LTH: “If I upset someone every LAN, maybe I’m just better than you think”

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Lorenzo “LTH” Venanzi is a player that has become known for turning up to LAN and taking a number of upsets. Last LAN out the team he was with, 7PM, knocked out ROYALS to a top eight finish. This time around, he and his flowstate roster took out frogians, The Bald, The Gothic and the Squid Nose and 4NR Disposal to a top sixth finish.

LTH, thank you for speaking to me. You’ve just come off a loss in the lower bracket, but before we get to that, I just want to talk about your journey to this LAN. Performance at group stage, and things like that. So how? So I think the first question is just how did the team you currently play with formed?

So basically it’s kind of a long story. I won’t bore you with the details but…

Do it!

Okay, I’ll bore you with the details. After every LAN, I do way better than I expect. So I always get really motivated, I’m like, “OK next LAN, I’ll get it sorted, super early. I’ll get a really good team. We’ll get top two” or something, right. And this time, I did try and sort it really early. But then basically players just ditched me one by one. For various reasons, but I had four players that were very solid.

We were KicA, Heartles, well Heartles is like, okay, he’s decent. finui and, um, myself. Yeah. And then we were looking for plus one who, you know, we kind of had a guy lined up a little bit but, you know, I’m not gonna shout them out but, y’know.

But then KicA joins a different team. They obviously perform worse than us. I had no doubt, but anyway. He leaves us, joins genetexe. Then finui had like, a family meeting or something, so I don’t blame him too much for that, but clearly didn’t believe in the dream run now that we lost KicA.

That’s how we got here essentially. Doodlies pick up at 1am on Wednesday night.

So it was me and Heartles, basically. We got, we picked up my team’s coach, because he was going to come coach us anyway, so it was just simple to set it up. And then we also picked up SigmaW, then because he’s just a really good friend of mine, but he hasn’t played the game like a while, he hasn’t really played CS2. So it was a not, you know, an ideal pick up.

So do we were five again, and then like the day before LAN, Heartless ditches us for Sorex’s team. And we pick up Doodlies at 1 am.

And funnily enough Sorex’s team… let’s say they have some issues to sort out, I don’t know. I don’t want to, you know, antagonise people for no reason, but it was quite funny they ended up getting grouped with the level of calibre players that they have.

And it’s kind of funny to where I managed to get with the level of players I had. Um, Yeah, that’s how we got here essentially. Doodlies pick up at 1 am Wednesday night.

So literally the day of LAN? 

Yeah. Yeah actually yeah. That was Thursday morning technically.

And despite all that you still managed to come top six. You just lost a very close, it was 2-0, It was a very close match against Soul’s Land.

Yeah. We were actually like I think 12-7, 12-8 on that first map/ I mean we definitely could have won that. They are definitely a good team though, and it’s not like the end of the world. I think I’m so tired. Like I was not expecting to make it this far and my seed’s been awful.

So I’m happy with where we’ve gotten to. Actually funnily enough, I’m pretty sure the last four LANs have I’ve gone to at EPIC, I went top 16 then top 12, then Top 8 and now Top 6. So next time, I’m lining up for the top four. Hopefully.

I’m somewhat famous-ish for my scheming, because I basically anti-strat literally every single game

So actually I thought we’re gonna get grouped, I was like 90% sure we were gonna get grouped because we played some pugs, some pracs against like really bad players, and we got smashed every single time.

But I was kind of just trying stuff, obviously, to have it ready for LAN and strats and stuff, weren’t playing for the win necessarily. I was kind of just going with the vibe, I was gonna have fun with it, and then like Thursday night I’m just like, “okay no, I’m full focused.”

Thursday night when I got here I started scheming. I’m somewhat famous-ish for my scheming, because I basically anti-strat literally every single game, way ahead of time and way deeper than people know.

I don’t admit to how deep the anti-stratting goes. Like last LAN, I was telling Heartles’ team to get drunk the night before our best-of-three, and then we ended up upsetting them 2-0. Yeah, no. We barely scraped out of the group pretty much, because we got put in pot four and we were in the group of death.

Which is quite funny with pot four because we ended up top six, obviously, which I guess is like pot two or something. Would really have expected that of a pot two team. But yeah, we just took the games, one by one. I prepared us really well, I want to say, for each game for each bo3 especially. Group stage, it’s always kind of shaky for me. My stats were like okay, but then in the playoffs I think I I actually carried pretty hard, while also basically micromanaging the entire team the whole time. So I’m IGL’ing the entire roster and also top fragging every game.

A hard burden to carry?

Yeah. But to be honest, I think, like, a lot of these upsets I do, because it’s been like three LANs in a row I’ve, you know, upset people. You know, I’m not going to say I’m an insane player and on paper I should be better than these guys, but maybe people should start considering that maybe I’m just not bad at the game. You know, instead of it’s an upset every time. Because, if I upset someone every LAN, you know, maybe I’m just better than you think I am.

And also another thing is obviously, I never ever play for stats. I always play for the win as you can tell. I mean, I had good stats in these playoffs, but that was just because I identified that I need to get a lot of frags on this team, because no one else will. Whereas if I have, like last LAN I had Igorek, I tree60, I had some very solid players and KicA as well.

