dupreeh: "Rio gave me more confidence in my own abilities"

The Danish rifler spoke about the weight of playing for Vitality at a Major in France in a lengthy interview.

Vitality secured narrow best-of-one victories over G2 and ENCE to kick off their BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends stage campaign, and the team are now comfortably out of the harrowing single-map matchups and have only best-of-threes ahead.

Weight is on the shoulders of the Vitality members as the Major they have been preparing for since the start of the year is now well underway, and pressure will only mount as we get deeper into the tournament. The French organization and players have put emphasis on being in tournament-winning form in time for their home Major, and a win at IEM Rio showed them that their efforts and approach was paying off just in time.

Part of what has helped the European combine hit their stride has been Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi finally getting comfortable and finding his form, becoming the second star player alongside Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut that he was meant to be. To enable that, dupreeh had to adjust to different roles, a change which he says he has felt mixed about due to the fluctuations in performances that comes with more of an entry role.

However, dupreeh also explained that his performance in Rio gave him confidence coming into the Major, where he will be fighting for a record fifth Major title. That isn't where his primary focus has been, however, with Vitality's home Major being much at the forefront with a plethora of media obligations, pressure to perform, and an overwhelming tournament schedule in recent months. dupreeh also spoke recently becoming a father and how it has affected his practice schedule, stating it is hard to keep up in hours with the young kids rising up in CS:GO.

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2-0, pretty strong start so far. The win over G2 was close, this one also got a little close, how are you feeling right now?

I'm super happy, I'm relieved because playing best-of-ones is always very scary. Obviously everyone fears them, and especially if you play against the good teams in a best-of-one, then you can very easily find yourself down 0-2 very quickly in a day like this. With the seeding system and the seed we had coming into the tournament, it was very scary, but I'm just super happy, I'm proud of the team that we made it through today.

I wanted to talk about something apEX was telling me yesterday, which was that when the team had communication issues early on, you, Magisk, ZywOo, and him all had voices, but something he was talking about was that you and Magisk have toned down how much you communicate. Can you tell me about that from your end?

To briefly explain it from my point of view, it was that me and Magisk come from a system back in Astralis — and maybe Danish Counter-Strike — where everyone was contributing, I wouldn't say equally as obviously you would always listen to the in-game leader, but we've always been used to having to contribute more, having to come up with ideas. Both me and Emil [Magisk], we're players that feel the game, and if we feel the game we come up with a lot of ideas. and sometimes that can interfere with the game plan that our in-game leader might have.

Obviously, sometimes we should help the in-game leader because if he seems clueless or we feel like okay, we're not winning rounds right now, that is when we need to step in and help, but if we're actually in a situation where things are working out, apEX is doing good calls and we're winning rounds, we usually try to be a little be more just supportive and just contribute with what we know is happening on the map, what are they doing, what can we do, but not specifically say we should do this and this and this.

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apEX: "It's going to be a crazy Major, I have no doubts about that, I need to be a part of that"

He also said your roles had changed a bit, especially on the T side. How are you liking the changes so far?

It's a mix. Sometimes it's very nice, I've definitely come into more like a, space-entry-fragger creator, whatever you want to call me. I usually go in first and I just go as deep as I can because I need to make the space for mainly Spinx and ZywOo, because when they get the space and they can play the late-round situations, that is where they excel and that is where they will play better. I'm just there to get the openings, try and make as much space for the team. Sometimes that is definitely very nice if you're hitting your shots and the support from your team is very good, sometimes you get unlucky, sometimes you run into an AWP that's been dodging a flash, sometimes you whiff, I don't know, it can be a lot of things.

So sometimes my performance can go very much up and down, but lately at least coming from Rio, Rio gave me more confidence in my own abilities, and that obviously has also helped in my situation because if you have to go in first, you also need to be confident you're going to hit your shots before the enemy does. I haven't had that confidence in a couple of months and it was nice to feel that in Rio, I did something right. So far I feel like I've done my job pretty well, we've won both our games and I feel like I've created the space we needed to win, and obviously there are still a few situations I could have played better or could have hit my shots or whatever, but that's fine.

You're an extremely experienced player, but does it still ever get in your head sometimes when you're playing that kind of role and having off-games or off-periods?

It will, no matter how much experience you get. Even though I have 19 Majors and I've been playing for ten years, I can still doubt myself, I can still go into situations where I feel like I'm not on top of my game, I'm making mistakes, and that can be very frustrating. But I also feel like I'm very easily turned around, so if something starts going my way I can get in a positive flow. I think every other player maybe feels the same, but I guess it will just be harder for a newcomer to realize that okay,

I might not play the best game right now, but I'm creating the space that is needed for my team to win. Sometimes you just have to flip your mentality into the team aspect instead of the individual. That is where that experience really kicks in.

The Paris Major, you, Magisk, and zonic are on the Danish side, you have Spinx on the Israeli side too, but there is a lot of emphasis on Paris for Vitality — it makes sense, of course! But from your side, how does that feel since you have a bunch of Majors under your belt and are playing for one in the home country of your organization?

It definitely feels different compared to any other tournament we've been to because we're doing more PR stuff, we're showing up for meet and greets, we have fans arriving at the venue cheering for us. We can feel that there's just more attention around the team because there's only two French guys in the whole Major and they're in our team. Vitality has a ten-year anniversary, that's also big for them.

