By Lucy

Hey Deathdog, thank you for taking some time out to answer some questions. I firstly wanted to say, welcome back to CSS. You took 7 months off which meant you missed a season and some big lans. What was your reason for taking the time off?

I'd been playing Counter-Strike:Source competitively for the last three years. In my invite level teams, this usually consisted of three to four practice nights a week, and several hours a week of personal practice time. As I'm sure any invite level player can identify with, constant practice can become monotonous, and the only foreseeable way for me to break the grind was to take a break.

Now that you're back, did the time off help to improve you as a player or did you just pick up where you left of at 7 months ago?

I guess its been like picking up where I left off, minus the dread for practice. After playing for so long, aiming and movement just becomes intrinsic, once you're holding the mouse it just happens... Plus, the fact that I've played with every member of my team somewhere along the line helps!

Your competing in CyberGamer Invite this season with Team Immunity, how do you feel about playing for Immunity?

Team Immunity is undoubtedly Australia's longest standing and most successful e-Sports organisation. How do I feel about playing for Immunity? Honored is probably a bit too formal... Lucky? I remember, years ago, I was looking at the Immunity website, reading about the organisation, watching the 1.6 team play matches, and now I'm on the same website, playing for the same team. It's a little bit daunting playing for a name with such a history of success; but it inspires all of us to play our best every season.

Do you have any personal goals you would like to see happen this year?

Personally, I want to get more enjoyment out of CSS than I have in the past year-to me that's more about who I'm playing with and not so much about winning (although it helps!).

What do you think of the Competition in CGi? Do you think it will be a close finish again like last season where Immunity only just missed out on 1st place?

The level of competition looks fantastic, although personally I would respectfully disagree with the choice of a couple of the teams in the league. Several new teams have formed, and there are definitely some new talented players (Dimo and ouch from Redemption, Sai from SQL) and surprisingly, some great past players returning to CSS (SnakEfragjacket, rymezke). It's going to be an interesting season, and there could definitely be some close games ahead between the top three teams.

What is your preparation and practicing like coming up to the start of a new season?

Preparation has been a bit rough, Spunj has been on his Bali holiday for the last week and with uni holidays on we aren't all around at the same time. We usually fit in around three to four practice nights a week, 2-3 hours per practice... Its mainly just scrims against the best team we can find. Once the season starts and holidays are over we'll be ramping it up to 4-5 nights a week.

Have you played CSPromod yet? If you have, what are your thoughts about the game or if you haven't, what sought of feedback have you been hearing?

I've managed to play CSP several times now, once in a pug and I've played around four scrims. My initial reaction was surprise at how far the game had come since the earlier beta which was, for lack of a better word, broken. To me, this BETA is what should have been released in the first place; the build quality is good and it is an accurate representation of the goal (1.6 on a source style engine). That being said, I don't believe it is ready for competitive play in any capacity. I think it still FEELS like CSSource in terms of movement; and it won't conceivably win over the 1.6 community until it feels like 1.6, the grenades aren't aligned with Source OR 1.6--clunky to say the least, and 1.6 style models need to be incorporated (to prevent the whole issue with seeing over the top of certain boxes, source style.

As far as feedback goes, I know that the CSS community 'embraced' CSP... upon release the only practice wars posted on GotGames were for CSP (this lasted for a few weeks, needless to say we didn't get much practice in that week) and there was plenty of speculation regarding the 'life' of CSS and 1.6 respectively, but like any new 'free' game, I guess the novelty just wears off. Maybe the next BETA release will take the players for more than a few weeks, or cause them to move over completely -I don't know. I do know however that the last thing I want to see is an Australian Counter-Strike community split THREE times: we don't have enough players to split this community up into 1.6, CSS and CSP players. Time will tell!

My last question refers to new teams that are formed to play in the leagues at the start of the season. Alot of the teams form but either struggle to make it to the end of the season or just break up shortly after the end. Immunity have been around a while now, what has kept immunity together?

Regarding the organisation itself; when I think of Team Immunity I think of longevity. This longevity is attributed continued support of Intel, GeIL and SteelSeries. Team Immunity will always be around in e-Sports in some capacity. Regarding the team; it is undoubtedly the camaraderie shared between the members of the team that pulls us together and keeps us coming back season after season, as cliche as that may sound.

Thank You Deathdog for this great Interview, I had a fun time talking to you.

WOW THIS IS AMAZING

very nice interview

i would have liked to hear deathdog's thoughts on CSP but otherwise very well done

great interview! need alot more of these, i see ddog in csp pug would also like to know his thoughts and other professional cs1.6/css players of the game.

Edited twice, last edited 16/2/10 - 11:32am.

juh

very nice work

I've managed to play CSP several times now, once in a pug and I've played around four scrims. My initial reaction was surprise at how far the game had come since the earlier beta which was, for lack of a better word, broken. To me, this BETA is what should have been released in the first place; the build quality is good and it is an accurate representation of the goal (1.6 on a source style engine). That being said, I don't believe it is ready for competitive play in any capacity. I think it still FEELS like CSSource in terms of movement; and it won't conceivably win over the 1.6 community until it feels like 1.6, the grenades aren't aligned with Source OR 1.6--clunky to say the least, and 1.6 style models need to be incorporated (to prevent the whole issue with seeing over the top of certain boxes, source style.

As far as feedback goes, I know that the CSS community 'embraced' CSP... upon release the only practice wars posted on GotGames were for CSP (this lasted for a few weeks, needless to say we didn't get much practice in that week) and there was plenty of speculation regarding the 'life' of CSS and 1.6 respectively, but like any new 'free' game, I guess the novelty just wears off. Maybe the next BETA release will take the players for more than a few weeks, or cause them to move over completely--I don't know. I do know however that the last thing I want to see is an Australian Counter-Strike community split THREE times: we don't have enough players to split this community up into 1.6, CSS and CSP players. Time will tell!

Edited once, 16/2/10 - 8:44am.

gw lucy

Added answer, sorry for any grammatical errors or typo's, haven't proof read and quite frankly, I'm too tired to bother

This i like.

What is a Chadwick Moses?

Nice interview, looking forward to more one-on-ones

good work lucy!

good read.

Great interview, awesome read

Awesome interview, good luck to Immunity.