The first look at new rosters & M80's entrance into CS feat. Swisher

Note: This transcript is auto-generated.

Logan Ramhap  00:00

Elliott.

Elliott Griffiths  00:01

Hello, that's me.

Logan Ramhap  00:03

Did you see that Valve has released the new major dates for the next like two years?

Elliott Griffiths  00:10

Yeah, this is I know they talk about valve time, but two years is is a bit much to what I'm doing next week, another one in two years time.

Logan Ramhap  00:19

Yeah. There's some major changes involve that.

Elliott Griffiths  00:24

So there any changes, see what you did there?

Logan Ramhap  00:28

Major changes. But the the bits are that they moved the dates to fix an issue that we have yelled into the void about a lot here,

Elliott Griffiths  00:40

clearly know into the voids fill you with a bit less Yeah, apparently,

Logan Ramhap  00:43

we did this, we did this, this is our fault. And they moved the majors back. So 2025 will be finishing at the end of June, and the December one will finish halfway through December, meaning it will be the last major before the player break, or the last event before the player break. Because thank God,

Elliott Griffiths  01:04

There's a God and he does watch Counter Strike,

Logan Ramhap  01:08

Apparently. So there's been a lot of players that are like, apparently upset about this, that they're saying that the first half of the year is going to be too long now. And that the second half the year will be too short. Because the player break normally falls. Like right when they're planning on putting the major the summer major out the winter, the winter major, it's fine. No one actually has a real issue with that. Maybe it's a little bit deep, but you just go into January a bit with the player break.

Elliott Griffiths  01:38

Sorry. Hang on. Do they realise they can just the second player break can just end later so that the brakes will be the same length so that the season will be the same length of time. It will just start later it'll be like February to June, instead of January to June or something. Am I going Am I wrong here? No, I think you're right. I think as it's gonna be really obvious.

Logan Ramhap  02:05

Yeah, no, I think you're right. If only there was some sort of association that was able to speak for the players, that was perhaps player led had had players on the board. All the players belong to If only there was some sort of association you could call it the Counter Strike the Players Association. Similar outlandish idea

Elliott Griffiths  02:34

I understand the Jerrick you're making but there's no way that would have helped. They were useless. They were fucking useless. Like this is not it didn't do anything.

Logan Ramhap  02:44

All right. On this episode of overtime on inferno, we talk about a blast premier fall spring group knockout three. And then we talk with Swisher about the new M80 project from America. Let's get into it. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about blast. I'm so blessed. Blast. It's a blast started last week while we were podcasting and it's finishing today and tomorrow ish. I think 23rd If I remember right, well, the groups are finishing tomorrow, right? Okay. Yeah, there's there's some playoffs but again, nobody wins the shit. So yeah, dome is a stage event.

Elliott Griffiths  03:45

It's like, I don't mind it. Purely because it's straight after player break. Yeah, this is a good warning really watching to see what all the new teams look like anyway. Yeah. It's like yeah, we I get to watch phase vs G TOS or have an idea. I'm actually neither of those teams have changed. That's a really terrible liquid versus somebody complexity, New Girl, liquid as complexity. And I get to see what the team is like in a no, like, no pressure or low pressure environment.

Logan Ramhap  04:19

Yeah, because no one cares about this. Because even the teams that lose go to a knockout round where then they can actually lose. Yeah, literally just a group stage. Like I know that they call it fall groups. But what last have done is they've taken one tournament that's like a major lens tournament and said, We're gonna break it up over six months. Yeah, we're gonna put the the groups in one month and then like a month and a half later, when you've forgotten about groups, we're gonna put the the second bracket like the loser's bracket. And then like a month later, once you've forgotten about all of that, we're gonna come back and do playoffs.

Elliott Griffiths  04:56

My problem with it is that in a group stage People go out. This is a group. This is a seeding. Well, it's a double Elans you're seeding games. Yeah.

Logan Ramhap  05:07

Is WM so like the second Elam is just like yeah, it's it's all Yeah. So there's, there's a bunch of teams here they have, they have new lineups. It's really annoying what some of them do, don't finish their desk. The HLTV page annoys me about where they put team rosters. Neither here nor there, but it's below. It's below the prize distribution. Right? But the prices region does fuck all when the event is like still going on. It's like I don't really at the bot. I don't actually

Elliott Griffiths  05:41

care how much money the flares earned from prize money. And maybe maybe that's just me being selfish now.

Logan Ramhap  05:49

The only the only prize pool that's in Counter Strike that I know is the Grand Slam prize pool. Yeah, that's it. I only had

Elliott Griffiths  05:58

gold bars because Yeah,

Logan Ramhap  06:00

exactly. Because you get a gold bar handed to you like that. Yeah. That's Malta obviously.

Elliott Griffiths  06:07

I don't what I when people talk about oh, we need to raise the major price fall is it? Why do you care? You're not in it. You know, wasn't a surprise

Logan Ramhap  06:16

to you? Do you know what the prize pool for League of Legends worlds is? No,

Elliott Griffiths  06:21

because they don't care.

Logan Ramhap  06:22

It's like a mil? Yeah. Like the whole prize pool is like a mil does not like the winnings even though it's just it's like MSI is like 500k. And like no one cares, because it's a franchise League and everything but like, it's just no one cares about prizepool in anything other than Dota I'm sure though, is care. But yeah, I don't care. Dota is its own thing for what it's worth. Because they are their prize pool is like Community Fund. Okay, let's talk about teams. Let's talk about blast. Well, I want to quickly run through teams that didn't make changes. Yeah, heroic didn't make changes Guess what? Oh, good. They look exactly the fucking same. There's your heroic

Elliott Griffiths  07:06

well look about four weeks older.

Logan Ramhap  07:09

Yeah. Phase didn't make any changes on the surface. We'll talk about this and they look exactly the same.

Elliott Griffiths  07:19

Yeah. Actually, I'd say they look a bit better today. Look Better SG two looks better

Logan Ramhap  07:26

yeah so phase have Robin has retired due to personal things. I don't know if he's officially retired but he's leaving the team do you think personal things that's happening I think that the the rumours right now are that Neo former fees stand in former think he's been the No. I think it was a Deus to announces that we think that Neo is announced. I don't know if

Elliott Griffiths  07:51

I thought it okay. Yeah, no other way.

Logan Ramhap  07:54

rumours are that Neo former fees stand in and I guess he was part of the Golden fibreglass PLO is going to be come the new coach, at least temporarily, we don't use ultimate cologne roster list. Yeah, we don't have that as a permanent thing. But under the temporary it's happening. GQ didn't make any moves. I swear to God, this team doesn't look like anything normally. So I can't tell you they look exactly the same.

Elliott Griffiths  08:20

Yeah, they do. They they have Nico enzymol v4 And it's to make it 10 for that. Yep. That's, you know, it's normal Nico's. He's won a massive clutch. They're still losing 10 for they lose them up. They lose to zero. Great. Fantastic. What a waste of time. I'm amazed you didn't make a change? Yeah, absolutely amazed,

Logan Ramhap  08:44

you two seem to prime for change making. But I think as you and I talked about, it's like, Who the fuck do you change? We'll rebuild.

