TaZ: "We need to step it up"

We kick off our pre-coverage of DreamHack Winter 2012 with an interview with ESC Gaming veteran Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas.

The Polish giants had a frustrating campaign at the ESWC finals earlier in the month, finishing third in their group after a shock 16-11 defeat to n!faculty in the last match.

It was the first international event in CS:GO for ESC Gaming, who will be looking to make amends in Jönköping next week, despite having been drawn in the so-called Group of Death.

ESC will lock horns with ESWC champions Ninjas in Pyjamas, mousesports' UK-based team and also fnatic, who will make their first-ever appearance in CS:GO.

In this interview, Wojtas talks about what went wrong at ESWC and the team's preparations for DreamHack Winter, and reveals that his opinion about CS:GO has changed.

You said in your latest video blog that you feel the team has improved quite a bit since the ESWC finals. How confident are you, going into DreamHack?
 
It feels like we are doing some progress, but I do not know if we will be ready before DreamHack... We have only had like five days of bootcamp, so we will do our best to be in shape. Even my League of Legends play seems a bit off, so I am kind of scared of the outcome!

As for DreamHack, even though we have a very hard group, I feel confident that we will at least play three good games. We just need some luck and we should be fine!

What do you think that went wrong at ESWC? Do you think it was sort of a reality check?
 
As I said in my video blog, we went to PGA in Poland and ESWC in France to get experience, to learn how this game works on LAN and how much our internet play differs from what we present on LAN. It looks like not much has changed from our CS 1.6 times, we still feel a lot better on LAN, even though we did not go through the group stage...

Your team has been bootcamping at Ministry of Win. Prior to that, how many days did you spend practicing for this event?
 
We have been practicing since we came back from ESWC! We felt terrible after what we showed at ESWC, that we let down our fans, and organisation, so we need to step it up.

Will ESC give a better account of themselves now?

You have been placed in the toughest group of the tournament, with NiP, fnatic and mousesports. How do you think that this group will turn out?
 
In my opinion, it is a crazy group, but we have our chances. I have wanted to play against NiP on LAN for some time now, so I look forward to it. We have no idea about fnatic, but we know that mousesports are also very strong... Whoever gets lucky on day one will be playing in the next round. Fingers crossed, right?!

What are your expectations for DreamHack? Who do you consider the strongest three teams going into the event?
 
I want to win. I wish we could advance from the group, to play the best-of-three matches. We need to stay focused this time, and just focus on one game at a time. As for the teams, for me all teams will be strong, after the ESWC there has been some time to watch demos and learn some new tactics and moves, so I expect many teams to adapt.
 
You have been very critical of CS:GO. Has your opinion about the game changed? What sort of changes would you like to see implemented?
 
As I played more hours, and started to feel more confident, the game began to feel a bit better. It seems like we just need to learn new ways of playing this game and forget about CS 1.6 and how perfect it was. We need to gather people and give this game a chance because 1.6 will not come back, not without some crazy billionaire ... We need to fix smokes, remove molotovs, fix explosive grenades (to actually make damage through walls) and some other stuff. I hope we will have the chance to sit down with Valve and talk a bit about it. Still, I can see that game is going in the right direction.

Do you feel that the way your team plays has changed because of the new game?

I do not know how to answer that question. Personaly, I do not like the way we play at the moment. We need to improve our tactical side and just start from basics. We already know some crazy grenades, the guys are learning new stuff every day, but still we just lack basic teamplay. I am sure that it will come with time, if not.... we are doomed.

Just days before the tournament, Valve released an update which nerfed the Molotovs. Considering you fell victim to VeryGames at ESWC because of the Molotovs to some extent, are you happy with this change? Do you think it will modify the way that teams will play?
 
I am very happy with that change, Molotovs are used a lot less now, when you can use them to get a bigger smoke. But I guess that is another thing we need to fix a bit. It will modify the way teams play, for sure.

Changing the subject, you lost to WRTT on Saturday in the latest THOR Open qualifier, and Neo did not hesitate to say that they were cheating. Do you think that this remains an issue in CS:GO, considering the number of online competitions in which your team is playing?
 
Honestly I do not understand why people use cheats. It is fun for a few hours, but what then? You risk more than you can gain.

TaZ and ESC are no strangers to winning events

Prior to ESWC, your team came out on top of Eizo Challenge, defeating MaxFloPlay in the final. Did you expect to win the tournament, considering how late you switched to CS:GO?
 
We honestly did not expect to play that well. We expected some really hard games or even a big loss, so this victory gave us a lot of confidence. But this pretty much destroyed us at ESWC after we had won our first two games. It always hurts more when you think that you are awesome, and then the reality check comes. It was a good lesson for us.

NiP have so far proved to be one step ahead of the rest. What do you think that their secret is? Do you think that, with time, others will eventually catch up?
 
I think that with time teams will catch up. NiP had a huge advantage when they mixed great CS:S players and CS 1.6 players, and they did it in early stages of the game. I am just not sure about how long it will take...

Between DreamHack and the SLTV StarSeries finals, there will be several LAN events taking place, such as NorthCon, THOR Open and Mind Sports. Do you plan on attending any of these events?
 
I hope that we can attend all these events! Right now, it looks like we will have to beat NiP in order to play in the THOR Open finals, the rest is in ESC's hands.