smooya: "I think that after the Major we all got egos, I did especially"

Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield spoke to HLTV.org following his team's victory over Gambit, opening up about his individual slump as well as team issues.

The German side started SuperNova CS:GO Malta with an upset-loss to TYLOO, falling to them on Overpass 16-14. On the second day, BIG recovered by beating Gambit 2-0, and will rematch against TYLOO, this time in a BO3, later today.

In our interview with smooya, we learned about BIG's recent events, the 19-year-old's motivation issues and how much he prepared for the Major, where they reached the quarterfinals

I want to start with a short recap of you as a team, how are you feeling as a team coming to this event, considering the recent results?

Recently we've been playing pretty bad, I think, in Chicago we were super, super, super shit, we didn't prepare at all for cs_summit, we had two weeks for preparation and we were super lazy, didn't really care, it was super bad. I've been lacking a lot of motivation myself, which is really weird because I'm normally really motivated, I deathmatch all the time, I watch my demos and stuff, but I haven't been improving, I feel that, and that's why I fell into this lack of confidence and I'm super-tilt all the time. We let gob b do the strategies for this event, before that we let our coaches do it and it didn't go too well, so now gob is doing it and we are all comfortable again, we are all happy. So I'm feeling pretty confident for this event.

You said the coached did the strategies, for which events was this? How did it work out?

It was for cs_summit and Chicago, there was a two week period we practiced and we let our two coaches do it at the time, and it didn't go too well because no one did anything on the team, none of us really cared, it was really weird. It was almost like we felt that we proved ourselves without actually proving ourselves. Now we are all back on track properly.

I think that after the Major we all got egos, I did especially, I thought I was way better than I was. And then it hit me, the realization, so I just need to put in way more work than I ever have and hopefully get back to the level I want to be.

The motivation issues post-Major, a lot of people that did well at the Major, they often fall off. What is it that gets to your head that makes it feel like you are so good and that you don't need to put in the work?

I still kind of played the same amount I played before, but for the Major, we prepared so hard for every single game that I couldn't have failed, regardless of how badly I played, I couldn't have done bad. I knew much, we were too prepared in every scenario that it just made my game easy. That is what I tried to do here, this BO3 now I just watched demos and I knew how to counter them all from one granade. That is how I was playing at the Major so I'm going to try carry on doing that. It is just a personal thing, if I'm want it and I'm sick and tired of being bad then I'll put the effort in. And if I don't, then I suck, and you know why.

Looking at the scene in general, at the Major, where you played well, you said you were mega prepared, but you can't prepare to that level for every tournament. Does it feel like you have too many events to play and that you can't play the best CS that can be played with all of these events going on?

I guess so because, for me, that was my first Major and I definitely had something to prove, and we as a team had something to prove, because no one believed in us. So we went so hard, no way a team prepared more than us. I swear. We spent a minimum of six hours talking every day, for every opponent, apart from when we lost the first two games because we were like "we are going to smash them, these guys are shit", then we got destroyed and it was "oh fuck". I don't think there is too many events. I think that, if you pick the right events as Astralis do, there is no issue because you can dedicate the time you want to each event, and we definitely don't do that. We just turn up, "hey boys, let's play some fucking CS". And then we get smashed.

I can pick up on one more thing that you mentioned, that you "proved yourself". You got a good place in the rankings, how do you feel about yourself as a team right now? Are you a solid top 10 team?

We are definitely not, maybe we are a weak top10. High tier 2, very low tier 1. It is weird because if we play anyone below us, we play worse, we kind of play to their level because we give them way too much respect when we could just destroy most teams as we have done in the past. Or, if we play against better teams, like FaZe, Na`Vi (apart of the Major where we got destroyed) we always play to their level, because we are smarter than most teams.

I would say in understanding the game we are top 5, very easily, on a team basis, but sometimes we just overcomplicate things, I personally get really confused (laughs), because I've been a pro for only seven months, you have to think about that. What I have achieved so far is pretty cool I guess but it is nothing compared to what I want to achieve. I'm hoping that, in the next year, when we finally knuckle down and everything gets sorted, we will be back to maybe... top 5 consistently.

You mentioned the slump you are in, we saw tabseN picking up the AWP, even over you, more and more. How does that dynamic work? Is it because you have been playing worse individually or is there a different vibe to tabseN's AWPing?

Honestly, if I just say it exactly how it is, I'm just a huge child and I still haven't sorted my emotions out. When I'm in-game I get really frustrated, really upset over the stupidest things and then I say "I won't AWP, I don't need to AWP". And then I go 5K-20D and then go "fuck man, I probably need to AWP, I'm pretty shit". (laughs)

The game against TYLOO, I love every person on TYLOO so much, they are all really nice guys, everyone knows I like captainMo, we've all seen the videos, but that game... if we played them 20 times we beat them 18. I'm actually glad that game happened because we fixed a lot of stuff going into this game [against Gambit]. But yeah, just for the past two months I've been in my own head, saying I'm bad constantly, that I don't know what I'm doing and then because I say it so much, I start to believe it, you know? And I don't actually think I'm the stupidest person or that I'm the worst AWPer, I just say it because... whatever.

I'll touch on the Gambit game, Overpass was their pick but it was a straightforward win, but Dust2 ended up being much more strongly contested. Obviously, you picked it so you didn't expect it to be that tough of a match?

There is a reason why - I was 4K-12D or 13D in the first half and they came Mid-B a lot... and I'm the Mid-B player. That is the reason why it was really hard. We knew exactly what they were doing and I just couldn't stop it because I'm fucking dogshit, I'm just the worst AWPer in the world. They were just coming down fast suicide and I was meant to wait for the two flashes and then peek - and I would hear one and then peek, get full blind and say "fuck, they are up short I guess". (laughs)

I just played really bad. Then I went to the T side and I think I got nine entry frags in one half, I just started firstkilling everyone, it was like "I'm back brothers, I'm the best AWPer, let's go!". There is one round, actually, when I delay-peeked Long in a molotov because I know mou likes to hold the molly. But it wasn't "holding molly to kill the guy", you just scope to act like you are doing something. And I just peeked through the molly and killed him, and after the round, he typed "dude this isn't FPL, what are you doing you idiot" (laughs). I was like, "yeah, get outplayed dude".

The next game you are playing is against TYLOO, I don't know if I want to ask you about this...

2-0.

Do you want to say anything?

2-0.

2-0?

2-0.

Ok, that's it.

...

2-0.