Elliott Griffiths  08:50

It's really hard. You can basically only change to see but they've already changed in game leader and it's, it gave them like six weeks of being good. And then they go back to that always.

Logan Ramhap  09:01

Alright, so those are the teams that didn't make changes. Now let's get to the bit that we actually care about because realistically, this event is just a nice appetiser for cologne. We care about the themes that we're going to be seeing new at Cologne, because that actually matters. This doesn't. Let's start with Vitality. The really fucking good. They're still really good. Pretty much. I think they're probably better with Lindsey. But like, I don't know if I've noticed that they're particularly better with flimsy what say is,

Elliott Griffiths  09:35

it's really hard to know how much the change has mattered because they played complexity and fucking evil geniuses. Hey,

Logan Ramhap  09:45

that's the top two American teams.

Elliott Griffiths  09:49

No, it isn't. MIT at the best American Teamer. I

Logan Ramhap  09:52

mean, he hasn't played against a top 30 opponent yet. Doesn't matter. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll talk later in the podcast about what Swisher about his North America rankings? We'll see what he has to say on that. Yeah, but I mean, vitality is still a good like, yeah, I guess that we can't really tell. But on the other hand, the two of the teams that should have to ODE and they don't look like they've skipped a beat and ximu has looked real good. And so like, what more do we need?

Elliott Griffiths  10:20

Yeah, that's still vitality. That's still probably the best team in the world, like over four

Logan Ramhap  10:24

maps later. So I'm looking at the stats are now right over for maps, magicians who have the highest readings with a 1.47 and a 1.4. For

Elliott Griffiths  10:36

like you said, it's basically a group stage as I worried is going to be the best player in the Yeah, and

Logan Ramhap  10:39

flimsy swings and Apex or follow the rest of the top six, the only non vitality player that's in the top six astound. That's it. Yeah. Pretty much. That's it.

Elliott Griffiths  10:50

Again, they've played complexity and evil geniuses. Yeah. It's important not here. Not to get like too excited. They're currently playing it as well. And it's all good. Until they play somebody decent of nightdress it.

Logan Ramhap  11:03

Yeah. All right, next team on the list. Let's talk about the new liquid lineup. I want to start this off with I saw I saw a Reddit post the other day about Team Liquid League of Legends. Okay. Yeah. And basically, the the guy on Reddit was like, I hate watching this team, because they have the best early game in the league. And then in the middle of the game, they fumble it and give you a heart attack to win the game, maybe. And I realised that Teamliquid in every single esport plays exactly the same. Not in that they have a great early game, it's that they will give you a heart attack along the way in the game. And even when you change out, the two people who have been at Team Liquid for the longest time, they're still gonna give you a heart attack and throw games.

Elliott Griffiths  11:57

Yeah, I mean, this team is very new. And there's a lot of things that have to go right for it to be good. I think it's quite encouraging. For Team Liquid. Yes. How solid they look already.

Logan Ramhap  12:11

Yeah, so the second bit of this is, I actually like a lot of what I'm seeing. I just Teamliquid plays the same in every fucking esport. And I felt the need to bring this up.

Elliott Griffiths  12:21

Do you remember that like a month or two ago when we had a discussion after the major about how like teams like mouse and Og are going to get shit stomped by tier two? Because the tier two teams just play so many games. And they just yeah, they have to improve. Rainmaker is proof of this concept because the guy has played like 2000 maps, I think in three years, four years. He's like, he like played more maps in the last few years than anyone else in tier one. And you could just kind of tell when he is in the late round situation, he says he's seen every conceivable position. He's been in every conceivable fight, you can imagine. Like, on any map in the pool, he knows what to do in every situation because he's just simply got so many reps that he just knows everything there is to know. He doesn't have to like mess around he didn't have to think on the spot. And he's just like, it's so calming like because he's just he doesn't he could just compose himself it's like yeah, God muscle memory alone. The guy is he's mastered he's really good. He's mastered

Logan Ramhap  13:32

his muscles like that. I like them. Yeah, so liquid actually have beat G two who again, G two are suspect to begin with. And beat phase two phase have actually looked fairly okay fairly good. They put there was a good fight there. The two new additions I wouldn't say that they were like gamebreaking and fantastic. Boy, Rainmaker has been a decided upgrade over nitro and oh yeah, Patsy is Patsy has held his own in every bit and it seems you kinder has found some sort of form again? Yeah, you can now is basically signed Patsy to be a what I would describe as a dedicated lunatic. And then the you kinder or Yeah, and then you can dark and like, move into more.

Elliott Griffiths  14:25

I want to use the word Beatty roles like he can actually

Logan Ramhap  14:29

yeah, he's not like not that degree at all

Elliott Griffiths  14:31

before actually like Elise or something that he's like, he's actually being the second man in or he's the third manager. He's not being as aggressive as he was before because he has partly to do that. So why would he? Yeah.

Logan Ramhap  14:47

I'm really liking how this team is turning out how it's how it's working out. Super enjoying niches and pyjamas made one move. But let's be clear, it was a it was a it was an important move. Because there will actually be an added Hampus so they added one viable Reifler on the entire team of whatever an IP is.

Elliott Griffiths  15:08

And I don't know what this team is supposed to do. I don't like their bro on songsmith he's actually as I'm saying this having a really good gaming

Logan Ramhap  15:20

and he did a really good game the other day to the day. I must Yeah, he was like 28 and three years not that hard way I thought it was I feel like it was an overpass game they play it I could be wrong.

Elliott Griffiths  15:34

I remember it being dogshit every game I saw sir. Okay, he went 36 and 28 and that one is eg there Yeah, it wasn't which is fine. Okay,

Logan Ramhap  15:46

here's my problem with with an IP and this is not a new problem. I don't know if I voiced this but it's been my problem for like the last a year and a half Okay. Ninjas in Pyjamas historically Swedish team, right? legends like how it was get right and forest for a while won a major right historically super slick Swedish team, right. And I can fault them for being kind of shit and kind of garb if there being a Swedish team. But the problem is they went down, they spent and they brought in coffee, and they brought in Hetrick. Now, I don't know how expensive conflict was because he had like, been exposed. But Hetrick probably was not cheap. He was expensive. Yeah, yeah. Thanks. So they went out and spent on these players who are not Swedish, to make a pseudo international roster. So now your Swedish folks are speaking English. But you're still trying to clean to the Swedish. This team has an identity, but it doesn't know what it doesn't have an identity like he thinks it has identity. And then at every turn to possibly can get says no, fuck your identity. We're going somewhere else.

Elliott Griffiths  17:01

Yeah, I actually completely agree that there this team is a little lost like it. It's not a Swedish team. But it is a Swedish team. It's a team, but like it's not really. And then, like, what's the like? What's the plan for this team to win games? Do you see what I mean? They have three aggro rifles, one of whom has become more passive and rares. But you have Brolin and conflict, you both kinda want to do the same thing. And you kind of going all in on brawl and conflict just running in and killing people, which is just not a reliable plan. And they might win the odd game. They might even have the auto run where Brawlhalla and conflict actually combine and win games. Yeah, or, or Hampus drops 30 Like, like, calling like he used to, but I don't see the ceiling for this roster ever being above 12 in the world.

