UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn caught up with Arctic Raptors’ new IGL godkU, who is attending i69 with Horus esport. In the interview he explained the transition to his new role, the changes the Raptors have made and their less than ideal start to the season.
You are now transitioning to an IGL role within Arctic Raptors what has that change been like?
It’s quite interesting to be honest, I have been an IGL the whole time I have played. At the end of TT9 which is like Dagthepimple and those guys, we brought in relux. He’s been an IGL but we brought him in as a player and it wasn’t working so we switched him to IGL, it still wasn’t really working so I decided to leave. Then I had a trial with Legates and it went super well, just as a player and it just happened that I hadn’t called in a while. But I have traditionally always been a IGL.
You’ve recently made changes, can you break down why those were made?
We struggled to find a role with xey quite a lot. There were discussions last season, before I even joined, about removing him. He was putting in work and trying but it just wasn’t really working, he wanted to play the more banging spots like outside on Nuke but he wasn’t having enough impact. As well we had someone waiting like C60 who said he really wanted to play for us, so it just worked out.
Who on your squad has the final decision on removing players?
Its kind of awkward because it was xey’s ESEA spot but Zach, seiren, is a big personality so he has a lot of sway but it was a mutual thing. Trouto has his input but he’s just like a quiet guy.
What’s it like to play with a big personality like seiren?
Its interesting, like in-game I need to keep him on a leash sometimes and pull him back but when you let him off sometimes its really good. Like on Nuke we play really slow and structured and then one round I will tell him to do what he wants and he will swing back red and kill three with their nades out. It works well.
As a caller how important is it to have those loose cannon type players?
Yeah I think it is quite important, like I have been in teams before that have got so used to me giving input every round that when I don’t call they are just sat waiting for stuff to be said. Which can get pretty bad where like, I can only help in one part of the map so I need people to be able to do their own thing. Something that has helped me a lot in this team, is I give people a lot of space. So like on Nuke for example, the door player I can tell them to search, and they will go and do their own thing try and find a pick.
You had a bit of a slow start to the ESEA season, you went 0-3 and now you are 2-3, what are your expectations for the season?
I have really good expectations, I think we can do really well. It started off a bit rough because we had seiren on holiday for two weeks. So we pracced for two weeks and then Zach went away. So we played one without Zach with a stand-in and one without Trouto as well, so at the time our two best players were away. It was hard to call in that environment with no practice stand-ins. Then as soon as we got our full five we played LowlandLions on Nuke which is their best map and we were basically mixing it with no practice so it was really hard. Now it’s going good, though.
Just about EJR he is on trial, what is the story behind that?
We hadn’t originally planned to kick Naoh it was his decision himself, like he’s really good friends with xey and we just let him decide if he wanted to stay. It could have gone either way and he mulled over the decision for a while but decided to leave which is fair play. EJR was discussed like if Naoh leaves we can get him in and trial him. He made the decision Sunday night and we had a ESEA game on the Monday, so we were like I’ll bring you in right now. Like usually you want to trial a few people and get to know them but because it was so quick we said we will bring him in and play him for our ESEA games and make a decision at the end of the week.
Now talking about the LAN, you are here with Horus, so a basic question: why attend LAN as a mix?
For me we couldn’t attend with my team, it was quite last minute, like with my team they are not that happy to go to Insomnia compared to EPIC. Like with all the issues they would rather go to EPIC in October.
What would you say you get out of playing with your current teammates here with Horus, like how is it playing with them?
I’m good friends with a few of them; sorex, I met him at my first Insomnia and I’ve been friends with Alex for ages. I’m enjoying playing with them and it’s good fun outside of the server though, like chilling at the Airbnb and stuff like that.
What would you say your expectations are at this tournament?
I would say we are really inconsistent, like we have players who on one map can drop 30 and then maps where people just aren’t in the server. I think on our day we can beat any team, like we almost beat jackB’s team and they beat EKO. We were 12-10 up and they had Deagles, a force buy, and we lost to that, then lost 13-16. If we don’t lose to pistols there we beat jackB’s team who is the best team here.
Speaking of a mix doing really well, do you think its a positive or negative?
I really think the mix vs team thing is downplayed on LAN. There is so much more pressure and like less sound on LAN that even if you come with a team you are more mixing it, you don’t really want to do set plays and stuff. It can be a lot harder on LAN. So I don’t think its that bad especially when you have mixes with really good players in.
We are trying to establish how sustainable these LANs are in the UK and if you don’t mind answering how much did it cost you to attend this LAN?
I’m quite lucky because this LAN was funded by Heartless and Horus so I didn’t have to pay for anything, so that’s a special situation. I think if it wasn’t funded I don’t think I would be here.
Finally, what player on your mix has the highest potential?
I think prime for sure. He’s really good, there’s a few players who are really good that I play with. With prime he can be passive aggressive sometimes but he’s never wrong so you just got to be like fair play my bad with it.
