“It really is get good or go play Valorant” - An interview with Shelf, Worik CS:GO Captain
Last Split, Worik CS finished in a respectable 2nd place in the NSE Challenger Bracket, and narrowly missed out on Varsity qualification, finishing 16th in NUEL.
I spoke to Daniel ‘Shelf’ Edwards, captain of Worik CS:GO, before the start of the Spring 22 Split, to discuss how he felt last Split went, and whether he thought Worik could be the first CS:GO team from Warwick Esports to challenge for a title since Winter 2018.
Harry ‘Sol4rys’ Redman: “After missing out on NUEL Varsity in the qualification playoffs and finishing second in the NSE Challenger bracket, how would you assess your performance in the Winter Split?”
Dan ‘Shelf’ Edwards: “I’d say that all things considered, as a team, we were disappointed by how we placed last split. We had a few close games that went against us, a few games where we were hindered by needing stand-ins and some where we didn’t show up as individuals in the server. This is coloured however with the caveat that we were bedding in two new players from the team that played in the summer split. We were also unable to get enough practice time in before the start of the season to form a sufficient basis due to people moving in etc.
When we started this year, I made it clear to the rest of the team that we were going to have an overhaul of the things we were doing previously and try to play a very organised style of play. In regards to that goal, I’d say that we definitely improved dramatically over the course of the split and are very confident with utilising our system to great effect in the games to come.”
You've tweaked your roster over the Christmas break, how do you think this change will benefit the team's performance?
“First of all, we are close as a team in and out of the server and that obviously makes roster moves hard to approach. They are however, at times, necessary and the reality is that with university-level Esports, players’ situations and priorities can change year to year. We switched Kannen (Cain) for DiabolicCarp (Matt) who had stood in for us earlier in the year due to extended player unavailability. I talked it all through with both players amicably and Kannen is now the captain of the new and improved second team project to develop new players, for which he has almost total autonomy.
The player switch was not an easy role change as, on the base level, Kannen is a more aggressive player than Matt. So we had to work out the roles and switch up positions on some maps. But as a second year, Matt has a lot more time to commit to the team and hence we were able to work out most of the wrinkles in good time.
Making this change at the start of the holidays allowed us a lot of time to practice over the winter break and we were able to scrim several times a week depending on availability. As a result of this we’re feeling quietly confident about the coming split.”
How do NUEL and NSE games compare to playing FACEIT? If you have to adapt the way you play, what do you think the reason for this is?
“Compared to other games, CS:GO has quite a strong emphasis on individual skill over team play and teams can get away with not putting much work into doing things together. There is a relatively clear disparity between good teams and teams that consist of good individuals, but haven’t put the work in to flourish as a unit. During the course of the season, you have to face both types and consequently have to be able to beat both coordinated teams, and teams that will test you individually all over the map and are in general more unpredictable.
For uncoordinated teams, there are several things you can abuse: primarily, their rotations and site takes and retakes will be sloppy so this can be punished; they will be disorganised around the map and vulnerable to unexpected pushes that we have practiced before and they won’t have seen in ‘pugs’ as they are too hard to pull off. Also, when things start going wrong, uncoordinated teams tend not to have mental resilience as a whole team and this leads to cracks in their defence that can be exploited when one or several players stop trusting each other’s calls. I’d say that mental resilience as a group is really the main thing that you gain from playing and practicing together outside of the tournament structure. It’s incredibly valuable to build up that level of trust in both the system and between all the members of the team so that when sh*t hits the fan, people can move on quickly and reset for the next round, safe with the knowledge that the best way forward in that game is as a unit.
Coordinated teams are when the fun comes in. This is when we get to play real CS. All of the aforementioned flaws will still apply, just to a lesser extent. This means that rather than focusing on punishing their disorganisation as a starting point, we get to beat them in the server. Now sometimes this just depends on who is shooting who in the head faster on that day, and this is a fact of Counterstrike - it really is get good or go play Valorant. But jokes aside, you need to be sharp or you won’t get to implement any of your game plan. When the field is even enough to prevent a blowout, then it becomes a game of the IGL’s(In game leaders). As a massive egomaniac, I enjoy this challenge because it really does turn CS into a game of minds with a few AK-47’s involved. This dynamic does turn the team aspect into something interesting as every player in the team is contributing to the match while it plays out but almost all of the calls will come from the IGL, so a level of trust and faith in leadership is necessary.
Another main thing about NSE and NUEL games is that in the later stages when you know your matchups the week before, we will watch the opposing team’s demos (previous game replays) and “counter-strat”. This can vary from knowing a certain kind of set play they like to make in certain situations, to looking at flaws in their rotation timing to identifying individuals that are commonly caught out and targeting them more during the match on “swing rounds” which all but determine the outcome of the next few rounds due to the in game economy.”
“What final standings would constitute a successful Spring Split in your opinion, are you expecting to improve on last split?”
“Anything aside from first place is less than we want to be aiming for right now. Obviously our own circumstances may change over the season and some other teams may come in stronger than expected, but I feel like the field is weak in both NSE and NUEL. Both tournaments are right there for the taking.”
Worik CS:GO have enjoyed a successful split so far, having made the upper bracket finals in NSE, knocking out Winter Champions 'Rush Bee' in the previous round. Additionally, they are currently placed third in the NUEL Open Championship going into the final week, where winning both games in Week 5 will see them qualify for the Varsity prize playoffs.