pre-ESWC interview: VG SmithZz

Last but certainly not least, we have reached out to VeryGames's Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux for a quick interview to talk about CS:GO and their expectations at ESWC.

VeryGames were dominant in the most recent years of Counter-Strike: Source competition, but were unable to convert that into a winning formula in the newer CS:GO in a short time before DreamHack Valencia.

Why does Dubourdeaux think his team will fare better at ESWC and does he think VG is a lock for winning the French qualifier? What does he expect of his opposition? Continue reading to find out.

How have you prepared for ESWC 2012? Have you bootcamped or only practiced online? Do you feel ready for the competition?

Hello everyone!

Since we came back from the DreamHack Valencia, we started playing 4/5 hours a day, 5 days a week which is a pretty intensive rhythm.

We haven't attended any online competition, to remain focused on praccing as much as possible. Some of our players didn't have time for a bootcamp so training a lot online was essential.

Prior to DreamHack Valencia, we had only trained approximately 10 days on CS:GO, because of a French competition we wanted to attend on CS:S in mid-September. Therefore I think our game greatly improved since our final against NiP.

It still evolves everyday, we may not have the perfect A-game for the ESWC, but I do think that we have solid bases.

We'll for sure have to be careful, and take every match seriously since a lot of strong teams will be there... This being said, I believe in our potential, and hopefully we can be the next world champion 2012!

How many hours have you played CS:GO overall? How about your teammates?

I personally have played 260 hours so far, which is less than my mates:

• Ex6TenZ, 380 hours

• RpK, 380 hours

• kennyS, 350 hours

• NBK, 280 hours

I indeed started playing CS:GO later than them since I was on holidays this summer and didn't have an internet access :o) I'm doing my best at the moment to catch up on them though!

What are your thoughts on CS:GO? What do you like and dislike? If you could change one thing, what would it be?

I was invited by Valve in Seattle to try out CS:GO a year ago so I've been following this game's evolution for quite a while now, and I must say Valve did a great job. They took into account a lot of our comments, and are always willing to improve their game based on the players feeling and

There are still a few things to improve (smoke bug to fix, Molotovs are a bit overpowered, interpolate etc...) but the game now has a strong potential which is what I like the most about it. I've always wanted to face the best teams and thanks to Global Offensive, it is now possible!

If I could change one thing? Hum... Well I was a big fan of the M4's silencer! Also I’d like my "hud_fastswitch 1" back please!

SmithZz in action during DreamHack Valencia 

What do you expect from ESWC 2012? If your life depended on guessing your final placing, what would you guess?

I expect from this ESWC 2012 to be up to its name, a video game World Cup. Finally knowing the hierarchy of the best teams... the fact that this will be the first major clash between 1.6 and Source is also very exciting!

It's now up to us, the players, to do the show, and to you viewers and readers, to support us so FPS games can compete with RTS and MOBA!

On a more personal point of view, like every tournament I attend with my team, I'm here to win, to feel the adrenaline rush you get when you win tough matches! As I said I think we can mount the highest step of the podium… but first...we have to obtain our slot during the ESWC France. It promises to be a hard one, and will be the perfect way to begin! We'll see: )

What can you tell us about your competition based on seeing them play and practicing against them? Who do you consider the strongest three teams going into the event?

We've practiced against most of the teams attending the ESWC. I'd say we do win most of the time, but this kind of pracc doesn't mean much to me, since neither them nor us show our real game, or reveal our best strategies. But anyway, everyone looks really strong, a lot of players are able to do a lot of damage individually.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to pracc against NIP, but I'm sure they evolved a lot since DreamHack Valencia, just like us. The strongest teams for me, without including us, would be NiP, Target Down and Area51.

Can you talk about your teammates and explain to our readers what everyone's role on the team is in-game?

I joined Team VeryGames as a co-leader. Thanks to my experience and game sense, I'm here to help Ex6TenZ elaborate strategies, or call in game if I think I'm able to find some of our opponents' weaknesses. I also lead my partners at my position on the map (if we play as a duo or trio) but always being attentive to my mates' suggestions.

As you must know Ex6TenZ is our leader in game, he has the key role in the match, and at the end he will be the one choosing the solution, the moves to do... whether we help him or not. He's the one that has the biggest responsibilities. He also leads his duo/trio on the opposite side of the map.

kennyS is our main sniper, even if we can all play with an AWP if he falls (apart from RpK even though he still considers himself as an outstanding sniper :P). kennyS is mainly here to pick up the opening frags, or unlock tricky situations, but also to annihilate the opposing sniper ;)

NBK is the complete player, very consistent, solid as a CT, and a good opener as a Terrorist. Thanks to his great game sense, he brings a lot of solutions when we feel stuck and he's good at analysing the opponent's defence.

RpK is the quiet force, he's the one killing everyone… the machine! People may think he wasn't at his best at the DreamHack Valencia but he will surely be committed to prove the world he's VERYGAMES's scorer at the ESWC.

VeryGames figuring things out in Valencia

Many say CS:S players had an advantage in switching to CS:GO, do you agree? Has the game been out long enough for it to even out?

I don't get why people say so. The gameplay is completely different, the weapons' recoil and the nades too. Only the maps do look alike CS:S's maps, but all the stuff had to be reworked anyway. At the end, it's a new game for all of us I think :)

Do you believe it is necessary or advantageous to mix players from different games, or do you think it does not help?

I wouldn't say it is necessary, mainly because we haven't and we're doing just fine :) But for sure it can only bring positive things to a team to mix game visions. Source was different from 1.6, the way to win round was different, hence a mix of players and styles has to do well.

With CS:GO still being a relatively new game, do you believe simply playing more hours still gives players a clear advantage?

Clearly, yes! For example NIP during DreamHack Valencia were a lot better than us as a team and

individually, the number of hours played being the thing that made the difference according to me. There is no secret, the more you do something, the better you get at it.

On any new game, if you are talented and you have 5 times more hours played than your opponent and you still lose, there is a problem!

How confident are you that you will win ESWC France?

Without a doubt, it won't be easy to get our qualification to ESWC World. The French scene has a lot of strong teams (Millenium, eXtensive...) and all of them trained hard to get the slot for the main round. But if we want to have a chance to be the first World Champion on CS:GO, there's no way around :) We'll need to go through this stage.

After losing against NiP in Valencia, how much have you improved at CS:GO? How much had you played as a team prior to that match in comparison to now?

Even if we wanted to win our first event on CS:GO, we kinda expected to lose. As I said before, NiP deserved the victory, they were a lot better than us. We are getting better every day, I hope we catched up to them.

Like Winston Churchill said, "The only answer to defeat is victory".

It’s the end. Thank you for the interview, I will also thank my sponsors VeryGames and Razer, for all the support they give us. And for sure, thanks to everyone who follow us ;) See you at ESWC!

This wraps up our pre-ESWC interview series as we have now conducted interviews with each of the nine participants at this year's $20,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament as well as the favorites in the French qualifier, VeryGames.

You can still look forward to a full preview of ESWC 2012 as well as a viewer's guide as we wrap up our pre-event coverage before the event kicks off on Friday at Paris Games Week.