A couple of hours before the match facing her team with PENTA Sports, Dana Kawar, Flipsid3 Tactics Manager, introduced us with the team and gave us her feedback on their results in DreamHack Winter 2014.
[M] Laemey : Your team has been created last October, so you are still a pretty young team. How are your trainings doing ?
Dana Kawar : Yes, this roster is newly formed, but we have a lot of individual talent and most of the guys have been on rosters with each other in the past. Our guys also spend almost all their time practicing, which is of course speeding up the team growth. The trainings are going great, we are always improving and always learning.
Can you briefly explain the role of each player in your team ?
Honestly, we don't really have set roles for each player. We take each map invidividually and go with what works. We play to each person's strengths and use them where it works best for that map.
What do you think are your team's strengths and weaknesses ?
Our biggest strength is our team work. All our guys have been on rosters in the past with stronger personalities that make it super difficult to work together as a unit. This roster has an uncanny ability to put outside influences to the side and play as a team. This is the major reason for all of our successes despite being a relatively new roster. Of course, it also helps that our team has the individual talent to land the shots we need to win games. As far as weaknesses, its probably our lack of experience as this roster. While we work very well as a team, we still arent at a point where we can anticipate each others actions yet. We have a lot of work to do as far as tactics and strats for each map, but we learned a lot from this past DreamHack, and we learn more every day. In the future, as we become more experienced with each other, this will become one of our strengths, for sure.
You recently managed to qualify for DreamHack Winter, winning against London Conspiracy in qualifier. No one was expecting that, but did you think you could beat them when you knew the team you were about to face ?
Because we are a relatively new roster, and we aren't made up of big name players, we are always underestimated going into matchups against known rosters. LC is a fantastic team, but we went into the match knowing if we played our game, and kept doing what we have been doing, we had a really good chance to beat them. We refused to be intimidated, did our research, and played to our strengths, and it worked out in the end.
Flipsid3 Tactics, backstage at DreamHack Winter 2014
Your DreamHack Winter journey began in group D. You loss against Na.Vi and won against myXMG, leading you to a tie with Na'Vi, which also had one win and one loss. The decider match was then between you two. It was a close match, ending on a 19-15 win for the Ukrainiens. What do you think you team needed to beat them ?
Of course we knew playing Na'vi would be a tough task, they are a top team. But, we also knew we had the potential to beat any team at DH. We went in with confidence and the right mindset, and it almost carried us through. We lurked a little too much, and gave up too many rounds and deaths doing so. We were also antsy, so we had a few too many deaths moving around when we should have been holding positions. Honestly, we chalk it up to lack of experience as this roster. Their discipline won out in the end. We had plenty of chances to close them out both on Mirage and on Overpass and they just held in there. That final round on overpass where we had the money and gun advantage and they were on full eco was heartbreaking. If we has just been a little more patient and had a little more discipline we could have taken the win. That is a true testiment to Na'vi's discipline and keeping their heads under pressure, it was a great performance on their end. Hopefully we will have another chance to go up against them in the next major and show them what we have learned!
What is your next goal in CS:GO ?
Our goal is to compete against the best teams out there and win. We love this game and we want to make a living playing it, and with a little more hard work this roster is really capable of doing that. DreamHack Winter showed us that we can compete with the top teams in the world and we are good enough on LAN to make a name for ourselves. It is now just time for us to get back to grinding and work to get stronger and more experienced as a team.
