Andrew “Wolfie” Allan was a key figure in his former team’s, 1PIN, rise through the ranks. After taking a break due to feeling drained, the young rifler is now back in the saddle. Finding himself teaming up with former Into the Breach players Adam “Adam9130” Ahmad and William “dobbo” Dobson on Into the Bin.
However, he attended EPIC38 as a stand-in for the relatively new k10 team, built around Adam “AdamJC” Colwell who he helped steer to a top eight finish at one of the most stacked LANs in recent history. After his team were knocked out by ROYALS, wolfie sat down with UKCSGO’s Arnie Petty to talk about his former team, his experience with the organization/team, and the challenges that come with grinding the game to the top.
You have played at quite a high level compared to the rest of the k10 players here, for three of them it’s their first LAN. In the short time you have been with them, have you tried to impart any knowledge on them or help them with advice that they can then take away with them?
For the most part i’ve left adam (AdamJC) to do the calling, because hes IGLing and then i will chip in and say, like if he calls something that i might overcall because i think its better i’ll do that. Because Adams not been IGLing for that long, and hes not played at a higher level. So i just let him do his thing and helped him now and then.
Obviously you are still quite young yourself, is it weird finding yourself being the experienced member of the team?
It’s the first time i have been on a team as the person most experienced, definetely as at every other LAN i have not been. I would say i have been a lot more relaxed because of it when i was, and i think they will feel it as well like wiiam and Tree, when you are playing with players more experienced you are more on edge and more trying to impress. I was the same when i was with those players, i would try to impress them when i was inexperienced.
Now to talk about last year, you spent the majority of your time with the 1PIN lineup. It was a breakout year for you guys as you managed to start challenging EU teams and take that step up in competition. What did that feel like to be able to break that barrier?
It felt good in 1PIN. What really put us on the map was the run in the RMR qualifier we beat SAW who at the time were 22 in the world. It felt good because that was the first time i had a run in the a Major qualifier. We had some good results before that we made Advanced playoffs, beat EYEBALLERS with JW and flusha, then we beat FTW who were also top 20 in the world. It felt good because we went straight from Open to Advanced, it was a big jump but i found my boots and we done good going from Open to Advanced.
You then took a break, i think its fair to say the teams results took a dip. What do you think they need to get back on the upwards trajectory they were on?
I’d say for any team when they lose a player 90% of them are not going to be as good as they once were, because we pradcticed all the time and they are getting used to a new player. They swapped all the roles around because AZU was playing anchor roles when i was onthe team but he took all of my roles when i left the team, the star rifler roles. So its just like, keep grinding it out and they will be better than when i was with them. I know that krs7n, he joined the team after but we had played with him before and that guy is a grinder, he’s constantly DMing and watching demos and shit. So now its a team full of grinders, when i was in that team was because i was just like so tired of CS, i wasn’t playing any outside of team prac. So I think they will be a lot better than when i was on the team.
Speaking about your break, what made you come back at the start of this year?
It was good to like have a break, I came back because I got bored of not playing CS. It was the opposite. It was a good breath of fresh air, I was doing stuff outside in real life, I got a girlfriend, went on a few holidays and just relaxed. Then thankfully adam (Adam9130) picked me up so I got straight on a team, which was good because it was at a high level.
Did you have any other offers, from EU or international teams?
No i didnt actually, no there was no other offers.
You are here standing-in for k10, they are a org that maybe have some mixed opinions of in the scene. Just from your experience at this LAN with them, how has the org been?
Playing under k10 has been great, the org has been really welcoming meeting all our requests. Whether its getting food, like offering us drinks and food, yeah the management are really nice and also player wise its nice. Im friends with adam outside of CS, xarco as well its my first time meeting him great guy, wiiam and tree as well its my first time meeting them and they are nice guys also.
What were your expectations and goals coming into the LAN, how did you feel coming in and how did you feel about your placing?
I think we could have done better, I think all the boys will agree we are happy though. I think we made top eight, i think it was top eight..
Yeah
We came in with not high, high expectations but we made some upsets beating some teams that we are seen as lower than. Coming in with two stand-ins as well obviously, I think all the boys would agree we done pretty good here.
I think it was very clear that you were all having fun, which is obviously like the main thing…
Yeah exactly, like we came here saying lets have fun. We want to win obviously, and theres a competitive side but if you are not having fun there’s no point. No point playing CS if you are not having fun.
Individually, you have been showing some really high level form. Do you feel you are maybe better than before your break?
Theres not a lot of data you can do it on, because i havent played that many officials since i came back , but i’ve been pretty on form in most officials recently which is good. I would say I probably am a bit better, coming back fresh because it was so draining before. Im hoping to get even better as well, as I keep playing more officials on Into the Bin.
Do you think thats a side of things that is overlooked, when people are trying to grind to the top they disregard the mental side of whats happening?
Playing in 1PIN we were orgless as well, so we had no support, there were days were i would work 7am-3pm getting home and starting prac at 4pm getting off at 9pm and that was six days a week we were praccing. We done that for nine months straight, it was draining. This new team now we are a lot more relaxed with prac, we do three or four days obviously we are orgless right now but if we get a org and the funds I could quit my job because its only a part-time job. Then i wont have the stress of getting up at 6am and work eight hours and then do six hours of prac.
Lastly, Viperio and ITB made the RMR, when you see that does that give you extra motivation to improve and be able to match those achievements?
I would say yeah, it does make you want to do as good as what they done. When I see that I just think it could of been me, because like we know every UK team when they play each other they think they can beat each other. Seeing them make it just makes us think it could of been us, if we had just played as well as we should have. They played some good teams but nothing special, if they could beat them then we could have also beaten them on a good day.
