Every LAN needs an upset, otherwise things get boring and teams get comfortable. Whilst Sash might not be here to deliver that upset, Dom “TheDombox” Davison is happy to take his place. On a #3 seeded mix called One Last Chance, TheDombox took down his former teammates in the #2 seeded Team 7PM. This follows a trend of upsets in his wake which includes taking down Rory “cryths” Ursell’s mix at EPIC.LAN 38 in the first round of playoffs.
After the end of groups and before his loss to 7AM, TheDombox sat down with UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn to discuss upsetting teams and whether or not he is filling Sash‘s shoes.
Just to start off, how have you found your first day on LAN, are you happy with what you have achieved?
Yeah yeah, we were quite happy with our group. We expected to be seed #3 and we did get seed #3, considering we are a mix, and no disrespect to any of the other teams, but we were quite fortunate that in our group the pot #2 was also a mix. It’s obviously easier for us to play a mix than a team. So most the games went as expected.
We did have one game on Overpass, I can’t remember who it was [against], but they were seed #4 or #5 and they actually took us to the wire which we should have done a bit better on. But so far I think we have played really well, we have won the games that we expected and the game versus 7PM was the closest one. We knew that game was going to be the one we needed to win and at the end of the day we did it.
You have some new faces on your mix, have you been impressed with the people you have been playing with?
The main thing in our group is the attitude, all of them are really upbeat no-one is toxic and I think that is really important, especially when we have come as a mix. I think it’s just as important as skill, but yeah everyone is very upbeat. I knew when we were trying to find players for the mix that was really important, just as much as skill, is the attitude. We’ve all got each others backs. Nelly, I’ve not played with him much, but he was really impressing me. PANDAZ and guffy too. I’ve played with guffy for years so I know what to expect from guffy and he’s always solid. I think we’ve all had our moments, it’s been good.
I want to bring you back to last LAN, we didn’t have a chance to chat after you took down that mix with cryths which was a big deal at that EPIC. You knocked down a team that had some serious contention for at least top eight, talk me through that experience.
Yeah that was huge. It was really good. They had Zulu, Karrar and Isaac – Isaac is really good. Zulu is really good obviously. Then cryths had a lot of press and I think that was a really good team effort. In that tournament we started really really quite poor, we were actually two rounds from getting grouped in two different games. So to go from that to then beating cryths, Isaac, and Zulu was really good.
I think what really helped us was the vetoes because we knew at the time they weren’t super strong on Inferno or they had a couple players who didn’t really like Inferno. So I think we were quite lucky to get the vetoes that we wanted because we thought we would have a good chance on Inferno and if we win that then we’d probably lose their pick, which was Anubis and we got destroyed. Then we’d go to Overpass is my best map with Ancient. So once we got Overpass we knew.
To be fair GodkU was quite instrumental in that win. We had a few different conflicts in terms of how we wanted to play as a team, but I think that map we kind of found of our style which was GodkU playing really aggressive and me taking a bit more of a step back and playing a bit more of a different style to what we are used to. I watched the demoes back and on the key game on Overpass I think we just played really well with our rotations. As soon as we got a kill A we just all knew to sprint to B and I was watching our VODS back and we just managed to find them a man down constantly on site. That was instrumental. I played really well on Overpass, I hit a few life shots which helps. But yeah they gave us Overpass, I just think they messed up the veto.
I think another huge thing was, it’s a grind that first day and it is a battle of endurance as well. I think they were definitely a bit tired and we just pulled it out the bag. It was good fun, it was definitely the highlight of last LAN for sure.
cryths has come back with an even stronger team this LAN, if faced off against him again do you think you could pull off another Dombox upset?
Yeah I think it’s LAN so you have to remember the pressure is all on them and I think pressure gets to people. I’m 35 and I’m fairly decent, but I think almost the pressure of losing to me it’s almost like a meme, it’s a bit like losing to Sash. Anything is possible. Sash should have never beat BLVKHVND, but the myth is bigger than what you are sometimes. Don’t get me wrong his [cryths]’s team is very very good and they are definitely favourites, but we are used to being the Underdogs. If we can pull off an upset great, but if not then it’s no stress. But the pressure is all on them.
We’ll just go in and have fun and if it happens, it happens. I’ll definitely give a bit of banter, hopefully, on the server and try get in his head. I’ll call myself crythtanite because I’m his kryptonite, so that’s quite funny. So hopefully I can wind him up with that in the server.
It’s funny you mention Sash there. With Sash not being here anymore and you having that huge upset last LAN, are you trying to take over his role as the “myth” upsetting teams?
Yeah I haven’t really thought about it, but I guess. I haven’t really thought about it like that, but like I said there is a bit of a meme with me because we have pulled off a few upsets and I do play better on LAN. It’s kind of funny to get in peoples heads. In the words of BehinDX “Dombox is the most underrated player in EPIC.LAN.”
I don’t mind filling that role, it’s a good role to have. I just love coming and I don’t ever expect to win an EPIC.LAN, I’m retired but I love the vibes and I love the people.
My final question is now that you’ve assumed this role, are there any players or any teams that you are gunning for? That you really want to upset.
I think, honestly, the biggest one was the one that we just played [versus Team 7PM] because we all know each other really well. Me and LTH were in an ESEA team, we’re still good friends, we beat cryths together last LAN and we are both kind of IGLs so it was really fun to win that game.
Then I think out of the really good teams, realistically I think we’d struggle to beat – like we played Verdant, they were really good, they are an advanced team so I think those teams are a bit out of reach. But maybe some of the seed #2 teams, if we catch a good wind, we can definitely pick up some upsets. Obviously it would be fun to play cryths again, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll go in confident, no expectations like last time and just play our game. But yeah it was nice to beat LTH and Igor just because we knew them and they’re a seed higher. So that is already a little bit of an upset. We’ll see how we do in the upper-bracket. 7AM will be a tough game, they play full-time CS but never say never, anything can happen.