There's just a lot on the line right now, and obviously that is also pressure that we have been talking about and it's pressure that has been built up for a while. So far I'm proud of how we've been handling it and I hope that we can continue doing this. The Major is obviously the goal for the team, not only for us as players, but also the organization and for the French community.

Being the last CS:GO Major as well could also mean something to everyone playing the game because it is the end of an era, we're looking at a new chapter beginning after the summer vacation, and I think everyone wants to leave thier final mark on Counter-Strike, or at least CS:GO for that matter.

Is your final mark on Counter-Strike going to be five Major titles?

I hope so! It's an individual goal that I want to fulfill. Now I have my 19 out of 19 Majors under my belt, and having to also be the one who can win five, the most Majors as well, because my good friend here [playfully nods to Magisk, doing an interview to the side] only won three of them, that would mean a lot to me.

I see it as a huge bonus, I'm doing it for the team, the organization, and for the French community, and then obviously it's also for myself and the Danish fans, but it's not something that I'm focused on. I'm taking it one game at a time, and if in the end we stand with the trophy on the stage, then it will just be a huge bonus that I'm clinched my fifth Major.

You've done a lot of media stuff over the years, but from the way you were just talking about how much press there is and how much media stuff you're doing in the lead up to the Major, it sounded almost overwhelming a bit for you. Is that true?

I think it's no coincidence and no lie that the Counter-Strike schedule and the tournaments and what we have to participate in and everything is really, really tough. A lot of people seem to be looking at Counter-Strike players as people that just play video games, like we are just playing Counter-Strike for a couple of hours, then we go home and relax at the hotel. It's not the case, obviously there is a lot of work we have to do before the game, we prepare for the games, mentally you have to prepare.

It is really tough mentally to always have to feel like you have to perform, and with the way that we're travelling, the amount of travel time, time spent away from home and family, and on top that having to perform, on top of that having to stand out and do media obligations and always have a smile on your face, always be the best version of yourself, that is very exhausting.

One of the issues might be that a lot of partner teams, we're partnered up with a lot of franchised leagues, we can't just tell them that okay guys, we're not going to come because we're exhausted. Yeah well, maybe we could, but there's probably a huge fine or something that you have to pay them. Also, it's just exhausting to play, we saw that apEX was saying he felt exhausted, Twistzz said he felt exhausted. You've seen multiple players having to take a break from the game, most formally my previous teammates in gla1ve and Xyp9x, and for that matter device as well. I just don't think it's a coincidence anymore.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I did talk to rain as well about this, but every time it seems like a player [who is older] has a kid, people are like, 'oh, are you retiring?' From what I've seen, yes the schedule is exhausting, but a lot of these players are like, 'I'm powering through.' What's your perspective on it?

I think my coach zonic said something very nice a couple of months back. He said that he wants the Counter-Strike industry to allow players to also have a private life, make having a kid and taking parental leave like I did, staying away for two weeks because they can do that in every other sport, why shouldn't you be able to do that in Counter-Strike?

A lot of people look at players when they turn 30, like I am now — and now I've gotten a kid — and they look at me and say, okay, dupreeh will not be able to spend 16 hours a day working on Counter-Strike, playing it because he has a kid to take care of, like he's going off very early, and yes! That is true. But there is no way that the way I am now, being 30, having a kid, there's no way I would be able to put in that amount of hours.

Then obviously I have a lot of experience from previous tournaments and throughout my whole career, and that is my strong card, you know? All the young kids, 18, 16, whatever, coming into the game, they're hungry to perform, they're hungry to play professionally, and they just want to grind, grind, grind. I just don't have that amount of time on my hands anymore, and that's just the truth, honestly.

Of course, then I have less time on my hands, but then it's about making that time more effective and making it count and that is what I'm working on. I've done that ever since I've gotten my kid. I might not play eight hours of practice and then four hours of FACEIT, but I might do eight hours of practice and maybe one hour of deathmatch and one FACEIT, I might just downgrade a bit. At the same time, as long as I can feel like I can keep up with the level of play and still be part of playing in the highest stages, then I don't see why I should retire.

It looks like it's working for you right now.

So far, yeah. I've had my ups and downs since we got Spinx in the team with the whole thing about stepping down, having another person coming in and taking a lot of the star roles. Accepting that I'm getting older and there's new players coming into the game and that I have to shift into another position, shift into another role and find myself.

Also downgrading my own expectations, because that is one of the biggest things that I've done in the last couple of months. I've had talks with my team but also with my coaches about expectations of myself, because of course if I would compare myself to how I was in my prime back in Astralis playing alongside device, I was considered a star rifler and having to perform. It's just not going to be possible anymore with the positions I play and the role that I have, unless I'm just playing out of mind all the time, but it is difficult. I have a new role, I have fewer expectations, and so far so good.

Turning the attention back to BLAST here, you're going to be going into the best-of-threes, as you said best-of-one isn't always the most fun to play, a little scary. Turning to that and the qualification match ahead, how are you feeling?

Obviously just the whole best-of-one thing is over, I'm just super relieved when that is done. Best-of-threes, we have three shots now of making the playoffs, and... if I have to be completely honest, which I will, then there's no way we're going to slip up three chances, so I'm pretty confident about making playoffs. We might slip up and lose one game, might even lose two games, but there's no way we're going to mess up three times.

Thank you [for the interview]-

[dupreeh, half to himself, half to me]:
I FUCKING hope I didn't jinx myself, shit!