karrigan picks his ideal players for an eco round.

[This interview was taken before TSM played nV in the semifinals]

So I’m here with karrigan of Team SoloMid, who just went 2-0 against Kinguin in the quarterfinals. First of all, congratulations for your victory. Kinguin wasn’t really expected to go to quarters. They made it notably on the back of a good game against Cloud9 on Dust 2. How did you expect this match to go? Were you confident?

Looking at the group stage, we knew we had to face either Kinguin or Cloud9. I actually feared to play against Cloud9 because they knew how to play, how our matchup would be, stuff like that, so to begin with I didn’t think about Kinguin and I just looked at what could be the worst matchup for us. Then, when it came out that they beat Cloud9, that just set me in a state where I was thinking, “How am I gonna lead?” “How will we play the different maps?” I was pretty confident watching some demos yesterday, that actually this style they play actually fits us. Walking into sites, not too many set-gos [E/N: I think by “set-go” karrigan is referring to “executes”], and in my opinion, not so good tactically, though maybe aim-wise they’re good. So we just had to be on point and be able to stop their duels as T and we were successful with that. Then I used the communication problems they seemed to have on their CT sides, forcing full rotates from them, that kind of thing. And our T sides were pretty good in my opinion on Overpass and Dust 2. So, looking at demos, I felt confident going into the match today.

Okay! There’s been people qualifying Kinguin as an allstar lineup but with no real structure. Did you feel that way against them?

I agree with the superstar thing, because you got mixed nationalities and some superstars on the lineup. Going into their tactical approach, I don’t think they’re unstructured, but it’s more about, let’s say, a new team that hasn’t found its own style yet, especially when you see them changing the in-game leader position to a coach, and then the coach changing again. What you could read and see in the game, they didn’t make many executes nor fakes, and the few ones they did we knew about it. Like on Dust 2, we knew they would drop on B so we came up mid and prepared well. In fact, I wasn’t surprised by anything they did on their T sides, and that’s what for me is their issue. They lack surprise with their tactical approach. I don’t really know; it just feels like we had the match in our hands the whole time. We never thought, “Oh, we got outplayed.” We sometimes lost rounds because they got the best aim sometimes, but that’s it. So, yeah, that’s basically it.

Okay! Now I want to go back to the group stage where you went 2-0 facing Renegades first and then NiP. You went 16-11 against Renegades and 16-3 against NiP. NiP is now in the quarters, while Renegades is out. How would you explain the difference between those games, that it seemed you struggled more against a Challenger team than a Legend team?

I think… Okay, so the first game is like, there was some kind of pressure going through the team like, “Oomph, we have everything to lose here.” Losing the pistols, they had very good tactics, and you have to take your hats off when people do a new thing. So I actually said after the pistols, “Well guys, they’ve outplayed us, let’s just move on.” Going into the next couple of rounds we got outplayed one more time at least, getting only a few frags in five rounds against Renegades. I started feeling the pressure, because, “Oomph, they have good communication,” stuff like that, and they hit all their shots. You have to give them credit for what they did. They had good set-gos, stuff like that. They had some sick individual performances, plus the good set-gos . But what people do and what pro teams need to do in that kind of circumstance is they have to adapt very quickly. And I think we showed that we are good at adapting mid round. So after being down 2-5, we ended up 10-5. We countered them and they didn’t have an answer. Even though they did get a timeout, they couldn’t come up with answers at that moment.

In my opinion, going into the NiP match... Renegades, I think they were more on point with everything than NiP was. It can be because our matchup against NiP is better due to the way we play Cache. They kind of failed tactically on their CT side to let mid open the B site every round. We didn’t have to really make set-gos, because they didn’t hold middle, so when you control middle as T you don’t need to make set-gos, you just get the peeks. So, a big fail from their point of view. I don’t know what happened, why they didn’t take a timeout. And I have to say, Renegades, in my opinion, hit their shots better than NiP did. They had these sick shots where you’re just left like, “Okay, well I didn’t have a chance.” In their aim duels they were going in confident. And that’s very important when we play against a team like NiP. If you have respect for them, they start to gain on you. If you give respect to Renegades... well, they have to earn it, and that’s how they earn it, by getting those one shots to begin with. So yeah, that’s how the group stage went.

Now I would like to move on to your next match where you play EnVyUs. The last time you met was at Gamescom, where they beat you 4-0. Now, there was that format where fans voted for the maps, and many agree that EnVy got the best maps, maps that fit their style better. How do you approach that matchup? Did you prepare specifically for them going into Cologne? Or did you simply try to prepare in a more general way for every team?

I mean, in (Gamescom) you couldn’t prepare. First of all, they had a completely new team, so we had to play our own style and had no idea about what they’d do. And they had everything planned. They watched our replays, they found our weaknesses, so that was like, a big surprise. Going into this matchup now, we will have at least one map we want. If we can’t win on our own map tomorrow, we’re going to have a really hard time, because we’ll need to win their map. Like you said yourself, I think two out of the four games (at Gamescom) were actually Cobblestone, and it’s no big secret we’re not the best Cobblestone team in the world (laughs). And even though they’re new, that’s no excuse. It was still a good tournament and we had a great time there. Hopefully we’ve fixed our mistakes. We basically got outplayed on Cache.