Logan Ramhap  18:01

Yeah. And if they're put it higher than that, it's because of they had a really good run in Angel TVs, like hidden say, hey, that run was real good. So you get brought up in this database. It's not gonna be a consistent base. Right? It feels like Hetrick is, is very stable, he's good. Looks good. He's good. Like I have no issue with Hetrick. I think Hampus is the best is the best player than Hetrick on this team. At least he's definitely was Austin player

Elliott Griffiths  18:26

he definitely was before he took a break. I think it'll take a little while to get back there. He's he is very passive and but somebody has to be on someone has to be on this team so because there's so much aggression on the scene maybe Hampus is just really really good again and they'll breach top 10 But I think that's about their only chance i don't know i i would have I think he I can say like I would have liked to see more changes but I don't know what change they could realistically do.

Logan Ramhap  18:59

Although there's the problem is they have this identity that they're trying to stick to but then they don't at all yeah and that's the problem is that they're trying they're they're really trying to like stick to this identities and IP needs to go have like a vacation into the mountains and meditate on what they want to be

Elliott Griffiths  19:17

Yeah, I don't know maybe I'm completely wrong and the scene will actually be good I don't believe that I don't think so either. But to be fair,

Logan Ramhap  19:26

we've been doing this podcast for like two and a half years and ever every single time we think in IP is going to be shit. They turn out to be okay for like five minutes. Maybe I'm just wrong. Alright, let's go to their Steam Astralis believe F calling with Borup and stare rip Alta says I don't know

Elliott Griffiths  19:49

what I did wrong. I've said it so many times. I still don't get it. We like a bar up stare both good players but like bar put up great a little text maybe Hmm, it doesn't even seem like a noticeable one to me. Yeah, tech seems like the kind of guy who's gonna go to like another Danish team and pop off.

Logan Ramhap  20:10

Yeah, no, he he is he's heroic talent when they're when they're ready to switch something out.

Elliott Griffiths  20:17

Maybe not heroic but like he'll go to he'll go to like ecstatic or he got a trick trick doesn't there anymore? Yeah, I think ecstatic, though, that they lost a bunch of players with oh, they lost them in game leader at least. Yeah,

Logan Ramhap  20:31

there was Max. Yeah, a little weird. Um, I haven't nothing great to save Asha. I just, I don't have faith in this lineup. And here's the thing, like, I never had faith in the shroud because I'm an NA Homer and focus trials. But like, on the other hand, I even taking all of us I just I don't have faith. Like there's nothing. There's nothing that says to me like, hey, this lineup is good, or there is there's a wave of this lineup to get better. Right? We've seen we've seen blame F we've seen We've definitely seen device. And we've seen a lot of bore up from her, right. So you're hoping that buzz and stare are going to be your your sparks that they're going to show something new that like glave and zip couldn't show or something like that? Yeah. And I just don't think they can.

Elliott Griffiths  21:19

I will never believe and that blame F team to be? Yeah, better than like, better than good. I just, I do think he is just a flawed player. And I think that's fine. If your goal is to be top 10 But I think if your goal is to be the best team in the world, I don't think you can ever be with less. Yeah,

Logan Ramhap  21:40

let's have a complex

Elliott Griffiths  21:42

show is probably take top 10 notes. Yeah.

Logan Ramhap  21:45

Complexity. The change of Fang for leash. Yep. I this move didn't look bad on paper. And they beat an IP in the first round and then they lost an IP in the second round. They lost vitality but everyone was better. I don't know how to feel about this yet. I think that we this move needs to be given a little bit more time. To be fair, I think every move here needs to be given a little bit more time. But I think this move is going to be a lot of more learning a system from a leash that he hasn't played it because he's played in the same liquid system for like eight years or so I'm sure like that. And I think that it's going to be a little bit of a different curve and the rest of the players trying to learn from leash I think this is going to be like after cologne we'll start to see some like hopefully benefits. I mean we and we saw some like a little bit better to start with. I mean, I don't think normally complexity B and IB but I

Elliott Griffiths  22:51

plan on saying yeah, my concern would be a personality one floppy is a very like comes across quite a quiet guy. Don't think JT is particularly like forceful I feel like at least probably is a little bit more. Yeah well see how it pans out I'm not massively keen on the move personally, but mostly

Logan Ramhap  23:18

evil geniuses, they they look like and I mean this without trying to be like meaner. They look like a tear to North American team. Yep. That's what they are. That's what they are. That's what they look like. I have no further comments on the matter. This is gonna be good for a little bit and

Elliott Griffiths  23:38

you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because of who they like because they've actually decided no, we're gonna commit to the young talent you're just gonna give them time yeah that's that's what they've that and that's fine that you're willing to say okay fine. I don't think they should be allowed to be a part of the team because of that yeah. Oh yeah. Whatever

Logan Ramhap  23:59

yeah, there's like God anymore to say I need you I think that yeah. Big with the man to process sin roster. I don't have anything great. It's

Elliott Griffiths  24:14

a big question mark.

Logan Ramhap  24:15

Still like like the biggest of question marks actually, it's

Elliott Griffiths  24:19

I think they've shown enough where you're like, I get what bigger trying to do you when you watch each of these players individually, like yeah, they're actually all pretty good. One thing that's interesting about them is one of the big players in an interview I think with Blixa said taps it isn't in game leading anymore. It said they said sin was Yeah, which is what a going to take some more time. Be very strange. As I remember sin being like a bit of a star Isla Logan aggro star is like when he was when he first came in to beg. Usually don't make great and good leaders.

Logan Ramhap  24:59

I don't mind that don't mind it though not limited versus I don't. It's, I don't care about moving into sin, specifically. But moving it off of tab seven. I don't mind in theory, because tabs and has always been

Elliott Griffiths  25:13

the best fun for them. Yeah, he's not been in good for him for a while now

Logan Ramhap  25:17

I know. But historically, tabs in has just been the best German player and every team has been built around Hubsan. Right. So let's this is like, it's trying to say like, let's put our best player in the best possible scenario with all the best possible like tools at his disposal. Go and write some of the best tools is Mozilla's he doesn't have to jail. He's just he's taking care of business that sin says what he's doing and was to be fair, they have a really good coach behind them as far as like coaches and theoretical coaches are and as much as we don't actually know what the fuck a coach does, like. Gaby is the one behind him who has been like, just because your hands go doesn't mean your brain goes. Yeah, he's one of the best ideals that kind of Shrek ever saw. So he's standing behind them and there's there's a part there and that hopefully the plan is that Gaby and tabs in our trading seem to be this IDL and tabs and gets to focus on tabs. Yep, I like well, I

Elliott Griffiths  26:21

thought it was it's that roster is going to need six months. Yeah. And Kelowna also not playing with that for us a month who's not playing censorious.

Logan Ramhap  26:31

So yeah.

Elliott Griffiths  26:33

That was a while before it's good, if it's good. Yeah. Now that one big question mark, still,

Logan Ramhap  26:39

I want to talk about oh, gee, before we talked about the other team that's on this list.

