At just 18, Oscar “AZUWU” Bell is considered to be one of the best up-and-coming UK players that we have seen in a good while. The 1PIN rifler has recently been given high praise on HLTV confirmed and continues to have impressive performances in ESEA Advanced and the RMR Open Qualifier. After coming off his third win at i69, AZUWU sat down with UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn to discuss being considered a prodigy, UK stars rifling instead of AWPing and narrowly missing out on the RMR.
You just went up against who many people consider the favourites here, what are your expectations for EKO?
I think they should win it, the closest team is Temperate.
Now to speak a bit about you, you were recently mentioned on HLTV confirmed, how does it feel to get that kind of recognition?
Yeah that was cool, I watch it quite a lot and it is a big thing so it was cool.
Do you feel like you are beginning to get the recognition you deserve?
I mean I haven’t been in the scene for too long. I am grinding my way up, but I’m finally getting there.
Do you think there’s any pressure on you being a ‘prodigy’?
A little bit. I don’t really feel the pressure, like when I’m playing with the team.
In scene people are comparing you to mezii and players like that, is it nice to have the support of the whole UK scene behind you?
Yeah I think I have always had a lot of support in the UK scene, but it is nice yeah.
Speaking of young stars, the past UK stars always used to be AWPers, now we are seeing a lot of rifles do you think there’s any particular reason for that shift?
I don’t know. I think AWPing has become a harder role, like with utility. Now when you play mirage you see three instant window smokes. I feel it is a lot easier to become a rifler than an AWPer, like when you look at the teams now you see less and less AWPing IGLs.
1PIN have just come off a heart-breaking loss, you almost made the major RMR. What’s next for you guys?
Well we can’t play the next RMR because I’m here, so we are just going grind HLTV games and ESEA advanced to make playoffs. Hopefully we can play the RMRs for the next major and make it there.
In that run you beat SAW, what was that feeling like in the team?
Yeah, that was a pretty hype game (laughs) I have a clip of wolfie screaming. Nah that was amazing, it put us top 50ish so it was quite big.
Would you say that’s the highlight of your career so far?
Yeah I would say so. I played a pug yesterday and I’m getting mentions from Portuguese people asking me to sign their profile so its like a international thing not just a UK thing.
The game afterwards, in the heart-breaking loss you were 15-14 up on overpass. Have you managed to mentally bounce back from that?
Yeah like we made a run in the tournament we aren’t going to give up straight away. Obviously it was a tough loss but there’s rounds like that that you misplay and you lose games. We never should of lost that game.
You are here instead of doing the RMR, what do you get out of going to these events?
Its just fun to see people. I had wolfie ask me to skip this iseries to play the qualifier, but I had already paid for the ticket. It’s just a lot of fun to see people. Especially as I’m with earl and others who I was in my past team with, so its fun to play with them again.
Do you think mixing is a positive or a negative for LANs?
Ummm, I don’t know. It can be negative when, you know a mix won the last EpicLAN and that’s a negative for any teams going there because a team should be winning against mixes. I think its still positive, you still want to play and win you just aren’t on a team.
Why would you say that the big teams aren’t going to these LANs?
The main thing for us is the prize pool, they don’t have many international sponsors or anything. Iseries has a pretty bad reputation now for these servers and stuff, a lot more people want to go to EPIC now instead of iseries. There’s not many UK LANs and the prize money isn’t much.
Talking about the cost of LAN how much, if you don’t mind saying, did it cost you a lot to come here?
Well I’ve only payed for my ticket, imp staying at Oscar’s house as he lives quite close. So I haven’t payed for accommodation. For the last iseries i paid about £200, maybe I won’t come to the next iseries as its quite expensive. We will see.
As we have said you are now gaining a international reputation, it must feel weird to answer this as you are still so young but what would you say to others who are aspiring to play CS at a high level?
Just work at it. Putting in hours is the most important thing, as long as you are putting in the hours and making sure you are improving as a player you are eventually going to climb the ranks. That’s what I did.
Obviously there’s a chance you leave the UK scene if you get a international offer, if that happens what would you look back on most fondly?
I love the UK scene, I’ve met a lot of nice people here and I have only played in UK teams so far.
