After a two-year hiatus, I have decided to put on my big boy pants and bring back my interview series: In The Crosshair.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, I sit down with players, talent members, and general fun folk within the Counter-Strike world for a laid back chatshow-style interivew. After doing about 50 episodes on the good ol' INSITE channel, alongside many interviews at events, I am excited to bring you this updated version.

To kick things off, I invited my good friend Dinko after his stint in Katowice at ESL Pro League Season 24.

The first guest

We talked about the uniqueness of the event and how they transitioned into an arena for playoffs. We then transitioned into his casting style, how he established himself as the newest member of the tier one talent roster, and how he and Moses tick, as they have the biggest gap in experience and age out of any duo.

Dinko isn't yet jaded like some of the other talent members might be, as he is still pretty new on the tour, and that gives him a fun, unique view. You can still see the sparkle and excitement in his eyes, yet to be drained as life on the road and the constant disappointment of teams like G2 wastes away his babyface.

I was personally quite surprised to hear that he is trying his best to veer away from focusing on what he has prepped for games, and just doing the game justice in the moment. I previously associated him with these preset hype lines that are dropped at perfect moments; it's not uncommon for casters to have material at the ready for moments like this, I even have a whole document of snazzy phrases I have curated over the years. We spoke about this in context of some of his more famous clips, and he was able to break down his exact thought processes during those moments.

Before all of this, however, we sat down and did the TLDR Ten Daily game. Despite a reallllly tricky topic, Dinko does shockingly alright. Hopefully we can do this comedy relief segment at the start of every episode... if the guests agree.

This is the second time I have interviewed Dinko on this series, as the first was over three years ago now. Not only do we both look SO young back then, but it is really great to see him go from the fringe of tier one to now being a staple, having casted his first Major playoff game this year in Cologne. The mission now: improve his floor and cast a Major final.

If you want to see any specific guests, ask away in the TLDR Discord - I can't promise I'll get them, but with a face as cute as mine I stand as good a chance as anyone.

The full interview with Dinko is available below: