B1ad3: "We don't feel any pressure"

FlipSid3 is another team that made it to ESL One Katowice through the main qualifier in February, beating Liquid and PiTER on the way to the upcoming major.

The team has been drawn to one of the favourites of the tournament in fnatic, their compatriots from Natus Vincere, and Vox Eminor in group A.

The team has to use a stand-in in Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev once again though due to Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's ESL ban, which was amongst the topics discussed in FlipSid3's ESL One Katowice pre-interview below.

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy also responds to sticker money allocation system, from which the organization earned $5,000 at DreamHack Winter 2014, among other topics.

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?

We are practising online. At the moment we are in a unique situation for ESL because s1mple is not attending. We have DavCost as a stand-in, who has been watching our demos to learn s1mple's role in the team. Because we have had so many other officials leading up to ESL, it has been hard to find time to practice as a group with DavCost. Luckily he is very individually talented, and as he proved at the offline qualifier, he is fully capable of playing with this team.

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 Na`Vi, fnatic, Vox Eminor and yourselves?

Our group has very talented teams in it. I would guess that Na`Vi and Fnatic are the favorites to come out of the group, as they are the most famous names. Vox did very well in the offline qualifier, and they surprised a lot of people. I think the matches in our group will be decided by preparation.

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?

No, we don't feel any pressure. Obviously, like everyone else, we are aiming for the best. This is not only our first big lan as this roster, it is also a major, so it really is trial by fire. As long as we make it out of groups, we will consider this successful, that is our very minimum goal.

The professional scene has never been as competitive as it is now. Going into this major 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?

VP, Fnatic, EnVyUs, NiP for top four. NA teams have a lot of talent in them and may surprise some of these teams. TSM and PENTA also have a good shot. I think this will be one with very close matches that could go either way.

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?

Fragging is important, of course, but in our team the most significant thing is our teamwork. It is our strength. Each player must play his role perfectly. Playing our individual roles well gives us the best chance to advance.

As most people know, s1mple has an ESL ban and will again not be traveling with the team to Katowice. Are you making some efforts to get the ban lifted? If so, at what stage are the talks with the organisation? In case it doesn’t get resolved in the near future, is it possible you will keep DavCost instead of him or will you put all your chips on s1mple because of other tournaments?

ESL has always treated us very well. We understand why s1mple is banned, and we understand their position. We do very much hope they will reconsider and let him write the rehabilitation essay after ESL One Katowice. Missing out on such a big event with his team has taught him a very valuable lesson, and it is excessive to keep him banned after that. All he wants is the chance to show ESL and the community that he has learned from his mistakes, and he hopes he can raise awareness for all young newcomers to this community so they do not make the same decisions. #FreeS1mple

You participated in the last two majors both as a player and a coach. How do those experiences differ, and what have you learned from being HellRaisers' coach that you brought into your teams after that? 

Of course it differs. As a coach, you are not playing and you can fully coordinate the team, you can see it with a new perspective. It gave me the opportunity to realize some fundamental competitive things that my team lacked, plus some insights on strategic improvements I can now develop with myself and the team as an in-game leader. 

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?

It has damaged our preparation a lot, but at the same time it gives us a lot of experience. I would prefer to find some balance. For example some pre-season time, with no official matches at all, where your team can get into competition shape before officials. Of course, this all depends on how many things you agree to play in and how you schedule your matches, but it is definitely one of the most important things at the moment that many top teams need to deal with. At the same time I think this is great for the community, especially for those up and coming teams trying to make a living out of this, who are not yet established enough to have the support of a salary from one of the big organizations.

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

We have practised them a lot and I like the changes on both maps, it's for the better of course. But those maps are not fully competitive yet, they should be improved a lot, there is still no balance, but I like both of them overall.

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?

Tec-9 is absolutely overpowered and it still needs more rebalancing. CZ-75 is better now, not as imbalanced anymore. To be honest, I don't play a lot with those pistols and can't decide what would be a good change for the CZ, but for the Tec-9 it should have a slower fire rate and less bullets in the clip.

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?

We are very thankful to Valve for offering us any of these options to help support us in our careers. Stickers, capsules, all of it really helps the teams make it to these events, and helps us make this our full time jobs. I think it would be ideal to have all the options: individual stickers, capsules for the challenger teams, and legends capsules. I think that way it gives the community the choice in how much they want to support an individual organization or a group, and also lets people from all budgets take part in the fun. I like the holo and foil options in the capsules options as well because it allows the growing teams and organizations that qualify to make a little more money than relying on the individual stickers alone when they do not have a large fanbase that would buy them. Prizemoney comes from so many places already, it does not really need to come from these things as well.

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?

Playoff spot securing a place in the next major is a great option. I think it would be good to see the group stage increased to a BO3 format and the finals to a BO5 format. I think that would make for more viewing opportunities for the fans, and removes some of the imbalance of a BO1 format.

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 will be broken? How many do you estimate will watch the grand final this time?

I don't think any individual tournament will ever outweigh a major. The prestige of majors is one of the reasons prizemoney is funnelled towards them, plus the security of Valve's support is certainly a draw for other investors to add to that pool. I am surprised no one has made an International for CS:GO like they did for DotA 2, but if ever a tournament raised enough prizemoney to outdo a major and all the top teams supported it, it would be in Valve's best interest to support it as a major anyways. I think we'll see more than just DHW and ESL for sure, because from the start of the year the tournaments already have way more and way bigger prize pools than ever.

We are hoping to sit down with every single team attending ESL One Katowice for a similar pre-interview, you can expect at least one more coming out today with Vox Eminor, Virtus.pro or Na`Vi.