Jeorge: "It was cynic's dream to make the Major; it would be really nice if I could make it for him"

The American rifler did not shy away from discussing his squad's mistakes in their opening matchup.

One of the top sides in North America's domestic scene in 2023, Nouns have so far struggled to make headway in 2024's online qualifiers versus teams like Wildcard and Liquid. The team has notably fallen short of qualification for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, IEM Dallas, and IEM Chengdu even despite the impressive performances of recent additions Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson and Jeorge "⁠Jeorge⁠" Endicott.

Nouns light at the end of the tunnel has come in the form of reaching the PGL Copenhagen Major Americas RMR, narrowly escaping the closed qualifier with a 3-2 record. A tough opening match in Monterrey versus FURIA has immediately shipped Nouns to the elimination BO3s, with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's troops denying the American side's attempt at staging a comeback.

Following the loss to FURIA, Jeorge spoke to HLTV regarding the team's difficulties during their opening matchup, his own individual form since playing with Evil Geniuses, and how the support of former Liquid coach Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag has been a boon for the squad.

If you do not see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the full interview here.

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Unfortunately you couldn't pull off the comeback against FURIA. It started rough on the T side for you, what was going wrong and what was the game plan coming into that match that seemed to backfire?

We didn't game plan too hard, I don't think we had a lot of info on their Inferno. We kind of expected it to be Ancient and then the veto didn't really go our way. On the T side, I'm not going to make excuses, but on the first pistol and gun round — it was only happening to us — all five of us would freeze and lag back like three seconds, and apparently we were going to get a first kill in both those rounds.

That could have turned the tide, but other than that, obviously we played really bad, our spacing was really bad when taking bracket control and stuff, and it kind of seemed like the same issues we had versus Liquid online in the Dallas qualifier. I honestly don't know, I'd have to review the T side.

On CT, we were playing pretty well, coming back, and then we had the 11-9 round where we didn't trade properly in the retake. It was rough.

You said the veto caught you off-guard, is there a reason in particular that you expected it to go to Ancient rather than Inferno?

It didn't particularly catch us off-guard, but we just didn't have a lot of info on their Inferno. They had a lot of maps on Ancient so we had a lot more info on them and had a better game plan on that map, but it is what it is.

As you said, you almost pulled it back on the CT side. Just because of the brutal format of this RMR, you're now 0-1, which means it's best-of-three from here on out. That gives you a little bit more space, but also with one more loss, you're out. What are your thoughts on that, with the format and already having your backs against the wall after just one game?

It's obviously annoying because I feel like if it's just two losses, it should be BO3 at least, like it's for the Major. At least we have a BO3 now, maybe if that game was a BO3 we could have gotten heated up and played better map two. We're just going to have to win out.

For this team specifically, you've been playing really well. You also had a good period on EG, but there was the whole thing with the organization and how that eventually collapsed. Can you talk to me about your individual performance and your come up through NA, how that has been for you?

At the beginning of EG when we first got moved up to the tier-one team, it was a struggle for me individually because I had to re-learn the game, a new meta, in Europe. I was playing a lot worse, trying to re-invent my game.

Toward the end I feel like I was getting really comfortable on that team and playing a lot better, and then obviously everything fell through, EG dropped out. I feel like I brought my new learnings into this team, and it makes me a lot more comfortable playing the game.

Tell me about working with this team then, because you have adreN now as an extra coach, SEMPHIS also backing you up. What has the dynamic been like within the team and with Carson in-game leading?

The best thing that happened from this change was adreN coming to coach us for however long he's going to be here. He's got a lot of experience with Liquid and stuff, and he's helped us a lot. Like, A LOT.

In terms of the rest of the team, losing autimatic was pretty big because he was the guy that would fix a lot of our issues, he was kinda like the adreN of that team but he was playing. Carson is pretty new to in-game leading and stuff, so he's still learning as we go.

You said that adreN has helped fix a lot of stuff, brought a lot of experience. Can you expand on what he has contributed?

He's really good at focusing our efforts into places that we need to improve. He's really analytical and pretty objective in everything he sees, there's not a lot of hindsight bias or anything.

I wanted to get a bit more from you about Carson as an in-game leader, just because it is a role he recently picked up and is still molding into. What has it been like playing with him and what have his calls been like, compared to some of the other teams you've played on?

The only other caller I really played with was Walco, and then cynic before that, rest in peace. Like I said, he just got into the role not too long ago before I joined. I think he's been doing pretty well actually, but he's just got to keep getting better as the tournament goes on.

I did also want to talk about cynic and the gravity of that loss with him passing away. He was a long-time teammate of yours on various lineups as you also came up. How did that affect you coming into this event?

When I first heard the news, I didn't expect it to hit me as hard as it did. I was actually really sad. I had so many good memories with him, I traveled with him for three weeks in Europe for the last RMR I was at. It was really sad.

It was always his dream to make the Major, he always talked about it [holds back tears]... It was his dream.

Are you going into this with the goal of doing it for him, in that sense?

Yeah... If I could make it for him... that would be really nice.