It was the 16-3 game?

16-4, yeah. And it happened already against Team EnVyUs. It seems we have a hard time playing them on Cache, so basically tomorrow, the question for us will be, “What do you want to play, Cobblestone or Cache?” and that’s something I have to decide tonight. One of these should be an obvious ban for us, and who knows what’s gonna happen then. Tomorrow is obviously an important day, and—most of all—we have to win our own map. Our Inferno matchup against EnVyUs is always a blast, so if it is the third map tomorrow against them, you’re in for a hell of a match on stream, because I think six out of seven times, we actually beat them 16-13 the last six times. So yeah, if that’s the third map, we’re in for a hell of a match.

Well, I’ll look forward to it then! Actually, I was interviewing Happy earlier today, and he told me that even if that gave them confidence (their victory at Gamescom), he also mentioned that they’re still a new team and have everything to prove. There was the element of surprise at Gamescom, but now they can be studied and they may have to prove themselves even more at this major. What’s your feeling about that?

It’s no secret that I always study people. The way we beat Fnatic was the result of hard studying. What are they doing good? What are their weaknesses? And I found a way of—for ourselves—calling good against Fnatic. I didn’t know how EnVyUs would play because they have a new style. Will they use Happy the same way? Will he be lurking more or less? How will kennyS play the AWP effectively? In Titan, he played as the main AWPer but I feel like he’s playing it a little less now. apEX is running in rounds first all the time. That stuff, you didn’t know about EnVyUs before they played Gamescom.

Yeah, and basically you could only witness, for example, “How well would apEX do on EnVyUs?”

Yes. Of course you can know the roles, but you can’t really see beforehand how they will interact with each other, how they will actually play the maps. The way EnVyUs played, I felt I had… Basically, when you play EnVyUs you’re always stressed as a caller, because they keep on pushing. They don’t stop. So tomorrow I have to be very calm, very collected, to be able to outcall and play good on the T side against them. That’s the hard part, to play the T side against a so-skilled team in my opinion, maybe the best team around skill-wise at the moment, because of Happy as their in-game leader being way above the other in-game leaders frag-wise.

Alright. I don’t know if you noticed, but a colleague on Team Liquid ran a piece on Happy, pronax and you, focused on in-game leaders.

Yeah, I read it. It was really good.

You read it? Nice! There was that feeling of some kind of circular advantage, you beating Fnatic, Fnatic having the upper hand on EnVy, and EnVy being really good against you? Do you feel that way? Basically, would you have preferred to be up against Fnatic tomorrow rather than EnVy?

I’ll definitely like to play Fnatic, especially because I feel like now, there’s something going into the minds, and the confidence of all big team leaders keeps on rising. Every time they take on aim battles, it seems like they are just falling back on aim if they can’t play in their comfort zone. And if they’re not in their comfort zone, they have to rely on, for example, olofmeister landing 40 frags, because they don’t feel confident. EnVy and Virtus.pro are the same I think. They keep on forcing as CT, and you just have to be on point when you play teams like that. So of course I prefer to play Fnatic, because then the pressure will be again on Fnatic. Right now I think, EnVyUs and us… Tomorrow we’ll have to show we’re still a top three team, and they need as well to show they are top three or top two in the world. So in my opinion, it’s going to be a 50-50 match tomorrow. This match is going to decide, for some months of CS:GO, who are the top three and top two in the world, in my opinion.

Okay! And now, a bit of a less formal question for you. Imagine your family was kidnapped by pirates, and you had to pick four CS:GO players with you to rescue them. Who would you pick? Assume it’s an eco round.

I should assume it’s an eco-round?

Yeah. Four players.

Hmmm. I need… yeah, not my team right? All different people.

Well, it seems to be off to a good start.

It seems indeed.

Yeah, picking your team would defeat the purpose.

Alright got it. So I need four pistol players.

Welp, we could allow a bit more, like NBK and his scout.

Yeah, I’ll actually pick NBK and his scout. I’ll also pick s1mple’s deagle.

S1mple?

Yeah, it’s just no communication, just shoot at people. So, I need two more. Hmm, who am I going for? Who’s good with CZ? Ah, could you help me here?

Hmm, I got two ideas in my mind, like, maybe kennyS, and I would have suggested ScreaM as well.

I’m gonna go with device actually, he’s really good with the CZ. And then I need, ha! olofmeister with the Tec-9 of course. And yeah, I got everything. I have deagle, scout, CZ, Tec-9!

I kind of expected you’d pick olofmeister and his Tec9.

And I got my own Tec9, so that’s… that’s my army for the eco round!

Alright. So olofmeister, device, s1mple, and NBK.

Yeah and NBK, because you got to have a scout.

Well, thank you for the interview, and good luck in your match against EnVyUs!

Thank you!

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