|
|
|
|
  |
|
|
Written by
Date: 22:42 - April 30, 2005
Comments: 1 Comments
|
 The leader of eSrael.CS answers some questions about the team's recent unluckiness, his own philosophy about the Israeli pro CS scene, the future of our community and much much more!
Recommended :]
Without further delays, here's an interview I made with the leader of eSrael.CS- ssj2rich!
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Hello, I'm Aviad also known as ssj- / ssj2rich in game. I'm 26 years old, learning in college for b.a in computer programming (handasat tochna).
I live alone in my own house in Hanniel and play CS since it started.
Nowadays you're to be considered as one of the most respected players in the Israeli CS arena. What got you into the game and what do you think about it so far?
I started playing when I was in the army. HalfLife just came out and I liked it a lot. Few months after HalfLife came out a new mod called 'CS' was published. Vegeta (a friend of mine from Hanniel) and I decided to check it out and sign for the best. That's how I started playing.
Few months later I found people play it over the internet and I joined them.
It took me 4 or 5 months to join my first clan- [-=Pita=-], from there on I went to 'em' then 'Gr'. EnD opened 'new EnD' as EnD moved to a German clan and I didn't want to move. Then I moved to eXcession and now I'm in eSrael.
I think it's a great game as it involves both personal skills and team play and tactics, I don't think any game out there have all 3 balanced like in CS.
Also the game is quite simple and not trying to be more than it is,
so I really like it, great way to waste some free time.
Your team was recognized as the best team in Israel. Therefore the last LAN events were surprisingly disappointing. What caused this downfall?
Well, it started a few months ago or even a year ago when 3 members left us. We tried lots of combinations in order to get back to our best form but none seem to work, the team we are now not only got together 3 weeks ago after a lot of tests (we tested most of the players we consider good in Israel).
Now we are missing some team play and a lot of playing-together time to get back to the top
Our goal in the last LAN was 3rd place and we failed reaching it, so it was very disappointing but we knew we won't play that well.
If you look around and see NET playing for a year together, with almost the same roster (and so are ftl and other big clans) you will understand it's hard to beat them with a new team. We are taking our time. We got a young roster and we will be back to the top soon.
It brings me to my next question: Team play is very important to a clan and very hard to reach, especially when the roster is changing. eSrael.CS has recently picked up a couple of players. Was your team's team play affected by it?
Our team play is slim to none. At the moment we are playing only by personal skills and some made up tactics that almost never work since you need team play for that. You can't get team play by playing 2 weeks together. It takes a lot of time and I hope that in the next few weeks and in the next LAN we will show a little bit more team play, and by that show a big improvement.
It must be hard not to conquer the top (at the LAN) when you know you're able to. What was the feeling in the team after the LAN and what did you do to raise the team's moral?
Well I'll have to be honest, this LAN we lost mostly 'cause of stupid mistakes we did, stupid mistakes as in losing ecos and reading the game wrong. I didn't really have to pick up the team's moral since we didn't come to win though really wished we will. We were disappointed to lose at such an early stage but everyone in the team understood that we are still young and lack the team play and connection to win yet.
Teams in Europe and America work hard to be the best. Some of them train up to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, or more… How did you guys trained for this LAN event?
We didn't have much time to train, 3 weeks before the LAN we didn’t have 5 players yet, 2 weeks before the LAN prophecy was in Europe visiting his brother and we didn't have 5. We only started playing and preparing for the LAN a week before and we didn't do that well either.
We usually play 2-3 pcw's a day, 5 days a week and everyone play some public, meaning 3-4 hours a day of practice.
Before LANs we usually do up to 5 maps a day and some public when every map takes around 40 minutes, that's 5 hours of practice, 5-6 days a week.
What can you conclude from this LAN event?
Well, since we have some new members in the team we weren't sure what are the best positions everyone liked etc. We found out for example that exposer isn't that good at bomb site A in train. If we had more time before the LAN I'm sure we would know that before, but we just didn't, so we found out a lot of those mistakes at the LAN itself. As I said, most of our disadvantages were mistakes just like the one I mentioned and we are working hard on them right now.
The equipment is an important thing. eSrael provides its gamers with the best hardware they can get. What hardware you've been given and how did it help your in-game performance?
1. We all got MSI's G-Force FX 5900XT with 256 mb memory and MSI's Intel mother boards. For someone who uses them daily I can say they are very, very good.
Good hardware helps in recoil control and other aspects of the game; if you got 100 fps and a good stable computer you'll have the upper hand for sure.