I was like, okay, I’ll take a little bit of a backseat. I’ll pull them, efficiently to use the pieces well. This LAN I’m like, okay, maybe we’re lacking firepower. I’m gonna chug some Monsters, 5,000 Aim Botz kills. I’ll take care of the frags, I’ll send them in and I’ll trade them, you know? Whereas usually it’s the opposite, if I have those sorts of teammates. Like and yeah, I’ve just one by one anti-stratted every team. Micromanage everyone on T-sides. Called all the rotations for everyone on CT-side and gamble stacks, stuff like that.

So it’s obviously like you’re an incredibly smart player, you know, how the pieces go. I’m aware you’ve played on a couple teams before, but where are you currently in your competitive situation? 

Yeah. Actually, so we made a new team now, very recently and we’re looking for an organisation. It’s with called Project X on ESEA Main, or FACEIT now I guess.

And it’s me finui, who was gonna come to this LAN but had a family meetup. And then it’s an international team, it’s not a UK one. We have Jun1, from Slovenia, and then we have two Finnish players in Lyd and zes1. We’ve just started ESEA Main, we’ve played official and we lost it. But it was unlucky, I would say.

I’ve played quite a few seasons of Main. I’ve never got to playoffs, but I would call myself an ESEA main level player at least in general.

Which then sort of makes sense of where you’re coming in at LANs, which is not necessarily having reached the finals yet, but definitely always like touching quarterfinals, deep lower bracket…

I do think, I do play better at LAN. So I guess some of them are upsets that shouldn’t be happening. But I think also it’s just when it’s a longer form tournament, I always get into it a lot more, I like a slow start and then picking up the pace in like, play-offs and stuff like that.

So something that’s slightly different, something that’s a bit unique about you. At the end of the last year, you got put into a CS:GO map. So how does that sort of come about, and what does that sort of represent? 

So essentially how I got it is, I’m actually like a, quote unquote, wingman player. we’ll say.

I’ve won quite a few like, higher tier wingman tournaments. One of the tournaments had the price literally being, it was hosted by a mapmaker, Quoting. And he said basically the prize was like x money, I don’t remember how much, and then you get your name in the next wingman map that he makes.

So then literally, we won the tournament, it was very nerve-wracking because there’s always pressure in finals and stuff like that, right? Then he makes his next map and it’s got LTH and then KevinS, KevinS is my Wingman duo, that has now gone to play in the NA scene, kind of. So my wingman duo is gone, sadly.

But yeah, that’s how I got it, essentially. Which is funny because most other graffitis are like you know s1mple, coldzero, things like this. So, I’m technically, I’m like one of what? Eight people, nine people who has a graffiti in the game, which is kind of funny, but, you know, I’m kind of proud of it.

Obviously, it’s not a major, fucking, MVP moment, but it’s kind of cool. Yeah, I’m there.

So, CS2 is a brand new game. What are the main sort of differences you’ve spotted playing, especially compared online to LAN, and also between the two LAN versions from previous LANs.

Yeah, I think definitely, the main thing is, this peeker’s advantage issue. I don’t even know if it’s like, an issue or if it’s just the new game now. Essentially, because the way I see it like, utility can be disrespected so much more now. Especially running through smokes, is not a a death wish anymore, running through a molly even, isn’t as much of a death wish anymore.

So the way I see, at least, I think the matter is going to develop to the point where people aren’t going to respect smokes at nearly as much. I’m already seeing that in scrims a lot, where people are just holding W through a smoke. They’re not even jumping to get your crosshair away to get traded.

They’re going for the kill themselves, and it works sometimes, and it’s really annoying because I play B on Inferno and you rely on the smokes. At least that’s what the CS:GO meta was, right? You just smoke it off and you’re “fine”. You kill one or two if they jump through. And now you’re always dead one for one, I want to say.

Is that peeker’s advantage better or worse on LAN or is it it just more more less the same? 

I want to say, I can’t really tell. Because I’ve played so much better on LAN compared to online recently. I’m not sure, I would imagine this is a little bit better because… Yeah. I think it’s a little bit better because I felt like I could hold some angles. Whereas online it was literally to the point of, if I was holding an angle, I might as well be dead.

Because there’s no chance. Now, if he swings this corner, I’m just dead. Whereas on LAN, I don’t know if it’s worse players. Sometimes there were worse players on some teams. I’m used to playing main teams all the time. I think it felt slightly better, especially against the better teams it felt that I could hold angles every now and then. Even though it is clearly still there, a lot more than it should be, in my opinion.

I’m pretty much out of questions, unless there’s something you want to bring up or someone to shout out?

I mean I think like I said, my team’s looking for an org, that’s kind of the main thing. And I’ll say this. Please contact me for next LAN. I need good players. Thank you. I don’t want to chat shit on my teammates too much, they did great.

But you want to plan it, at least like a couple weeks in advance?

Like on paper. Two of them, haven’t even played the game since CS2 came out. Bish played really well this event, mind you, but he barely has Main experience as a player. And then deuce is literally my coach and hasn’t played competitively since like, 10 years ago.

So, on paper… We should be getting grouped probably or maybe just scraping into playoffs. I don’t know.