The Last Resort has had a bumpy time coming into EPIC.LAN 42. With people constantly on holiday and having to play with stand-ins, their turbulence was further accentuated by their IGL Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles leaving for another team. As we enter LAN, they have been utilising the brains of Marco “MMS” Salomone as a stand-in who has aided in them making the Upper Bracket Semi-Finals.
Before their game versus Verdant Elliott “Fett1s” Fettis sat down with UKCSGO to talk about their LAN, their roster issues, and his venture into coaching.
Starting off, you had a very good first day and went through to the upper bracket semi-finals against Verdant. Were you expecting it to go this well considering the roster issues you’ve had recently?
Yes, I would say so. There are not too many of the top teams here at the moment, a lot of people are undergoing roster changes including us. We know especially because Rhys will give us structure and calls based on our strats but we know Marco [MMS] has a lot more experience overall. He is calling, is a very vocal player, and helps a lot. I definitely think we expected this result.
How has it been playing with MMS more than you have said?
When we went through iterations of IGLs, everyone was different. AdamJC for instance was a bit more supportive and a bit more vocal, Rhys was slightly a bit more strat-heavy, Marco is passive and aggressive. He is making the moves and always calling for aggression and does very well.
Coming into this LAN, a lot of people put Verdant put them as the favourites and you as the runners-up, how do you see your chances against them in the semi-finals?
They are very good, and speaking realistically, they are better than we are. They have a full five with a lot of experience and should win. Coming into the next days we are a lot more comfortable with the calling under Marco, people are starting to com more, open their shells, and offer stuff. Fizzy is talking a lot more and coming different ideas which is really nice to hear. This definitely favours us more but Verdant at 1pm tomorrow is difficult. Winning that would be nice but in the lower bracket, we should beat most teams that are there.
You mentioned you guys are warming up into the LAN more, Flicky also mentioned this to me, as a coach how do you assist with this?
Tell them to talk more and don’t baby them by fist-bumping them and patting them on the back, but by joking around. The reason why Marco has won a lot of LANs is because he is a very good person, funny and talkative. He brings up the mood. This brings it out in the players and helps them more to communicate, now everyone feels a lot better.
With Cher1on we have only played with him for 6 weeks so it suits him better as he can trust Marco to be next to him.
Talking about this roster changes, starting chronologically. Talk to me about AdamJC leaving, the Flicky debacle, and why you picked up Rhys.
So originally with Adam, he wasn’t the lover of James [Flicky]. He is a big confidence AWPer so when he starts missing shots it gets to him, I think that didn’t jell well with Adam. Eventually, Adam wanted to remove James and we looked at other AWPers such as Vonex who was pretty good, but not at the experience we needed. We want to get to the next level in Advanced and need someone with that experience.
After that Adam realised he didn’t want to play and wanted to enjoy his free time, granted to him he is very much enjoying it. I can tell because he is a lot happier as a person and I am not being flamed for being fat 100 times a day anymore [laughs]. So Adam left and the reason why we got Rhys was because he was a vocal IGL, we had good players, and he is good friends with Connor [Bigun007]. In general, it just worked, he was always a voice and helped with good dedication. It also helped that he was full time so then we could technically take invitational offers. We played in United21, which was a bit of a mess as we had to use Marco and Vonex for stand-ins. Connor was on holiday, James had a holiday and then Connor worked full-time, James sometimes couldn’t play.
Rhys has now gone to the team with wfn, Prime, moz and Karrar for Advanced which is 100% fair. It is an upgrade for him to play in a better league. Our schedule coming up is terrible. We have had holiday, holiday, holiday, now Rhys has left, now we have LAN and then a week of holiday after LAN. It literally doesn’t end, it is so hectic. I don’t blame Rhys for leaving, for him prospectively it is a great choice, for me, screwed.
Right now we are trying to look for an IGL. Potentially if we get a very good rifler, we can put IGL duties to Fizzy or Cher1on but I don’t think this will be the best level. I respect Rhys’ decision overall, we still talk to him and don’t hate him, it is just CS at the end of the day.
You mentioned you wanted to go to the next level with the team and you were heading in that direction.
We we’re playing a lot better, systems were working, Rhys was doing well, and people were starting to adjust with Cher1on as well. Everyone was just getting better.
So how do you bounce back now?
The season is going to be rough and I will have to stand-in for some games. I know I can IGL but I know I am always better suited in a coach slot. When I have a whole view of the game I can tell the issues and reactions, what we need to do, and what they need to do. When you IGL you naturally start to tunnel vision so you don’t get the broader perspective which will be tough.
We will play some UKIC with me and hopefully, within that time, we will trial some people and find someone who is willing to play.
Are you looking for UK CS IGL or just anyone?
Yeah, we can go EU and get anyone. Anyone that can call.
You previously played at a high level, when did you realise you had a better perspective to coach?
Back when I was playing with Havik I really enjoyed my time but I came out of uni but I came out of uni with some mental health issues. This was the original reason why I left Buzzkill, it was getting too much. I got a small job at Tesco so I knew I could call and build that up, however, I then got a full-time job. When you get a full-time job and try to IGL you realise it is hard trying to get to your top peek. I also have an essential tremor so most people know I shake my hand when I hold my mouse, not fun, don’t want to do it. When you get worse it just feels like there is no point.
I also think my individual level was not where I wanted it to be, and not at the level of the players I wanted to play with. I decided I knew I could have good impact in a game from a coach slot. I am obviously good friends with AdamJC for six years so we agreed I would come coach K10 at that point. It worked so I continued it.
Are you looking to take coaching further?
Yeah definitely. I think I can obviously improve my knowledge and get better, it is where I can improve. We have always found in my teams or when we were under K10 or TLR, we are a step below Advanced and the full-time teams, so every full-time player would try to come through us. Tree60 came through us and went full-time, AdamJC tried to go full-time but didn’t. We are on that brink and I think I am too.
It fully depends if I can find a team that is good enough to give me the money. CS obviously is not for life and not a secure job. I currently have a secure job so it is whether I want to leave that secure job for something like CS. You have that parental aspect, I still live at home and want to move out, therefore I need the money to do so. I have spoken to my parents before when I have had other opportunities but not monetary. I cannot quit a job that pays me full-time for one that pays me a fifth of it, my parents would be livid, and I would get chucked out.
What is it like coming to EPIC.LAN and being a coach, not playing?
It is enjoyable because you can scream and have your input but don’t directly affect the game. I am not missing a kill or whatever that is detrimental. It is enjoyable because you can have that social aspect, I don’t have to DM between games. Naturally, I have to watch demos and anti strat Verdant for example. But when we are winning a game someone will come next to me and I can chat with them for two minutes, even though I should be paying attention when you are 10-0 up you can take the headset off a little bit.
I like it a lot, obviously, I am the only one here. I impact it less because I am not on the server.
What is it like coaching on LAN compared to online?
I think I can read the game in the server when you hear the sounds, see the people, and flicking through. But when you are sitting behind them you only see the screens and listen to coms so you can’t really tell what the enemy is doing. You just hope the team gives you the information for you to work with. It is even worse online because everyone has terrible PCs for Discord streams so I only get one POV, it is the worst ever. When you have one person just jiggling an angle I cannot have any impact.