Elliott Griffiths  26:43

Worse than I imagined, yeah,

Logan Ramhap  26:45

this team just feels like oh, gee, lost all their players. No one wanted to join them and said, Who can we promote from tier two without spending everything ever? But didn't even promote from tier two? I mean, like, Who can we what's the best players we can get for the money? Who will actually join us?

Elliott Griffiths  27:00

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when they first came into Counter Strike, it felt like they were splashing the cash. And now they're like, yeah, that didn't work. We need to get cheaper, which can work if you know what you're doing. I thought with the moves, they picked up, they either had a plan that I hadn't foreseen, or they had no idea what they were doing. And I kind of I think it's in the benefit of the doubt. And now I'm like, okay, maybe no, you just had no, they had no fucking clue. I don't know who the star on this team is supposed to be. I thought they might change it to feed you or they might bring fascia into, like, slightly better roles. I've still not sure where the stars supposed to be. I need to watch some more intently, but I don't particularly want.

Logan Ramhap  27:47

Alright, and now let's look at the last even list which was the biggest move in all of rosters, which was NaVi shunting away their half their team three 60% of their team, bringing in I am Jalen Alexei B. I want to start with the fact that Alexei had an interview with HLTV and said, and people were like, ah, HLTV. Alexei is already ruining this team and Alexei came out and was like, this is blades team. I just, I just sit there and do what I'm told. I have no decision making powers.

Elliott Griffiths  28:23

That seems fucking insane. It doesn't make any sense. Or at any level. This team is mental that I don't know who's supposed to play where? I don't know.

Logan Ramhap  28:36

It seems like they move at every map. It seems like these are like the first six scrims of this team. Yeah, like like they've played. They played six maps, seven maps, eight maps, a maps, I can do math. Seven maps that I can count. Okay. The one into two ones whose shots they lost. Oh, two to heroic. They won two Oh, against big right. They've played some I'm pretty sure they have not played the same positions in any fucking map across the board.

Elliott Griffiths  29:02

It was simple. Well, because simple guessed Yes. Simple. Well, but the problem, the actual big problem with NaVi at the moment, and it's nothing to do with all these changes. It's that simple is not simple. And when simple is not playing well. He's also a worst teammate. You know, it's like on Twitter, like he is online on Twitter, like when you look at him on screen, he like looks angrier, which seems to be like, you can ask someday young about this. He's always seems to be blaming somebody else. And what it largely boils down to is that he's not as good as he was two years ago, at the moment. And I'm sure it's still in there. Like, don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah, it'll be great. But he's not great at the moment. Like, go and look at his ratings. Blast. Go look at his ratings at the major sets. Really, they're not. They're fine. They're not simple level. And that is the big problem because this team is built around it Simple being the best player in the world and when he's not the best player in the world it doesn't matter if you have simple he's a 1.08 player

Logan Ramhap  30:09

Why the fuck do you really in this round

Elliott Griffiths  30:11

the team is not going to function because you're always you always have to play to set simple up because he's the best player of all time.

Logan Ramhap  30:17

Yeah exactly it's not even like an ego thing it's just that this is the way the roster is built it's not it's not going to be the guy I am talking to be the emails not gonna be the guy jail is not gonna be the guy Alexei shirts fuck isn't going to be the guy. You know, apparently you all know who's going to be the guy

Elliott Griffiths  30:37

to be is actually I he's actually a good Counter Strike player. He's a good leader as well. I just don't think he's a great one. And I think he is. I think he's no longer overrated.

Logan Ramhap  30:49

He is He is correctly rated now. He's

Elliott Griffiths  30:51

actually rated fine now. Yeah, he was overrated for years. And now everyone's caught up and got and now he's, he might become underrated because people are just like, blaming him for things that aren't his fault. The ni P roster was not his fault. No roster was never going to work. I was

Logan Ramhap  31:08

no fan if your roster will ever work against you. We'll have more information next week about the rest of blast and who and I say this with the strongest of air quotes wins. One more quick thing, and then we'll toss it over to our interview with Swisher overpass came out for the CSU beta and vertigo just running. Overpass looks so fucking good.

Elliott Griffiths  31:38

It's so sexy.

Logan Ramhap  31:38

There's so much new stuff, there's already complete meta shifts. The little the pit, that's a mean from T side that goes up into playground is lower now so you can't actually chuck them all either at the beginning of the round, which is a huge change in how overpass has been played in the space you can take. I

Elliott Griffiths  31:57

think people will have or may already have found ways to do it.

Logan Ramhap  32:00

But it's yeah, it's it looks like valve is trying to prevent it from being done. Yeah, wait your turn. Hey, honestly. Yeah, no, and the map just looks so good. The water is sick, like we could probably spend a solid 20 minutes talking about the water, it now will like show a line through the water about like where you've been, and the water moves with you. The water itself completely changes the meta because even when you shift walk it shows like the little trail of like where you walked because of like, waves that you make and shit like that. And yet overpass is gonna be really cool. Vertigo the only bit I want to say on this is the fact that they're showing off vertigo means it's staying in the active duty pool, which is funny

Elliott Griffiths  32:44

because they've changed absolutely nothing come them up. Yeah, well, certainly not. The changes that one way, like half a one likes works don't work anymore. So won't function the same. But yeah, I mean

Logan Ramhap  32:57

smokes, you're gonna change every single map. A lot of people have we found a lot of the overpass smokes already. Yeah, it takes two seconds for a lot of those people to find it. And they brought out a new group of testers. That's the big CS two updates um, other than that, we will send this now off to our interview with Swisher where we talk about MACD North America and whatever else we need to talk about because I'm recording this before the interview, which is a really smart tactic by me. And now coming after our non ad break, because it's probably just going to be a rude music tone because really professional at this. Swisher is joining us from MIT. What's going on, guys? Okay,

Michael Schmid  33:41

are you guys doing? Ah,

Logan Ramhap  33:42

um, I think I'm doing pretty good.

Elliott Griffiths  33:44

Yeah. Oh, good, sir. Middle of the week. It's wonderful stuff. Coming up.

Logan Ramhap  33:50

I realised something about 20 minutes ago. We've had many guests on the show. We've never had a player on the show. Really? Yeah. Have we had Ryan from dusk to one about 17 times? Fuck Ryan? We've agreed. We've had launders on we had resin on we had spread it spray on spray. Yeah.

Elliott Griffiths  34:12

And we we do apologise for that one. Yeah,

Logan Ramhap  34:14

yeah, we had you me on we had tea time. We've had Sony. We've never had a player on. I don't know how we've managed to do this. And we could do this for two and a half years. And we've mentioned never get a player on.

Michael Schmid  34:25

That's crazy. Well, sure. I

Logan Ramhap  34:28

have the first well, yeah, there. Yeah. The first player on okay. We brought you on for one very specific reason. We have adopted M Ed as the unofficial team of this podcast because Elliot has a love affair with mobs. Yeah, and I'm an M. I'm in North America, Homer. So. So we need Yeah, exactly. So we needed to talk to you about what this project is. Where do you see it going? And how do you think you fit in with everything else? So let's start with the first thing. What What happened? How did this start? Like?

Michael Schmid  35:04

So Cisco dog, he kind of reached out to me, like during the player break and said like, Hey, I'd love to start talking about this or setting things up. He was in talks with a lot of different players kind of just like feeling the waters with a lot of things. I was told from Don sicko was basically almost every player he spoke to said that they want to play with me. And then that basically turned like the centrefold of okay, then I want him part of my core. And then he was talking about different ideals and stuff and makes became like the centrepiece of that was kind of me and makes like the solid first two, that we kind of built the roster around that. I was really happy. I mean, like the rifle, the other rifles were, like, kind of up in the air. Like we were discussing. I think the two that we got, which is Ethan rack, and then mobs Mario, those were the two that I want, for sure. Because like, at the same time, like you can always have good players on your team, but like, if you don't mesh well, I feel like the team is always only going to get so far. And there's they're both fucking great guys that love them to death. And they're insane. Yeah, yeah, we've

Logan Ramhap  36:13

we've been seeing Bob's praises for again, two and a half years.

Michael Schmid  36:17

Yep. And they no joke. And then we're Wolfie. I mean, he kind of struggled a little bit on on ATK with us, but to be honest, we didn't need practice. We didn't I think we played like two or three scrims and like three months. The roster was kind of in a very unfortunate zone.

Elliott Griffiths  36:36

Yeah, I've heard some horror stories about AIDS. Yeah, yeah,

Logan Ramhap  36:39

I got I got beers with Ryan like two days after ATK blew up and I heard everything there was we will not be going into this point.

Elliott Griffiths  36:52

I actually about because you brought up Max being one of the core players, what is he like as an in game leader? Obviously, na has often had issues with great and game leaders bringing one in from Denmark. How does that differ from like the American in game leadership played under?

Michael Schmid  37:08

Okay, it's like literally, we've only scrimped three days. Going into that whole setup, like we had three days of Scrubs. I think we only went over three, two maps or three maps. I think three maps. And, and like, there was like a few questions like I'd already had, like, when like he would say something taking directions is great. But like, why is that? Why should we do that? He's like, Oh, well, it realistically, if you're anchoring car, they should only be here here on inferno if you're at Agra and like a triple walk. And I'm like, but we got to kill like should we continue to go? He's like, Whoa, yeah, since you killed the quarter guy, you should only be car. And I'm like, honestly, that makes sense. They put it at a you just wouldn't ever expect that. There could be three people car for whatever reason. Who knows? But in EU Of course, that's gonna be how it's gonna be. Yeah, but it's just like, distinct things like that. Like he's very much caught up in meta and like the EU meta, and the NA has always been like, behind Yeah, and he's always been a month or two or three months behind EU so he's already with the EU meta so it's catch it like we're playing at the same time like catch up that's when like four of us kind of three of us catching up to EU meta as well as learning new roles learning how to play with each other. So it gets like a very large learning curve at this very, very beginning part. But he he's very smart guy.

Logan Ramhap  38:37

That's a good thing to hear about. I want to talk about I want to talk about m ad. Just as a general right yeah, because for people who are only Counter Strike fans this came out of absolutely fucking nowhere. Like with the foxes org and stuff if people have watched valorant and stuff they saw it the mid plane like the ascension I think it is. I don't know. It's valour whatever works yeah, they played in like the ascension or wherever it was to try and get the franchise but not franchise spa and that kind of stuff. So what it what was it about me joining and do you know if they were planning originally on we want an American team do you know what what what was the? What was the set of entrance from an ad in not just on you guys on your team forming but their plan?

Michael Schmid  39:28

What I know is that they were either thinking about getting an NA team or I'd like a Danish roster. I'm assuming the Danish roster would have been around minx as well. I don't know that makes sense. But the i don't i don't know like the full details like what their goal was for like wanting to enter Counter Strike. But I mean the time that your Counter Strike is like now now Yeah, because of CES to everything kind of it's the game is going to blow up insane. So they honestly hit it at the right time. And then getting like Uh, literally the best na team probably possible you could get like with free agent players is like, STR move.

Logan Ramhap  40:10

So where do you there's a very hard question for like you guys been together for like a week or something? Where do you think you rank right now within the actual North American teams? And then where do you think you'll rank within like three months? So as three months is like way down the line, and you've got you've like, integrated yourself. And

Michael Schmid  40:31

so yeah, so I'd say as of now, when you look at their ESL, I think the

Logan Ramhap  40:37

ones I care about are like nouns, eg complexity, I'd say at

Michael Schmid  40:41

this moment. All those teams are better than us purely because they should be. Okay. They should be better than us. I mean, we have three maps that are a map pool, like,

Logan Ramhap  40:54

hey, that's more maps, and I've done

Elliott Griffiths  40:56

more than eg Kevin.

Michael Schmid  40:59

Careful there. Yeah. But I'd say realistically, they should be better than us because we've we would lose every single veto. I mean, we even for example, like going into the party astronauts game just the other day, that are fake. We I felt like we almost like we should be losing that on paper. Because like map three was in barrage, we never played mirage. We had no scrims on it. I mean, it's a mirage at the end, it's wise, but makes hasn't called on Mirage in like a year and a half or two years. It's always been his permabanned. So then he's like, he's like, Does anybody else want to call like That's me, uncle.

Logan Ramhap  41:39

Rush to any map.

Michael Schmid  41:41

Exactly. And then I was like, I was telling him I'm like, we're gonna be fine via Miyata cat. We've got Mario econ magazine caught and record eight. Three very Yeah, we're gonna be fight on Mirage. So then, I was calling them app and everything was It was great. wreck was very first day everybody. All the rifles are just three of us were paying and it was great. And then for example, going into the wild card game, played vertigo, math, one, no scrims. We didn't know what spots we were even playing on vertigo until we were going into the map. They picked it right. Oh, okay, who's played where?

Elliott Griffiths  42:21

That's, I mean, that's reassuring, in a sense that that happens to throw teams, but it's also terrifying. Obviously, you, you've only been together a week. And if, if I recall, were only like two of your players are playing on like 100 ping on the tech, right? Yeah,

Michael Schmid  42:34

so Wolfie, and makes her plane from Denmark and Sweden. And the mouse is played from Guatemala. And then me and rec are in California. And we're only in Chicago servers, right?

Logan Ramhap  42:45

Or, ah, yes.

Michael Schmid  42:46

I've never been in this situation. But for some reason, I was the lowest ping in the server. That's just not allowed with 55. Ping. On top, I was the lowest. And then I think like wildcard for example, I think their lowest was 30. Or their highest was the highest was 30. That they're all east coast. So they're like hovering around 1520 30. It's just like, we should be using that. And that even on that last map, I mean, they beat us on inferno. But a new bus. We had one scrim on a new bus where we were switching spots constantly in the scrim trying to figure things out. So we shouldn't be winning.

Elliott Griffiths  43:24

Give it away. It's like good signs that you're even coming close in these maps.

Michael Schmid  43:28

Exactly. Like we're, I mean, we were generally just playing for the qualifier spot. Getting not that was the main priority. And that is just like, I mean, maybe we could win the event. unlikely but maybe

Logan Ramhap  43:41

we could do a little bit of damage somewhere. Yeah. And

Michael Schmid  43:44

I was surprising what could be announced though, that was surprising to me. I think now is are by far the better team.

