OverDrive interview: scouting, leaks, donk and kyousuke

"Leaks are as hype as it gets," the insider says. "Not everybody understands this, but leaks are teasers."

We spoke with insider Aleksei "⁠OverDrive⁠" Birukov at the local $10,000 LanDaLan, where the 39-year-old was playing with FLuffy Gangsters. "I can't miss an event like this, the player inside me still lives," he joked. "I will start from LANs like this one, and I will end with the Major. But of course, I've already held the trophy."

The reference is, of course, none other than Spirit, the team he scouts for, winning the Perfect World Shanghai Major, a victory he watched live and celebrated with the team on stage.

During LanDaLan, we took the time to talk to OverDrive about his involvement with Spirit as a scout, how he got into the business of finding players and how he tries them out, and his business as a CS insider on social media.

Tell me about your scouting career. How did you start doing this?

At some point, I realized that I'm good at evaluating players' strengths, and I started by just helping someone get on a team. n0rb3r7 was tested by FlipSid3 at sixteen. I suggested BoombI4 to QBF, and I was making an academy for FORZE. Eventually, I just wanted to do it more systemically. At first, I made a deal with Espada, then with Spirit, and we’ve been cooperating up to this moment.

Tell us, in general terms, how your work happens?

There's no script on what has to be done, and there's no certain amount of hours you need to spend doing it. There's a specific demand for players, and then the process starts. But maybe there’s no demand, like now, when the team goes on without changes for a year. Some inquiries may pop up, I find players here and there, but there's no specific script to doing this.

I can find someone on FACEIT, someone can tell me, I can find a player on HLTV — it's all super random. I can just watch someone's stream and see how they play. I can't really describe precisely how it works.

You scouted plenty of players for Spirit. Can you name the five most significant finds, in your opinion?

Obviously, donk, zont1x, and magixx. Then kyousuke. But there were also great finds before that, like degster, Patsi, and s1ren.

How do your test sessions with newly scouted players go? Do you play duo on FACEIT or make a full party? Do you only observe, or do you also interact?

When there used to be more qualifiers, I played with them to see how they play under pressure, how they play with me, how they react to calls, and how they communicate. I can get toxic with them in order to see how they play under pressure. That's the best way to see how a player shows himself. Other than that, there's no use playing FACEIT, everyone is a god there.

Everyone is interested in donk and kyousuke. Tell us how you found them and what was your first impression of them?

I found donk in CIS League. During the first day of a new season, there was someone going 6-0, some guy named donk. I asked the guys who were playing there about him, and the reviews were only positive, so I invited him to play straight away. We played one qualifier, and it was immediately clear that for a 14-year-old, he’s super great, so I said that he should be picked up as soon as possible.

With kyousuke, I think I was also gathering players for a test during qualifiers, and he applied. I played with him and he had a lot of dumb moments, but he compensated it with kills against some decent teams. He was tested by S0tf1k after that and and, at first, he didn't really like him. So I asked to test him again, and the second time he was good. Now he's the main prospect this year.

donk and kyousuke. Are there any fundamental differences between them that define them differently as players, considering their playstyle is quite similar?

It's hard to say, they're playing at different levels now. donk is a tier one player who dominates the world, and kyousuke is a tier two-three player who dominates tier two-three. Let's see how he plays on LAN.

In terms of playstyle, donk is more reckless. kyousuke tries to play the odds while donk has that extreme X-factor... kyousuke just plays a bit differently, but his X-factor is also quite high.

donk recently won the Major with Spirit, and after that, was named the best player in the world. What did you feel in those moments? Did you feel like it was a direct result of your work and, therefore, those victories are also yours? Or did you rather feel like you were cheering for someone you're close to?

It's both. Of course, it's nice that you laid your bricks in this victory. When I joined Spirit and started suggesting players to the Academy team, and now, three of them won the Major with Spirit. Naturally, it's a nice feeling.

Other than that, obviously, I was happy. But I was happier about the guys touching their dreams. That's the nicest thing. Meanwhile, I'm both a fan and someone who's practically working for Spirit. So, for me, there's that type of joy. While the deeper feelings are about players specifically, I'm very happy for them.

I wanted to ask you about your insider career. How did you come to do it?

Because I know everyone. I've been in CS my whole life, and I have known everyone ever since CS appeared: all the players, managers, CEOs, and investors. Everyone from 20 to 40 — I talk to all of them, and I have good relationships with 90% of them.

Leaks are as hype as it gets. People know that they can trust me, and if they tell me something that I'm not supposed to write, I won’t, unlike some other people. Therefore, people share things with me when they can.

There's also use in leaks. Not everybody understands this, but leaks are teasers. Like there are movie trailers, but a leak is a teaser of a trailer that adds to a conversation surrounding an event, which is why leaks are cool.

