Legacy: "Qualifying wasn't a fluke"

Formerly known as Animal Squad, Legacy eSports will attend this week’s $250,000 FACEIT League 2015 Finals at DH Winter, which they qualified for thanks to topping the Oceanic division ahead of the likes of Renegades and Immunity.

The Australian-New Zealand squad has been bootcamping in Sweden for 10 days now and their coach James "⁠sibe⁠" Martin took some time off from their practice to help us get acquainted with the team, their expectations and future plans.

Without further ado, here is the interview with Legacy:

Let’s start off with a team history lesson - tell us how the roster was formed, what kind of experience does everyone in the team possess?

The roster formed a little under 3 months ago after the Australian scene had a shuffle. we picked up both Raz and Ofnu after our now coach, Sibe, retired.

The team possesses a mix of experienced older players and younger talent, led by Moku, one of Australia's most successful players who has competed on an international stage for 1.6 numerous times in various lineups.

Busta, like Moku, has been playing CS since 1.6 and brings extensive knowledge and firepower to the team. Both Ofnu and Raz hail from New Zealand and are, arguably, the best players from their nation.

Raz offers a versatile awp while Ofnu provides a plethora of insight in both calls and reading opponents. Mizu, formely a COD4 player, is the rock of the team bringing an ever solid rifle to every game. His time in a competitive environment from an early age has instilled a rarely seen composed style of gameplay.

How are the roles divided within the team, who is the IGL, the awper, the entry? Who should we look to as the star of the team, who can turn a round around in an instance?

The roles are somewhat flexible. Raz and Busta both provide significant impact as awpers though you'll usually see Raz awping T sides and Busta awping on CT. This is mainly due to the difference in individual gameplay which I'm sure will be seen in the upcoming event.

Ofnu is our IGL and lurker. The entry role is often traded between Moku and Mizu though, again, can be accomplished efficiently by any player. This provides us with a versatility that I don't think all teams have as they usually look to single players to turn rounds around or provide consistent shattering impact.

If you’re looking for a solid answer as to who is the best player to watch it’s hard to say. I’d suggest finding the player who suits your playstyle the best and going for gold!

.@Renegadesgg beat @TeamImmunity 16-9 (Cache) which means Animal Squad are going to @FACEIT Stage 3 Finals at DHW! pic.twitter.com/Sp3vu8pOzt

— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) October 18, 2015

You managed to qualify for FACEIT League Finals by topping a 4-way tie ahead of Renegades, Immunity and fSociety. Some people have criticized the system for allowing that to happen due to so few matches and called your placing a fluke, but what do you think about the whole thing?

Obviously an entire tournament consisting of only best of ones isn't ideal. I don't personally understand, or agree with, Faceit's reasoning of running only bo1's. However, I'm sure everyone in Australia is extraordinarily thankful for the opportunity that is being provided to us.

Calling it a fluke isn't accurate either as we beat the two top seeds convincingly and then lost to teams that, in hindsight, we shouldn't have thus eliminating the eventuality of the four-way tie.

With FACEIT League currently being the only outlet for Oceanic teams to international competition (aside from direct invites), where do you think your region is headed as it is now, how far can teams and players go without pulling a Renegades-like move? And what would you change if you could?

I think the Australian scene is slowly heading in the right direction. All the competitions and invites that have been extended to Australia have forced the scene to become more professional in all aspects.

Many teams, other than Renegades and Immunity, have started practicing hard for an extended period now and you can see it in the results. A good example of this is A) us at dreamhack and B) Chiefs beating Immunity at the latest CyberGamer Pro League Lan finals. Our scene has never been as competitive as it is right now.

I'd like to see more organisations moving to Australia. We've had ESEA for quite some time now but they have failed to provide any meaningful form of competition apart from an Open ladder. Hopefully with ESL buying them out we may see more competitions being run. More competitions, more money, right? If this happens it will hopefully negate the need for players/teams to leave the country to pursue a career in eSports.

Turning our attention to the event this week, you flew in to Jönköping a while ago -how was the trip, we've heard from your comrades in RNG and Immunity that it can be exhausting? How has the training progressed since then, what have you improved on and how has playing in Europe been different for you guys?

Exhausting is an understatement. Our two New Zealand players racked up a total of 50 hours in-transit while the rest of us sat at a noble 30.

Training has been great. There's been a gradual improvement since the night we got onto our PC's. What we immediately noticed was a deficit in our defensive side. This, however, has been for the most part worked out and we've been consistently on the up and up.

European CS hit us as a bit of a shock. Mechanically speaking (aim etc) we have found we're mostly on-par with top tier players but nearly every other aspect of the game we've been behind in. Jumping into the deep end and being forced to sink or swim has forced us to rethink a lot of aspects about our team and individual gameplay.

You were picked up by Legacy shortly after qualifying, was that a big factor in heading to a European bootcamp or would you have done that anyway? What does being in a bigger organization change for you guys otherwise?

To be blunt, we wouldn't be able to be here without the support from Legacy. Being in an organisation in general has taken a load of stress off us. We haven't had to worry about accommodation, transport or anything like that. Because of this, we've been able to focus purely on CS and thus been able to extract more from our time at bootcamp than we would have without.

You took part in an online competition last week, a qualifier for Red Dot Invitational, but you lost to E-Frag.net and a lesser known side Dead Pixels, thus failing to move on through the groups. How did you take those first official tests, were the losses a big punch or just a jab and a wake up call ahead of meeting some of the world’s best on LAN?

They were more of a slap in the face from an ex-lover than a right hook from a Kangaroo. To be fair, we'd only received the PC's and got fully set up 2 hours before jumping into those games so we weren't prepared in the slightest.

Either way, we still got slammed. No excuses. Both teams showed us how far we have to come to be able to consistently compete in the Euro scene. Since then we've been able to practice against Deadpixels as well as top tier 1 teams and have learned a lot. Hopefully we'll be able to showcase that this event.

Your group at DH Winter will see you go up against Virtus.pro in the opening match and then either TSM or Liquid, all teams either with high pedigree or good form which sets the community's expectations for you pretty low. But what are your expectations going into the first match and overall into the tournament?

It’ll be our first true test on an international stage and we're looking forward to the matches. We believe the game verse Virtus Pro is obviously very one sided though we might be able to compete. We've found we struggle against teams who have a really exceptional AWPer. TSM are a bit of an X factor but we should have at least a decent showing against Liquid.

Looking at all teams at the event, who would you call the favorites? And who else do you expect to see in the final?

I think like most people you'd expect to see an EnVyUs/Fnatic final. However, it'd be cool to see Luminosity make a final. We really respect their gameplay.

On a side note, your team will bring the first two New Zealanders to the international CS:GO scene – should we expect a Haka performance from them ahead of each match or are they more laid back compared to other sportsmen from the country?

I wouldn't hold out on a Haka guys. I think you'll find Raz and Ofnu to be fair less intense as their nation's sporting counterparts. Raz, however is fairly eccentric so you can probably expect some lets say, strange, antics out of him.

Lastly, what does the future hold for Legacy? Are you going back home directly after DH Winter? Do you have anything planned for December, and what are your hopes and plans further on in the future?

We leave pretty much straight after DHW. However, when we get home we get to compete in the CounterPit league which has a another international invite on the line! So you may see us again in Croatia early next year *fingers crossed*. Our hopes and plans are to continue to grow as a team and a brand and continue to compete at the top level of CS.

Legacy will be involved in the opening match of the tournament, scheduled for Thursday, November 26th at 13:00 when they will meet Virtus.pro.

HLTV.org will be on site in Jonkoping, Sweden to bring you live coverage from the $250,000 event.