Elliott Griffiths  43:51

None seem to change players a lot though. And I think that probably hurts them quite a bit.

Michael Schmid  43:55

Yeah, I know that they wanted me to join previously, or I got previously but like, during this player break and I I read like Carson and Beals and they reached out to me and stuff. And I was just like, This doesn't make sense for me to join. It would have been in like in the stamina rule.

Logan Ramhap  44:13

So yeah, so you would have been IG L and

Michael Schmid  44:16

it's like, that doesn't make sense. No. And I was he's like, yeah, like, but like, we want to play with you like, but this doesn't make sense. Row was team wise, and nothing makes sense. Sure. I can fill anything, but Well, it just doesn't make sense. And I even told them oh my god, I say stabbing Bobby's, like you're probably like one of your best pickups because he fills that role that you're missing completely.

Logan Ramhap  44:38

Yeah, that would have just been a vibe squad and it would have meant absolutely nothing in terms of exactly you the only way you win things is pure vibes and Hello, Sue.

Michael Schmid  44:50

Unless you in which case you could I mean, yeah, true.

Logan Ramhap  44:54

Bare truths in it. It works. On top of North America, generally we A lot of things happen in the offseason. Liquid became not North American complexity, gotta leave nouns switched out cynic for stamina. You guys existed? Where do you where do you think we are? As an like an ecosystem? How did we become better or worse through the offseason? Even without the liquid move? Like obviously because that's the kind of a detriment on its own, but like,

Michael Schmid  45:28

I think generally better. I mean, I think even eg Oh, yeah, I forgot to go into eg. I mean, but I think I think all those moves are generally in the right direction. So I think like that's a upgrade from complexity, complexity, getting a leash. Now it's getting stamina, like, isn't there argue like arguably, I can upgrade the Add to that a little bit of structure that they kind of never had? Our team is formed so as a whole nother team to throw into it. Eg black and EG as a great. The question mark is, I'd say with party astronauts, the the spec pickup is a question mark, for me, at least. Because I know like when they tried them out. I was like, Are you guys gonna like trout JPA or, or like Gray's or any of these other younger kind of not, I don't even know if they're younger, but just like other like rivalries that have kind of like, hovered around like the potential of joining a more top tier ECL team. And like, now they pick a second like, okay, like, I'm ready to see what he's here to show me. But I honestly haven't seen a whole lot from him. Previously, wildcard have always been kind of like a sleeper team, I'd say that they've always like had good, really good, like regular seasons or good like coal fire runs, but they just always seem to knock it over the hurdle at the end. I'm either from experience or things like that. But I know that they were screaming European teams during this offseason, because they're on this coast. So they can scrim. You and I think there's gonna be on a UK server.

Logan Ramhap  47:02

Yeah, I played on UK servers before. It's bad, but it's not the I think there's a lady. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Schmid  47:08

So

Logan Ramhap  47:09

with Elliott before, and it sucked. But it was manageable.

Michael Schmid  47:12

Yeah. So I think during that offseason, they were screaming EU teams primarily. So they're kind of more so in that term catching up with the meta there. So obviously, it's going to be beneficial, but you're still playing at 85. Ping. So you're only going to learn so much. Yeah. But I think it's definitely everything's going in the right direction. I mean, liquids move. I think I got released the whole twit, Twitter thing about it. I think it was very expected. Yeah. Well, at least the one you pick up was expected to was not necessarily expected but understandable.

Logan Ramhap  47:45

The, the thing that I liked about the liquid move, and I've said this previously on here, but I'll say it to you is that yoka Steve and Victor put the giant video of why they were doing it, which I don't see many orgs going and saying, This is why we are making the roster move. We are we understand this is a big change for where we previously were. But this is what led us to make this change and that like transparency made me feel a lot better about it. Yeah.

Elliott Griffiths  48:14

I mean, do you ever think you might go to liquid

Michael Schmid  48:17

maybe one day, I mean, there was a lot of like, people like hoping that I would be going to liquid in the first place like this. And I was telling people like there's no way there's there's just no way like sure you could believe that but to me, I don't see myself as like liquid ready. It's like that's like trial by fire. Replacing like a lesion that senses like try it literally trial by fire, getting thrown into the fucking thing going like, Okay, be a 1.2 rated 1.3 rated player, I guess adversity to the world. Like I could do it. But like, they they don't expect that. Yeah. And I think you can do that someone just told me last night on my stream that like you kinder mentioned the interview that like the NA people that they were looking at were either automatic Korean or me. And I feel like going for them to go back to Grimm that's like a little not necessarily a move that they would probably want to take. Pick it up automatic. That would have been I think, like their only a option. In my opinion. I think they would have been the smartest one because he's, they tried and tested. He is like, that experience that like I don't have he has all of that. And that's like that would be like their question mark with picking me up is I have no experience. I have just like a couple events like EPL is where we've gotten half lost every game.

Elliott Griffiths  49:35

Yeah, you gotta get that experience similar.

Michael Schmid  49:38

Exactly. Yeah,

Logan Ramhap  49:39

you got to lose at one point to start winning. Exactly. You can't make a game seven winner without losing three games before game said exactly. There we go. I went to a depth because I think most people thought he died under a rock for a bit because they hadn't heard his name for a while you Yeah. But he's the latest of like many converts that have come that went to valour at the beginning. And they've now come back. So how do you think that the like two year hiatus from Counter Strike has helped him has pushed him in a different direction has helped you guys out or it wasn't just valorant was not the right fit, and he ended up coming back.

Michael Schmid  50:23

Honestly, I've never even spoke to him before, before even the left. So I have no idea who he was as a person before I can. CSAs but I mean, like, he's definitely like, since coming back. Like he's definitely I mean, that was one of my question marks to was like, that's coming back. Like, this guy has played the game and forever, like, how beneficial Is he really going to be as like a coach? Right? Because at the same time, we're we're adding meta, we're getting spots. how beneficial is he gonna be because he hasn't even been in this meta for so long. But he's definitely definitely exceeded my expectations kind of at the beat, like already in this beginning. He's been so far I got really good coach. He's already practically re caught up. Which is like, perfect, and I'm super, super excited to be playing with him.

Logan Ramhap  51:12

As he Freudian slipped with vandal instead of aka No. Okay, good. That's a that's a good more.

Michael Schmid  51:18

I don't think I've heard any slip ups of our single one.

Logan Ramhap  51:21

It's a good thing. I hope you don't that's.

Elliott Griffiths  51:25

Yeah, it's just that he always wants to be playing.

Michael Schmid  51:29

That's the majority of our players. But

Logan Ramhap  51:31

yeah, yeah. I'm on a boat tub, a new Counter Strike and one of the contract to for a second. Do you have access? Let's start course. Okay. So I'm the only one here that access lovely. Help us. Trust me. I've been, I've been trying to see if we can get me access, but doesn't look like it. Yeah, access

Elliott Griffiths  51:50

to unreleased microphones, but not to cut. Yeah, crazy.

