stamina about NA CS: "The future is bright"

Strife is a North American CS:GO team, who will try for ESL Pro League Season 16 at the upcoming EPL Conference. I had a good talk with Bobby “stamina” Eitrem. In this interview, you can find about the preparation and expectations of Strife before the upcoming events, the development of CS in North America, and their future.

You arrived at bootcamp in Poland before ESL Pro League Conference Season. How is it going? What goals do you set as a team for this bootcamp?

We just arrived at Kingiun Facility, here in Poland. It’s been going well so far. I think we can surprise ourselves with the level where we are now, compared to the level where we thought we would be. Scrims are going very well. In terms of goals, the biggest thing about what we were told, was to not focus so much on individuals’ mistakes and small issues within a team.

Now it is important to take this time to learn about European style, and just observe everything. I reached out to EliGE from Team Liquid to ask him for any tips. He said: “You need to make sure that you’re not focusing a lot on mistakes, and you’re focusing on overall ideas, understanding of the game, and just making fun”. It’s just a completely different way of playing in North America. It’s kind of a goal – play your own game, learn and observe a bit, and just try to get better.

EPL Conference starts next week. What do you expect from this event? Do you think you can qualify for the next season of ESL Pro League?

Some of us are confident guys. Looking at the team list for the EPL Conference, I don’t want to disrespect anybody, but I think the team isn’t strong. It was the previous Conference when Extra Salt qualified for ESL Pro League. I’m not saying that we’re going to win the event or anything like that, but we have a strong chance of qualifying. I think we’re all in the same boat, we all believe that we can qualify.

Back to a couple of months ago. In the previous roster, you managed to win Fragadelphia 16. Can you tell me a bit about how it was? What did this event bring to you as a team?

Fragadelphia was a really big stumping turn for us. I think for the first time we were as five men together, just really working as a team, and having a good environment. Less tilt, people usually are positive on LAN, because it’s more motivating. Going to the event we knew that we could win it, but we were not necessarily favorites. It gave us a lot of confidence coming back home. We communicated well, played together, and we could do whatever we wanted. After that, we came home to play a qualifier for RMRs. Unfortunately, we were not able to qualify, but we beat Evil Geniuses. Everybody was crazy about it. Fragedelphia inspired us to have a strong season.

Since that time you have signed two new players and a coach. Was it difficult for you to find new players? How long did you search and choose?

fejtZ was in interest, because from the day when we removed cxzi, and we were looking for a new player, fejtZ reached us. I watched some of his demos and tried to figure out how he’s playing this game. Of course, I knew him, but I wanted to see his role and style. I recognized that he can fit very easily into the team. I thought that he has global experience being a European player. It’s something valuable for the team. We didn’t just try him, it was just negotiations with the organization.

The second roster change was enforced. Our former player, aris, decided that he didn’t want to pursue CS anymore. He just decided to go through the traditional job and spend time with his family and friends. He understood that professional CS was not for him. When it happend, we started searching for someone who could fit.

We were looking for the best available players in the region. It was an extremely small pool. We got lucky that reck was interested to join us because even if we have a large pool, he was far from the best available players. But it worked very easily for us. It was a very smooth transition in terms of team integration. We’re playing a lot different in terms of stylistic approach because we have a lot of different skill levels in this team.

Some teams from North America, including yours, have taken players from Europe. Do you think this will be a new global trend in CS:GO that will help your region to develop?

I think it is almost necessary because, within North American CS, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to choose the right organization. The big organizations here are Team Liquid, Complexity, EG, Strife, Gaimin Gladiators, and ATK from South Africa. Without these opportunities, you can’t go to bootcamp in Europe or play overseas. It’s not the easiest way to develop that well. The player pool in North America is very small. I think that bringing the European players isn’t necessarily the way of the future to develop a scene, but it’s only one very strong way.

Evil Geniuses signed two additional rosters and made it like a big academy in CS:GO. What do you think about it? Should other big organizations in the region do the same?

