Rory “dephh” Jackson is the coach of the best team in NA, but his roots lie on the other side of the pond. As a British man himself, M80 will be treated well by the BLAST Open London crowd as he stands behind the American and German squad.
Returning to a London stage for the first time in seven years, dephh has brought a squad of plucky underdogs through a gruelling lower bracket to taste that UK crowd once more. With victories over established teams like Virtus.Pro and Na’Vi, dephh believes the sky is the limit for M80 at this event.
Sitting down with UKCSGO, dephh talks about his experience with UK CS as he was on the up, getting to play an event on home soil again and his hopes and expectations for M80 for this event.
Firstly, welcome home. How does it feel to be playing an event on home soil?
The last time I had an event here, I think it might have been the London Major. A Long fucking time ago.
So the last time you were was the Major quarter finals at the Faceit Major. Does that invoke any feelings of being home?
I don’t know, I never associate London as being my home, too much. But it’s nice to see UK fans and meet UK fans, because you’re normally everywhere else except the UK. It’s kind of special to be back.
Talk me through the expectations at this event, between facing Vitality straight away and adding a new player.
It’s one of those where, because we were so low VRS rank, pretty much any tournament we go into, we have to play one of the best teams in the world. I think little expectations for that, and I think the fact that we played so well in that first game was a really big confidence boost. Playing a team like that first in a double elimination bracket, you always feel like, “if we have a good game here, we can carry it on throughout the tournament.”
Do you think the low expectation helped you in that lower bracket run?
When we signed HexT, we went to Fragedelphia, we did okay and came second with zero practice. Then we had the NA run, where no team could beat us. Afterwards, we came to Europe and did some practice. We had some added confidence because we were playing a lot of Tier-1 teams in practice and were smoking a lot of them. So we were doing really well in practice. So I think it’s composed of a few different things.
I don’t even think that making it here [BLAST Open London Finals] is what we should congratulate ourselves on; we want to have good results here, too.
Speaking of that Vitality game. The conditions weren’t the best for your players because you’d finished a best-of-three in the early hours of the morning, right? How did your players manage to work around that?
So what happened was, and we haven’t really spoken about this too much. We were on the player break, and I was away. We’d accepted the ECL Cup, and then two weeks before the event even started, we said, “Hey, there’s a conflict here between tournaments.” We asked ESL if we could pull out, and they refused.
So we knew that BLAST was going to be in EU and our ECL games were going to be in NA. Then we realised after that first game, when people were so cooked, that we were like “we can’t do this anymore.” So we had to forfeit the other games. I think after that first day, everyone was a bit giddy when waking up. It’s even less pressure, we are so fucking tired, we are playing Vitality, let’s just go for it.
Qualifying for the playoffs here, does it feel like a relief after a poor end to the season at the Austin Major?
I feel like [PGL] Astana is when we should have made a change. I’m kind of glad we didn’t now, because the Austin Major lit a fire under people’s arses. Now, since adding HexT, we’ve filled a void that had been missing in the team. I don’t even think that making it here is what we should congratulate ourselves on; we want to have good results here, too.
As you said, you added Hext not that long ago. What kind of changes does he bring both inside and outside the server?
Once Mario (Malbs) left, and he went to G2, we lost the vibes guy, and we couldn’t recoup that. I was trying to get some of the other players to step up into that role and be the glue of the team, but you can’t do that unnaturally.
Hext instantly filled the void that we were missing. He always keeps it non-serious, a funny guy that we can joke around with. I think that’s what we are seeing right now in Tier-1, especially, if you don’t get it right, it’s not just in terms of how they play in the server, but also how they act as a team together. Na’Vi losing a guy like JL, for example.
A lot of NA teams are struggling at the moment, whereas you guys are on the rise. Does that add any pressure to represent your region?
No, I don’t think so. A lot of the NA orgs are pulling out because of financial problems. I feel like we’ve collected a few of the fans from the other NA teams. I don’t think that has added any pressure, really.
[Ahead of BLAST Open London Finals games] I will do a speech before we play, and we’ll talk in the practice room, but I think, honestly, not focusing on it too much and keeping your prep very similar to what you did online is the key.
You yourself have a lot of experience, whereas the players underneath you are younger and more inexperienced. Do you find your role as a coach even more important as a consequence of that, both inside and out of the server?
I can give them pointers a point but I think a lot of it is just experiencing it themselves. I think it is the first time experiencing the crowd for a few of them. So just taking that all in. I don’t think anything beats experiencing it yourself.
I can only say so many things for these guys before they just have to experience it themselves. No one’s completely inexperienced; everyone’s been to LANs before, everyone’s been to Majors. I don’t think it’s like such a culture shock, but definitely, in front of a crowd with this many people can sometimes be a little scary.
Speaking of that crowd, and as you say, a few of your team will be stage debutants. Will you give any sort of speeches to the players ahead of the stage matches? Or did you say go out and enjoy it?
I will do a speech before we play, and we’ll talk in the practice room, but I think, honestly, not focusing on it too much and keeping your prep very similar to what you did online is the key. They will feel the emotions they feel, we can talk about it after, and then the next time we do it, it will be better and better. Then they can get so comfortable like the Tier-1 guys we’re going to be playing against, it’s just second nature because they’ve done it so many times now.
What are your expectations against MOUZ?
I think that MOUZ is another team that isn’t looking as strong as they have in the past. I think it’s a really good time for a team like us to capitalise. If we played Mouz six months, a year ago, it’s a totally different story. If we played Na’Vi a year ago, totally different story and even Vitality six months ago, unbeatable. I’m seeing the Tier-1 teams struggling, and that gives us the best opportunity to come out and surprise people.
I think that MOUZ is another team that isn’t looking as strong as they have in the past. I think it’s a really good time for a team like us to capitalise. If we played Mouz six months, a year ago, it’s a totally different story.
It has been a minute since you’ve been playing UK CS. Do you still pay attention to the scene, and if so, have there been any players that have caught your eye?
I’m pretty bad with it, to be honest. I don’t think I’ve kept up with any UK CS at all. I always congratulate mezii when I see him doing so well.
I don’t always have the fondest memories of UK CS because back in the day, I was getting called a cheater. I went to LAN, and you know how some of the UK personalities are. However, the best players always find a way out. I’ve also heard good news about some of the grassroots players coming up. Hopefully, we can get some more people representing UK CS. All I’m going to say is that all the UK guys go to international rosters. There has to be some core issue that’s not being addressed.