Logan Ramhap  51:56

I want to talk about how you think that within the coming months, because the game will come out in the next month or so or two months or whatever, right? They say summer but valve time means that may be like October is on there. And then we'll inevitably switch over in like December or whatever, because we have the deadline of what is it March next year to hit, or it's like March or May or something like that for the major. So we'll eventually move over within the next couple of months. And so that way people have time to actually play tournaments on it before we get thrown into a major, just CST for the first time ever. How do you think that the new mechanics and ces two are going to change how teams are right now? And do you think that there's a Do you think that there's a way that some teams that were worse before get better because of how the game plays differently? And vice versa?

Michael Schmid  52:45

I think, like, What's your last statement there? I think that's definitely true. I think like the tier two teams are probably gonna Excel. For sure. Tier two tier three teams are going to excel because like everyone's gonna be a reinventing everything right. The Meta is completely gone. And there's a whole new game, practically. Yeah, every smokes different needs are different, every lineups different for everything, new spots, every maps, different angles, everything. I think that's where the tier two and tier three players are gonna like Excel or teams are going to excel. Because like that, it's just pure innovation. Yeah, and you're going to be seeing things that you've never seen before. Different strats different lineups for things. It's, it's going to be interesting with that. i It's a games like that. Okay, state, I'd say my whole question mark about it is that it's still 64 Tick. Like, what would 120 Tick be a thing? Maybe? I think someone's already done it.

Logan Ramhap  53:43

Yeah, I think someone did it. And there was differences, but it wasn't ridiculously different. Me. Yeah. I also have faith that like valve is there, they're touting this new sub tick thing, which, like as a nerd is a good thing for them to switch. Yeah. But I just it's not there yet. But it seems that they're making updates to it. I think a lot of the movement related updates that they're making actually are have to do with like, tick rate and that kind of stuff. Yeah. And that making it feel like normal 128 to face it right now is that it's kind of in the way that the server functions less that the game functions itself. So I'm hoping they're making more updates on that on the back end as they go through.

Michael Schmid  54:24

I'd hope so as well. I mean, like, it's still 64 I get it. Well, they clearly feels I don't know, at least for me. I'm sure like many other pros and stuff that are always made 120 Take, you can easily tell the difference. immediately as soon as you guys are out. Okay, it's 6040 Like there's no question about it at all. Like the sprays, like spraying a gun. They feel different. Because the sprays are horrible. It's it's a little huge 64 Tick. That's why 120 ticks arrays feel great. 64 ticks are different just because like you're you're pulling down and like your spray pattern. Is it a different ticker? than it normally is. So it's everything's off in that sense the movements still off a little bit the movement can be tinkered with which is I think malmsbury Not much ROPs it's like some some command to mess with NFL a lot better in that sense which is good but like the art like there's a lot of random things like it feels like when you're when you're shooting everything's a slightly delayed a little bit at least for me. Like it sounds like audio is a little delayed audio is very muffled like the whole echoey audio.

Logan Ramhap  55:30

I think I think Jacob Hoffman works does too for other people he does pot ESL challenger production and stuff. He came up with a thread specifically about audio and Counter Strike to and about the imaging of the different audio and said it's not there yet, but it's getting there. Yeah. And how it was totally different which is awesome and I had seen before that which has its own weird thing of audio. Because sport

Michael Schmid  55:58

very makes the game they I think it was most noticeable about like, how bad not in a good state it was was on Nuke, like you can't hear everything on like, if you're on a and on be everything super quiet and super muffled. Even though it's a little bit right below you. Yeah, it's just like, it just feels weird and just feels like you can't pinpoint it as well as you should.

Elliott Griffiths  56:22

Yeah, I think the way everything's changed as well I think that they've now introduced vertigo and they've not changed anything on vertigo. But that mask is perfect to me completely differently because the map is so like one way smoke heavy like that. There's like the crane smoke that people always play on ramps knows what that maps even though nothing has changed we'll play completely differently. I'm bit worried that it's going to be horrible to watch because you won't be able to use these gimmicks and stuff it's just going to be standing

Logan Ramhap  56:56

smoke spams will be new because you can actually like make holes in the smoke not really

Elliott Griffiths  57:02

you can sort of make a hole but not really that he getting rid of smoke is more important you can I got griefed by teammate yesterday I was playing behind the smoking monster and he he the smoker they got killed we just knew he couldn't do that before the shooting through the smoke is only really noticeable around the edges of it I think

Michael Schmid  57:20

yeah I'd say so that's why think like shooting through the middle is like a mix of very small ball but it just makes it a little bit bigger I don't I think I've only done it once where I've been able to kill somebody like from shooting through a hole it's a very very situational but definitely like the he says the fun part it's like the smoke window Mirage I go on he peak with a boom we get into centuries i Your mouth

Elliott Griffiths  57:47

I think you're going to need to as well because like you call it one way smoking call it anymore. Yeah, they

Michael Schmid  57:53

will they meet them shorter I think you can oh okay, so they made all the smoke shorter so now like if you smoke the bottle makan is short enough to one way over. I think when they released a nuke they made all this work shorter.

Elliott Griffiths  58:04

Okay, yeah, well, we'll see. I remember when I tried to do a mirage had no luck unless you've landed outside and which sportsy over I

Michael Schmid  58:13

think they adjusted that because they changed the height of them

Logan Ramhap  58:17

into um, I want to talk about just generic Kountry I want to about blasters I can I assume you've been watching at least some of it? Not a tonne. I've been busy. Not a tonne is okay, I'm okay with not a tonne. Um The reason I asked about this is because there's been about a million teams in blast that make roster changes, right? Have you teams on their own right before we got to what happened in NA and I can't even keep track of what happened in Brazil. Absolutely insane. So what I wanted to know is like, early first reaction like gut feeling of like, what your thoughts were about, like newlook NaVi.

Michael Schmid  58:58

Um, I'd say it's honestly really good sides very, like a lot of hope. And then at NaVi roster to be kind of I'd say still putting up good performances with a completely you're reforming an entire team. I'd say it's a good look. Because what they beat Astralis to one the big to a loss to the named team lost the unnamed team again a day it took on named team. Okay, okay. And and, I mean, like, they're even, like, the matches against them are just super close. I'd say it's probably like, it's a really good look. I know that blade likes a lot of structure. So that I think it was able to like to be so I think that's going to be like a good potential matchup there like the coach and AGL in that sense. And then jail, which I think is looked really really good so far. So I'd say yes, I'd say definitely good luck.

Logan Ramhap  59:59

Okay. And then do you think that there's any team that made a move that's just that they'd become instantly worse and are going to be disappointing to viewers at one point and I'm not trying to make you shit talk teams are really

Michael Schmid  1:00:16

um so I'd say the only team for sure would be like your eg black or OG in that sense. I mean it was you know, just got absolutely demolished. They looked like they weren't even like competitive at that sense. I mean, they got close to being phased but that was like the very first match a little bit a little bit of nerves getting back in the rhythm of things but they kind of got dismantled a little bit that eg black for me is just a question of arc that's like their eg black to me even though they have

Logan Ramhap  1:00:53

the problem is that you I called them eg black earlier in like when we recorded yesterday or the rest of this episode. I called them up by to their the regular eg team there is no eg black

Michael Schmid  1:01:04

guy, but it totally is still eg black.

Logan Ramhap  1:01:07

No, it was automatic. And that's part of the problem on its own is this team. It doesn't feel like it's a regular like a an EPL or blast partner team. It feels like it's an academy team. Yeah, that's like masquerading itself with an EPL slot.