?#CSGOesEVIL pic.twitter.com/B1rlFBmpFf

— EG CS:GO (@EGCSGO) June 2, 2022

I think that Team Liquid and Complexity should open academy teams as well, but they shouldn’t do like Evil Geniuses doing it. EG’s way is very unique, it’s also a cool idea, they can be very good. The problem is they didn’t release full information in regards to how the academy system will work, so the community has a lot of questions. They can all operate on completely different levels, so one team can be the true academy team, and play academy league in the future.

The other team, Party Astronauts, they’re gonna be like a regional team, playing like ESL Challenger, going to Pinnacle Cup like they’re currently, and Cash Cups in North America. The main team will just operate as the main roster, going to Pro League and BLAST. The one thing they spoke about when they did it. They want a battle tournament for teams. European teams just spent two hours on flights to each country, it’s no jet lag or anything. North American teams have to take fifteen days for every single tournament, and also so far away from our families. So a lot of NA players can be victims of burnout. I think it’s not a terrible idea. What they are doing is also great, because you take two teams, giving them a salary and opportunity that they can never have.

What do you think about College CS? Is that way to prepare young players for the competitive scene?

Academy Counter-Strike is interesting because it can be super beneficial. But I think that the problem is extremely underdeveloped at the moment. I think that over time it can get to the point where it’s a good thing. One of the issues I see with College CS is that they’re playing College leagues, but they are not taken seriously. A lot of teams will be playing against kids from the school or not the full roster or just a mix. It’s not the result that can be consistent. The cool thing is that all of the teams have a bootcamp facility at their universities, equipment to use, and sitting in front of each, which is super invaluable.

The problem is that you’re trying to completely develop players on the ground up because nobody at the top of NA CS or even EU is going to universities. So many players, unfortunately, don’t get it far into the game until they’re like 18-21. Like players who are already 22, think like why I need to go back to college now and grind so long. I think it would be beneficial, but I can’t say that it will be the future.

What about VALORANT? Did you try it? If yes, why didn’t you switch to it?

I did switch to VALORANT, I played for nine months, right when the game came out from Beta. I grinded hard. As I get older, I’ve got more responsibilities. I was looking for a job with a part time option (working on weekends). And when you work this way, you’re missing all tournaments in VALORANT, so I couldn’t work and put all of my time into the game, and I quit.

When I played it was so enjoyable. I know that a lot of CS players hate it, but VALORANT, is probably, the second-best team, I’ve ever played in terms of FPS shooter. I enjoy it.

Can North America come to the top again, like it was in 2019 when Team Liquid and NRG/Evil Geniuses were good?

I think that NA CS can return to the top again, but I think it will be a long process. This process is kind of due-part to the rosters that are kept built in NA. I think that someone that we experience in North America, which is sure Europe experience as well, is that we have a lot of ego and mentality issues. Because of that, there is like an ex-player, who will never play with another ex-player, so you don’t see the current roster build at the top.

But if I take the absolute best five players from North America, and put them in a team right now, I think they will already be like top-10 in the world in a couple of months. What happened in the past is tough, because we need opportunities to go to Europe, and you see a team like Complexity finally signed by a top organization, and now they have all the pressure to succeed. They like suffering from the success of signing to like big org because they are constantly being hated on. If they don’t do very well, they need to be dropped.

If they do decent, it’s not good, because they need to do good due to the history behind them. It’s just tough. I think that maybe within the next six months-two years, you will see two teams from NA at the top again. I know that ESL is requiring all Pro League teams to scrim ESL Challenger teams in North America like it’s a part of their contracts. It can help to bridge the gap a bit. In the past, it was not easy to schedule the praccs against top teams. I think that the future is bright for North America. We have a lot of talents, it just really comes down to time and opportunity.

ESL Pro League Conference Season 16 will take place in Jönköping, Sweden, starting 15 June until 20. 16 teams will fight for six slots for ESL Pro League Season 16.