8Sins entered EPIC.LAN 44 with a chip on their shoulder after struggling to prove themselves online since the latest roster changes. Currently sitting 5-6 in ESEA Main and 1-3 in UKIC Divison 1, they came to Kettering intending to pick up the pace.
Not only were 8Sins the first team to qualify for the Grand Finals, but they did so by beating favourites and back-to-back champions ALASKA.
After their victory against ALASKA UKCSGO sat down with IGL John “Dutchy” Holland to talk about their LAN, the win over ALASKA, and his transition back to playing.
What made you transition to a coach in the first place?
It wasn’t really a choice, it was more a lack of time. I had just started my second year of uni and with my girlfriend and family, it was kind of impossible to put as much time into playing as I wanted in terms of least IGLing. So for me, coaching was something I could do more part-time, especially if I could coach in the evenings.
What was the transition from coach to player like?
It’s been up and down, to be honest. It’s been especially hard because of CS2, the game is just so different to CSGO. Especially for me as an IGL, someone who wants to like set and hold and play tactics. CS2 is a lot more of it just running and holding W so that’s the main learning curve is just hold W and not fucking stop. Just go go go. But other than that it has been good, especially this team. It is basically former best mates out of CS on this team, so that’s been comfortable.
You had the addition of Wolfie recently with yourself. Is that something that you chose yourself to bring on board?
I’ve known Andrew for ages and we came up together. We’ve played CS since we were 15. Six years, coming up to seven years now. We went to our first LAN together in Scotland and went to EPIC 26. When we wanted to get playing again, and we wanted to update the roster, he was just the obvious choice. He is a beast.
EPIC.LAN: How are you finding the event? How does it compare to prior years?
It’s been good. I’m glad the format is more similar to what older EPIC.LAN has been. Not in terms of the groups, but in terms of the playoffs. The playoffs are more similar to what it’s been. Everything else feels pretty much the same, which I guess is good because I’ve been to the KCC [Kettering Conference Centre] too many times and I don’t really want it to change.
Dutchy back on the server for EPIC.LAN 44
Being undefeated and having a string of overtimes, how has EPIC.LAN 44 been so far?
On an individual level, I’ve been fucking life gaming every game. I don’t know how, I don’t even think I’m a good clutcher, but I have won basically every single clutch I’ve played and some of them are the most impact rounds of the game. It is actually ridiculous but everyone else as well has been stepping up. Everyone has been doing well and we’ve been squeezed through these games. The most CS ever with our overtime games, but we’re all just dragging each other through it, to be honest.
With a lot of people expecting ALASKA to make the upper bracket run, how does it feel to defeat the favourites?
Better than anything in my career to be honest. Before I took my break I played the same roster, the same four of them or the same three of them at least about a million times. Every single time we played them we’d lose in a close game every single time. So then for me, they are the final boss of UK CS.
Do you feel as though if you see him again tomorrow, you’ll be able to defeat them?
I definitely think it’s gonna be a hard game, but I think they’ll probably give us a bit more respect. They’re also gonna be a bit more tired, so that’s on our side. But I still think we’ve got a good chance.
Who do you want to face tomorrow in the final and who do you think you’ll face?
I want to play Dusty. I want the rematch from my last final against Dusty. I probably would bet my house on it being ALASKA, to be honest.
How do you think your team managed to gain an edge over ALASKA?
I think a lot of it was done in the map pool. We had a good map on them, we know Inferno is not a comfortable map for them. Our map pool is gonna clash because they’ve got Nuke on us, which is really strong for them and it’s kind of hard for us to go away from Nuke, so they can get a free map.
Right now on Train, no one knows what the fuck they doing, and no one has any idea what’s happening. It’s just a coin-flip and that benefits us.
Then we played Inferno which is kind of a free map, It was so close, but we got a free map. Then because of the map pool changes the third map was Train. Right now on Train, no one knows what the fuck they are doing, and no one has any idea what’s happening. It’s just a coin-flip and that benefits us. We know we’re the underdogs, but we know individually we can be better than them and today we were, so Train just allowed us to show that.
