think what the oppenent is doing.

I think we have clearer roles in the team now, so everyone is more comfortable and confident in their own role. Everyone knows what their job is and what to do, and I think that's really important if you want everyone to play at a 100%.

There has been an increasingly high number of online leagues and cups lately. How did participating in them affect your team, do you think it helped in preparation or damaged you somehow? And how does it affect the scene in general in your opinion?

For us it's kind of two sided. It's really good for us as a new team, and as we have a few inexperienced players, to play against the top teams in important matches and get to feel the pressure you have in clutch situations etc. On the other hand we really need to practice a lot in order to get every aspect of our game in order and ready for the big events, which is what we really play for. Too many online games can take focus away from practice for more important offline events, but we try to do as much as we can of both. It's also important to make sure everyone knows who LGB are and what we stand for, so we want to show ourselves from the best possible side in every game, both online and offline! For the scene in general it is really good, so the fans always have a game to look forward to, and you can get a grasp of what level all teams are at.

What do you think about the changes to Overpass and Cobblestone? Are the changes for the better or worse? Have you practiced them?

We have practised both maps and we feel it opens the maps for more close halves, the T sides are generally easier to play as you have more options to do fakes and splits, so hopefully we'll see more close games on those maps!

Do you like the current state of the pistols, Tec-9 and CZ-75 in particular? Would you make any changes to them or are they all finally balanced enough for competitive play?

Personally I feel that the current state is pretty good. CZ-75 is more or less where it should be and you have to think twice before you use it. 8 shots, slow reload and the time to pull it out makes it harder to use as a secondary gun but it is really strong in eco rounds. 

The Tec-9 should be nerfed. The accuracy when you run and spray is ridiculous and the amount of bullets you have can always make a difference.

Reportedly the sticker money from the previous major, DHW, was split according to how many of each team’s stickers were sold. Which way would you prefer it this time, an even split between all legends/challengers or distribution per selling amount? Or perhaps you would like to see a part of it added to prizemoney?

Well, if we think egoistically, we would like it if each team gets the amount their own sticker sells for since ours are pretty popular because of the design and previous teams, but objectively I guess it's more fair if all challengers split the money. But that is really not up to us, and I think whichever decision Valve decides to go with, the teams will be happy with it. Sticker money is a difficult subject, and it's new to the whole scene, so I don't think players and organizations are completely sure how to deal with it. But as I said, we have to be happy that we get any money at all, and have faith in Valve's decision and respect whatever they decide.

What is your stance on the current tournament system in the majors? Ever since DreamHack Winter 2013, the system has remained the same with a BO1 group stage, as well as a playoff spot securing a place in the next major. Would you change it in some way or keep it the same going forward?

The only thing I would like to change from the current tournament setup is the BO1 format in groupstages. It's really hard for underdog teams to play BO1s where the upper seed also gets to pick the favored sides. I guess you want the best team to advance, so you give them the upper hand, but I really think it would make for more interesting and even games if the games were BO3 where you either knife about sides or the teams get to chose the side they want on their map, and maybe the upper seed can pick sides on the third map if it goes to that.

Since the start of 2015 the prize money in most tournaments started rising fast. Although no single tournament "outweighs" the majors yet, do you think that time will come? ESL One Katowice will be a huge event nevertheless - do you expect the viewership record to be broken? How many people do you estimate will watch the grand final this time?

Well, we got news that ESL Cologne is arranging a $250k tournament without Valves support, so hopefully more tournaments can follow in their footsteps. But I also think that tournaments arranged by Valve should always be the events with the most prestige and hopefully the biggest prizes. So maybe Valve will increase the prize pool for majors as other events are matching their prizes now? :D CS is growing steadily and fast every day, so hopefully we'll be able to break the old viewing record, but to guess how many are gonna watch depends on which teams are in the final I think. Guessing how many are gonna watch is impossible! But hopefully over 500k!

As of now, out of the 14 remaining teams, Natus Vincere and FlipSid3 gave us answers on HLTV.org's ESL One Katowice pre-interviews, you can expect at least one of them to be released tomorrow.

In case you missed it, check out CLG's James "⁠hazed⁠" Cobb's ESL One Katowice pre-interview here.