When the other team smokes you and you still have 100 fps and can control yourself that's a big advantage.
2. We all got Steelpad S&S, which is by far the best pad in the world at the moment. It's much like the fUnc but ALOT bigger and a lot thinner, making it nicer and more fun to use. Plus you get a lot of mouse space and no rubber at the edges so everything is smooth and nice.
What are your plans for the future, as a leader of a clan and as a player in the Israeli pro gaming environment?
Well, we are now entering the 3Dv's league period. 1/1/2005 is the date the league is scheduled to begin, and we are getting ready for it. Of course we're planning on winning the league and win the flight tickets to Europe.
Right now I'm not really thinking about the far future, I just want to get back to shape and win the next LAN. I hope 3Dv and all the other companies will start making the prizes bigger so we will have more to fight on. More money means more challenge and more professional game play, so I hope it will come true.
According to 3Dv, their new formality will provide us with a higher level of gaming and better competition. Do you think it will do so?
Well, I really don't like the fact that I am not allowed to participate at other LANs and events other than 3Dv's (unless 3Dv's CEO allows me to). I think it really cripples the players but on the other hand the fact each and every player have a contract and have only 1 place to play in means that if the place will decide to punish the player, the player will not be able to play CS, so 3Dv will have a really big force over the player, by that making it almost impossible for him to quit a team and move to another one just like that.
I think it's great in that aspect since it will create more pro teams that stick together and therefore have a better team play.
What LAN party you enjoyed the most?
There was a LAN party in game freak2 I believe, when we (Xpander, Warren, DarkGuy, Skylancer, and I) lost to ftl somewhere at the start. They kept laughing at us all LAN long when we kept winning and winning in the loser bracket. Then in the super final it was us versus them. We had to win 2 maps in order to win the tournament and we not only won 2 maps of train versus them, but we raped them. It was the best LAN I had ;p
Who are the best players you played with?
Xpander and DarkGuy will probably be my pick. There are a lot of good players I've player with like Pred, Paradoxx, mush and a lot of others but if you'd ask me who are the best and that I have the most fun playing with, it would defiantly be those two.
Who are the best players you played against?
Stas+Pavel, Pred+Dantz- 1 by 1. I'm not sure they are the best, but as a team, they own.
As long as I can remember, you were a leader. You were the one who created eXcession, taking your team to a new level of game play. Can you see yourself playing for another leader?
Even as the team leader there is a lot of times I'm playing only as a player. In eXcession sometimes Xpander or prophecy would be the ones saying tactics and arranging games and doing all the leading works and I would just sit back and relax as a player. It's hard being a single leader in a team while making everything else as well, so from time to time I take a break and let someone else lead.
Earlier you mentioned that 3 players left eXcession. Those 3 players later created teamNET. Why they left the team?
There was a big mass before and after it but down to the core the real reason was that playing together wasn't fun anymore, we won a lot of matches but we started getting inside each of other's skin and fought a lot. In the end the 3 players that left felt they will have more fun playing together with new players.
Do you see a future for pro gaming in our beloved little country?
A future for pro gaming? For sure, future for CS depends on CS2 in my opinion. I don't think CS:CZ nor CS:S really cut it as the next CS. Both doesn't improve and change that much and both are a disappointment in my opinion, so we will have to see. About Israel as a pro gaming community, I'm sure we will just grow bigger with time. I'm also sure we will win some LANs if we will get to them.
Do you think Israeli clans can fit in outside of Israel too?
Well I know that we and EnD play in Europe and we are both doing quite well against UK / French / German clans. We won a lot of good clans in pcw's and got raped by a lot more as well, though you got to remember we usually have 100+ ping and they have 10-20 ping. I think that with some experience and a lot of practice we can even win the best clans in the world, but since I never got to play against them on LAN I can't really be sure.
What factors would you improve or change in the Israeli community?
If I could change anything I would make sure there are at least 16 good clans here 'cause it's really annoying playing each day with the same 2-3 clans. I hope more clans will become pro and start playing on daily bases.
Thanks Aviad! Do you have anything you would like to add?
Not really…
With these fine words I must end this interview.
ssj2rich is a great interviewee, even thuogh it was impossible to reach him :)
Hope you enjoyed reading it, ta ta!
|
|
|
|
|
|
COMMENTS
|
 |
|
#1 by nirz   | 19:28 - 11/03/08 |
|
 |
nice ! |
|
|
|
add comment
|
|
|
| You have to be registered in order to post comment. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
