Leicester 5 have been absolutely dominating Insomnia 69, from beating other mixes to beating favourites EKO. Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles, who mixed at the most recent EPIC.LAN as well took the time to speak to UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn about the state of Insomnia, joining his new org and whether BLVKHVND made the right decision by benching Tim “TIMMO” Musters.
At the last LAN you told UKCSGO that you expected to be drinking earlier than you were, what are your expectations for this LAN?
I think the expectations of the mix overall was obviously to place well, I think with the teams here we kind of expected to be the third best out of everyone because you’ve got Temperate and EKO who are the actual teams. So us as a mix, coming in third or even pushing to make the final is kind of where we are aiming for and I think so far we have kind of proven that we can. It’s looking good for where we want to get to.
Obviously, you guys are a mix, what does it say about the UK scene when mixes are winning? For example, you guys beat EKO? Is it a positive or a negative?
I mean this is the first good mix I’ve been in, I think the last mix was obviously just friends and stuff that I went with for EPIC but this one is all very good players. Just overall I think at UK LANs mixes always do well because there’s less pressure, I think the vibe’s always better. – because if you’re losing as a mix you are not really losing much, you are only losing as friends and it’s pretty chill but if you are losing as a team it’s seen as quite embarrassing or demeaning as a team. Because you are losing to these people that haven’t played together and you’ve been playing for months, there’s a lot less pressure on the mixes so I can see why they usually do pretty well at these sorts of events. It’s been really good for us so far.
Would you say it’s easier?
I would say it’s easier to play as a mix at these kinds of things because you set yourself standards as a team, so once you set yourself a standard if you don’t hit it you’re always going to be disappointed.
You are now a part of Clique, I wanted to ask how the transition has been joining the org?
The orgs great, we’ve had lots of conversations with them and planned lots of content with them, so it’s been a good transition to that org. It’s very different to how it was in BLVKHVND with how they interact but it’s still been pretty good with them. We’ve had quite a slow start though, it took a while to get rolling, I’ve gone back to IGLing now which I wanted to anyway, so getting the ball rolling with the five has been quite a slow start because of the subs that we have to use at the moment. But hopefully next week we can actually start using our actual five and start putting in results.
It has been quite a rough start to the season, with that in mind what are you goals for the season?
Our goal for the first season was always like almost come the middle of the pack in Main, with the less games because we obviously have to forfeit three of the games with subs so we only have nine games then to get results. So getting like the middle of the pack of Main, if we can make playoffs that’s great but I think keeping our spot and just pushing a bit further into like the middle pack is kind of where we are aiming for in our first season.
And past that?
I think the goal is to always push for HLTV placings and stuff, that would obviously be great. Two of my teammates don’t have HLTV yet so pushing for that for them is great, but yeah my overall goal, and it always will be, is to crack into the top 100. And to keep pushing. And obviously, EPS is like a must for us, if we don’t have that it’ll be quite disappointing since we didn’t make beyond that or the other qualifiers.
Do you think that’s all doable with this roster?
I think it’s doable, I think we just need a bit more time. We haven’t had a lot of time with other things, we’ve had to have quite a few days off so it’s like we just have to put in the work and then I think our team can definitely qualify for EPS and make a push in Main.
You mentioned BLVKHVND earlier, I wanted to get your take on changing TIMMO for Husky considering you were a part of that roster.
I think the Husky team is the best version of that team. Like if I’m being completely honest its better than when I was there. Whether they have another honeymoon run like they did in EPS when we took Endpoint to a really close game is yet to be seen. But I think this five will be the best five overall. I’m looking forward to watching them play, they have a lot to prove. in a sense they keep making the changes to find the fifth that clicks to try and push to challenge the 1PINS and stuff.
Do you think they should have high expectations going over to America to play in Fragadelphia?
I think they will be disappointed if they don’t make it to the main event. There are some good teams going and NA is a completely different style of CS and they have never played against it. They will set themselves really high expectations and if they make it it will be really cool, but if they don’t they can play the intermediate one and experience is experience. Not many teams get he opportunity to do it though so they should take it a run with it.
We have done a interview with MMS, he said that this is the least skilled LAN we have had in a very long time, would you agree with that?
Yeah, I think the fact that we have only two teams and the rest are mixes. We have one mix that is like FPL-C players that have come over to play and then you have ONE HAG and us. I guess you could throw the Horus mix in there, but it shows that the last Insomnia was so bad that no one wants to come because it’s a waste of money. We are just here because it’s fun, we knew what we were getting into. They have issues they said they would fix but yeah there’s still been issues. the next Insomnia will have probably less, they aren’t improving anything and its kind of a shitshow. Hopefully playoffs will run better and if it gets HLTV it will get a better image. At the moment EPIC is so far ahead of Insomnia, for CS, that people would much rather go to EPIC.
We have also been asking people in terms of how accessible it is to come to LAN and how much money, so if you don’t mind answering how much has it cost for you to attend I69?
For me, the hotel was £120 and I got my ticket for £80 because emp’s lot got free tickets to this LAN and they weren’t able to make it so they were nice enough to give it to us for mates rates. To get here I mean if we include fuel, because I’m from Cornwall, it’s about £300-£350. It isn’t too bad but when you take into account how ridiculously expensive the food is because they have just put it up, like a burger from the van is £7.20 which for what it is, it isn’t nice. It’s ridiculously expensive, we go out and order food because it’s cheaper. EPIC is more accessible for money reasons because it’s cheaper, obviously, I don’t know how the next one will be because they have had their problems but for what Insomnia is and the prize pools it’s very expensive.
That’s all the questions I have about Insomnia, but on your mix obviously there’s not going to be a dedicated caller but who’s been in charge of trying to keep everyone calm and lead?
I think we all are in part. They wanted me to dictate the end of rounds and keep everyone on the same page, which I have been trying to do but everyone is so skilled I haven’t been doing that. Out of everyone the one that has been the biggest shock to me in terms of keeping everyone calm and cool is Erik, even in the game against EKO where we were 7-0 down he was the one keeping everyone composed and saying we can come back and win this.
Is there any team here that you really want to beat, is there a grudge match?
I don’t really have anyone I want to beat, I would love to play on the stage. Its probably my only chance to play on stage for a while because its a lop-sided LAN on who’s here. I think playing Temperate would be fun, they are on our side of the bracket it’s not a grudge match because we are all mates but it would be fun.
Lastly, JackB is on your team, he’s a player who LAN after LAN has proven he is class, but he’s never, recently anyway, gotten onto a top team. Do you think he could be a top UK player if he put in the time and effort to be able to do it?
I think if he got the right team he could be the best AWPer in the UK. Other than JamieG, but obviously he had his injury, other than him I don’t think there’s anyone even close to him with how good he is at AWPing. If he put in time he would be better than wfn and I think wfn is the best UK AWPer at the moment. You have artist but his style of AWPing is very unique to him, I would put him in a different class of AWPers. I think if Jack got the right team and put in the right amount of effort he could be the best UK AWPer.
Is there anything else you want to say or talk about?
I hope Insomnia fix their servers for next LAN, like it’s ridiculous with how much we are paying that we are playing with net issues when it should be the first thing you look at when you are at these events.