Maybe sometimes I steal the news and the reach, but since it also exists in football and everywhere, it makes CS — or the media surrounding CS — tastier, juicier, and more interesting. When an insider says something, everyone is wondering whether it's true or not. Then a player reacts, saying it's false, so everyone starts arguing, and then some more insiders pop up. It's always interesting to follow, especially if we talk about something big.

Or let's take a cold announcement: "plus FL4MUS". Well, fine. Cool, good job. But when there’s some build-up, it gets much more interesting.

Leaks are sometimes used in transfer negotiations by the parties involved. How do you look at this aspect of your insider work? And what share of leaks, when one of the parties intentionally gets in touch to leak something, do such cases take up?

Some leaks happen like, "Just write it up and post." Sometimes, they are done in order to start the transfer process. When I say that someone is getting changed, people can get in touch with interest for the player straight away. Therefore, for every fifth leak, people from teams message me and say, "We have this change, we need to speed up the transfer negotiations with another organization."

There are also some emotional things sometimes. Like when a player gets kicked or treated not very fairly, he also tells me what's going on, so I write it up, and people know what's going on inside of an organization. But it also happens that it's an agreed-upon release. For example, an official announcement is at six, but I'm being told that I can leak it at five. It varies.

Do you purposefully ask around to find something to post about?

During transfer windows, I can reach out to sources close to certain teams that I know are having issues. But it can also come by itself, like I'm being told, "There's this situation in that team, they're changing their key player." And then I go and say, "I know you have this going on." Then I'm being told, "fuck it, post it," or on the contrary, "No, let's do this and that." It depends on the relationship.

For example, I can come up to a team's management or CEO with a suggestion: "I know what's going on, let's take care of it." And then I'm being told, "No, we're not going to discuss anything, we don't care, you can write whatever you want, we will not say anything to anyone." Consequently, if I learn something about them, I won't be checking with them, and I’ll just post what I know.

There are a lot of nuances, but it all depends on human relationships, and since I have a good reputation in this regard, it's not hard for me to get information. Meanwhile, I don't post like 30% of leaks. They only get released as official announcements.

So some of those leaks are posted as paid publications?

Yes, as I said, some are.

I wanted to ask you, as an insider, about the future of two players. One of them is Perfecto. He's obviously contracted to Cloud9, but is there anything else that you know about him being still benched?

Naturally, it’s the Cloud9 contract. And, of course, Perfecto wants a tier one team, but there's a lot of competition there, especially with the arrival of young players. It's hard to outcompete donk and kyousuke, for example. And with every passing month, it will be getting harder for him to be on shortlists and have priority.

But if he lowers the threshold of the team he would join — like Jame did, for example —, it would be good for him. I would happily watch him play for BetBoom or a team like that. I think it’s important for him to start playing soon. Perfecto had options. He obviously wanted something closer to the top, but there’s a lot of competition for a place there. Even players like Perfecto are not always the top priority.

Another big question mark is m0NESY's future. There's this widespread understanding that his future is in Falcons, but do you think there are other options?

I don't think he will join Falcons. G2 will want to sell him as his contract is expiring at the end of the year and if he just plays until the end of the contract, it will be a huge loss by the management. It's obvious that they will be pushing him [to other teams] and asking for a big buyout during the summer.

It can be Falcons, but it can be FaZe as well, for example. broky is playing very poorly in FaZe, so m0NESY will have this option. But as far as I know, Ilya wants to speak his native language — and that time has come for him. Therefore, he will be looking for interesting options in the CIS region, but again, what do we have? Because ICY is playing well in VP. In Spirit, sh1ro is last year's top five, and nothing points to such a move now. And everything else in the CIS is much lower.

It's clear that Ilya won't be left without a team — there will be a line for a sniper like him, so I don't know.

You are known as an insider on the one hand, and on the other hand, as Spirit's scout, you’re practically working for them. How does it work when you post leaks about Spirit? Particularly when you posted about no changes in Spirit for this season. How should this post be understood and how should your status be interpreted?

It's a leak. You don't really need to understand it. You just read it, and that's it.

But you work for Spirit, and it's known that you have access to this information...

When working for Spirit, I scout players. When I post on my social media, I post as OverDrive. So, don't think of that as an official announcement. It was me who posted. Obviously, you don't have to be a genius to understand that I received approval to post that information.

When you take my leaks, 100% of them are correct. It either already happened or is about to happen, and only force majeure can change that.

But if you post about Spirit while working for Spirit and have this post agreed upon with Spirit... Is it a leak?

Don't think about who I am and where I am. If you follow me as an insider, read it as a leak. If Spirit wants to make an official statement, they will make an official statement. What I do is post information and leaks I know about.

You could also say that if I'm close friends with a team’s CEO and he told me that there's going to be this announcement, should it be considered an official statement [if I post it]? That's a non-question.