Michael Schmid  1:01:24

Yeah, it's, I mean, I have faith in them. So I get significantly better. I can quick it's just yeah, very, very hard to do.

Elliott Griffiths  1:01:33

Yeah, the first

Logan Ramhap  1:01:34

couple of months are gonna be rough, very rough.

Elliott Griffiths  1:01:39

It's not like they're used to that anyway, like that. They've used it like they almost might as well go with the easy black roster because they weren't winning anyway, you might as well it gives some players experience and see if like, they get better because the current roster, the old roster wasn't doing that earlier.

Michael Schmid  1:01:53

It was so weird, like, but I think they said like somewhere that I kind of like eg block I think was like hinted that eg back was kind of like their main like priority. And like, that's kind of what they wanted to do. But they were willing to throw up bag and all these other European players and actually bag to get a whole European roster and just drop probably several million dollars.

Logan Ramhap  1:02:15

Which is so weird, because it seems like they're cutting costs everywhere other than

Michael Schmid  1:02:21

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Elliott Griffiths  1:02:23

They tried to sign like electronic and sortie and

Michael Schmid  1:02:28

they were they were basically given a blank paycheck, saying whatever you want, right? And the numbers are

Logan Ramhap  1:02:38

absolutely insane. Do you have anything you you'd like to talk about? Like, specifically?

Elliott Griffiths  1:02:45

Anyone you want to talk shit about?

Logan Ramhap  1:02:47

As to? We will absolutely do that?

Michael Schmid  1:02:52

Not necessarily. I mean, I'm, I'm excited. We're going to be going to Europe soon. So that's why it's excitement. So yeah, nothing with meds. They want to keep us in Europe basically as much as they can. Oh, that's awesome. Yes. That's how you learn. Basically, unfortunately. Lea they want to keep us in Europe as much as they can in between na events and, and stuff like that. So we're gonna be heading to Europe shortly maybe in like a couple of weeks. I'm actually think I think it's gonna be right after I am full. I'm gonna we're gonna go to from your boot European boot camp to Malta and then I think back to to stay in Europe for another month or so. So that's super excited. I've never been there for that long. I can't wait for that. I think they are training this to go to the UK to buy from the UK. So I think that's out of it. That's out of Schengen, right? Or is in Schengen out of Schengen? Yep. So that's why I'm assuming because you can only be in Schengen for six months before you need visas. Well, me and reckon, and Mel upset us. But the other thing is like any events, there's no date as you're sad.

Logan Ramhap  1:04:14

It's I'm hoping they come back. What's really sad to me is I was I was in Philly last year for frag Adelphia. I was I was like with with Ryan and stuff and Cineworld media area. And I would didn't even like pertain to me at that point that that was gonna be the last one for a while because we haven't heard anything about another one this year and stuff and it's like, I'm ready to go and just isn't there and that that on its own is really saddening to me. Because that was like that was the one na event I could count on every year.

Michael Schmid  1:04:44

Yeah, I mean, because I think it's expected that na events are going to be around the same time as next year so before summer player break but the I don't know if you saw but the they release the major dates. Oh, yes. We were very, very happy about that. Okay, great news because it is the last event before player rake. Thank you very exciting move

Logan Ramhap  1:05:06

we've been we've been saying this for a while that the two events after don't matter at all and are stupid and should not exist Yeah,

Elliott Griffiths  1:05:13

that's the only event you've got was Dallas and it was like Ha it's like yeah well to both the NA events we got yeah DC was after last Oh yeah,

Michael Schmid  1:05:23

they're just all dead teams and like just dead teams walking and it's just like, really it's really sad for like the player experience or the viewer experience.

Logan Ramhap  1:05:31

I mean, it's probably sad for the player experience to they gotta sit there with teammates. Yeah, but yeah, you guys still play two more events and it's like I hate

Elliott Griffiths  1:05:40

you. Yeah, that must be horrible if you know you're being cut and you have to play with these people you like I don't want to I don't want to help you guys that you want to get rid of me.

Michael Schmid  1:05:48

Yeah I mean that that's definitely going to be an exciting change. There just does two article just released ESL bans. Crocs.

Logan Ramhap  1:05:57

Yeah, I saw that. Yeah.

Elliott Griffiths  1:06:00

I saw Yeah, we're talking about it.

Logan Ramhap  1:06:03

Esports is anti crocs last year's League of Legends world's player went on stage with crocs was told he had to go back and get regular shoes. Esports is anti crocs

Michael Schmid  1:06:13

we need to boycott i If only

Elliott Griffiths  1:06:17

I think they should find Crocs and socks together. I think I agree. You should be at all. But like one of them on the road? Yeah, it's criminal. You think just socks are fine socks. I think it's fine. Like I'm no free to eat pics. But yeah,

Logan Ramhap  1:06:33

I can't imagine a player like walking out on like the blast like the giant blast in the like, it was up like the elevator thing with just socks on.

Michael Schmid  1:06:42

That'd be pretty funny,

Logan Ramhap  1:06:44

though. Absolute Drang.

Michael Schmid  1:06:45

I know. SOCKS is bad. I mean, barefoot would be the worst.

Logan Ramhap  1:06:51

Yeah, that would that would walk down. Like oh my god, the major they had that like giant like inlet thing that goes like the middle would imagine I'm gonna walk down that barefoot. Oh my god.

Elliott Griffiths  1:07:06

Yes, give me anxiety. I've got I've got two questions. Okay. By 2024 Will you be the best North American team? Yes. Okay, correct answer. And if you're staying in the UK, because there's no for Arkadelphia will you instead be going to Epic Loudoun? I don't know what that is. Why, exactly. It's basically a UK Lanre players just go and in fact, they claim to play Counter Strike.

Michael Schmid  1:07:36

So it's like an ASF.

Elliott Griffiths  1:07:38

Yeah, it's like frag Adelphia. But even less

Michael Schmid  1:07:41

serious. Yeah, no, it's less. Yeah. That's interesting. I didn't know that was possible.

Logan Ramhap  1:07:47

I trust me I I was blown away. When I saw photos and stuff from the events and I it was less.

Elliott Griffiths  1:07:54

Oh, yeah, it's

Michael Schmid  1:07:56

dark people I get to it's like drinking and stuff during the matches.

Elliott Griffiths  1:08:00

Or is that sometimes sometimes interesting. You'll get teams of like, this is a team that go there like a fight or flight four or five like casters or like, like, yeah, and they'll just like, they're like level six or something. Again, those two groups and

Logan Ramhap  1:08:15

there's also no run up because frag Adelphia has this has the whole like qualifier run up so everyone that goes to land in Philly is like somewhat serious about what they're doing. There's no see.

Elliott Griffiths  1:08:26

Anyone can sign up. Yeah.

Michael Schmid  1:08:29

I mean, how we might you might see me there. Yeah, I don't think a good time.

Logan Ramhap  1:08:34

Excellent. All right. Well, with that, I need to get back to my day job. And we're gonna let you get on with your day for sure. Thank you for joining us.

Michael Schmid  1:08:45

Of course, thank you guys.