sgares: "Several of the top 10 teams approached me about coaching"

The former Cloud9 in-game leader revealed on HLTV Confirmed last night that he has been offered coaching positions from several big teams, and also explained why he hasn't yet taken advantage of the offers.

The 30-year-old spent the better part of 2018 doing analyst work while streaming and playing with other former pros in Old Guys Club, who recently qualified for the closed qualifier for the North American Minor.

During his career as an in-game leader in teams like Complexity, Cloud9 and Echo Fox, Gares has been hailed as a strategic mastermind, placing heavy focus on scouting out and anti-stratting opponents based on stats and demos.

As a special guest in the 13th episode of HLTV.org's talk show HLTV Confirmed, Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares talked about how his career is going since impressively reaching the semi-finals at the EPL Season 6 Finals last year and qualifying for the early stages of the ELEAGUE Boston Major with Misfits.

The following exchange is a transcription of a part of the on-screen interview with the 30-year-old:

There was a rumour out that several teams actually approached you as a potential coach. Is that something you can shed a light on - is that someone you would want to do?

Yeah, so, I would say definitely a few of the top 10 teams, I'm not going to say who, but several of the top 10 teams approached me about coaching. And it's just not something I'm too sure about. It's definitely a big plunge to take. I'm not saying I'm never going to do it, I think it's a great job, obviously, I think I would do it pretty well, but there ARE negatives to it. I feel like you're very tied to really making the team want to win...

If I were to accept a coaching job, I would never be able to take analyst gigs, I would never be able to feel comfortable streaming when I'm at home, releasing YouTube content... All of those things are things I like doing right now. That's my main reason for not diving into the coaching thing right now, those things that I would miss. There probably will be a time where I'll want to do it, and maybe at that point, I'll revisit it.

As far as I'm concerned, I can see that in-game leaders, coaches, analysts and managers are getting increasingly bigger roles in teams with the tactical way of playing CS making its way into the upper echelons and become more important. Does it also have to do with the pressure that would be added on you, considering your history as an IGL and your very analytical way of looking at the game? Would you feel pressured to make a team have instant success?

I don't know, I don't think I would try to fully enforce my style on the team. I think it's very 50-50, you have to be there emotionally for the players and lift their moods, as well as the strategic aspect, the X's and the O's. I think people like zonic and zews are such excellent coaches because the emotional support that they bring to the team is only half of the value they add. That's what everyone sees, zews’ leadership and zonic lifting the team up when the times are tough, being very emotional behind them. That's only half of what they do, they do so much behind the scenes tactically, finding new nades, researching teams and stuff like that.

But that sounds like it might be right up your alley. The way you are describing it sounds like the Sean Gares I came to know in 2014-15, the analytical way of lifting a team. Why wouldn't that be a perfect fit for you?

No, I agree, I think I would do a pretty good job if I were a coach, obviously. That's my ego talking, (laughs), but who knows how that would pan out? I do think I'm pretty well suited to do something like that at this stage. Obviously, if you were to ask me this ten years ago, I would've been like 'oh man, my ego is out of control', I would never let someone tell me what to do in a situation. And my ability to talk to people back then wasn't what it is now. And I think that's very important for a coach, to understand that a silent, conservative figure in a team needs to be spoken to in a very different way than someone else. Like, when me and Jordan ("n0thing" Gilbert) talk to each other, people will think we hate each other, but the next round, we can brush it off. Not everyone is like that, though, I think it's important to realise that. And stuff like that comes with age, but I think I'd be pretty decent at it, yeah.

[On the level of appreciation coaches receive in the scene]:

It doesn't seem very rewarding, at least it didn't around six months ago. I think ECS did a lot with that video that they made, showing how important coaches are [...] I don't think the Majors, or Valve themselves at the Majors, do enough to appreciate the coaches and their effect on teams, obviously they restricted their ability to talk and stuff like that, but they also don't have stickers and all that stuff, which isn't really important financially, I think most of the big coaches probably get a big enough salary, maybe they get a piece of the sticker money, from what I know...

Obviously, it's good to be respected amongst the community, but they don't have that level of respect like coaches in [bat-and-ball] games do.

You can watch the entire 13th episode of HLTV Confirmed, which includes the full interview with seang@res, right here: