Duncan
Appearances
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I'm not even trying to bash Blast. I'm fine with it. It's just like, what is your response going to be? You no longer have the partnerships to make it like you have some effective complaint to change the broadcast. No, it's true.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Have you been, we haven't, I mean, we haven't got a chance to pick your brain at all. Have you been enjoying the VRS this season? Like it's kind of like not the most sexy topic, but just curious, like how have you been taking it?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, I'm with you entirely. I think they have... I think your point about that balancing act is just going to be so interesting, which is why I like the power going back to TOs, because it is very much... That probably is something they shouldn't have tweeted. And also, man, another thing.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Every team has someone whose job is to be the asshole.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I always laugh when we get those requests or when we hear that from behind the scenes. It's like, okay, I have acknowledged that this team doesn't want me to talk about this particular thing, and I will be ignoring that for the next week. It goes in one ear and out the other.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And that's even one that falls into line, both of the Taz ones and even the Zonic one where you hear him being quite a little bit quiet throughout that as well as sometimes you take that time out and your players are just dead silent. And that silence is really unnerving when you don't feel your players communicating and coming up with ideas and being creative.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
So yeah, those little, those little things are sometimes meant to jog their memory or jog their energy or kick them into gear in some sense of like, remember this conversation we just had. Think back to this moment of what we talked about, what we discussed in our game plan, anything to get the players talking with each other. What's those, 30 seconds are up.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You, you, you go back to being a non-factor. Yeah. And I think you're, yeah, go on.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
This is so intense. It makes me nervous. We're live here. We have Duncan in for Chad this episode. Chad's exhausted. Chad's on a grind. Chad's brain is fried at this point with casting so many events. We brought Duncan in, an old friend of ours. What's going on, Duncan?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I mean, we all know the social media department and the broadcast are two completely different verticals in these companies. And they don't really communicate and kind of nail down the tone of what they both have to go for. And social media people, these clout farmers, they get to operate on different rules because they are slaves to an algorithm.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
So they get to do whatever the fuck they want, essentially, as long as those numbers get pumped up and you stay in the algorithm. That's a good job for you.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Pretty edgy. I still remember us sitting in a green room, just relaxing between games and hearing the lyrics. It's wild, isn't it? I'm like, did they just say they're going to take cocaine to feel their heartbeat? I know. I know.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's the way the industry works right now is different content and different kinds of content and different things geared towards different platforms. The different things work on different platforms that don't work on other ones.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
So yeah, you have to have, if that's the route you're going, you have to have a unique angle to your Twitter content versus your YouTube content versus your TikTok or YouTube shorts, whatever it might be. Stream content is going to be different.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Dude, the electronic one was popping off as well. Like, these players are all popping off right now. The electronic to gangster one after that game was fucking wild.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I think at the moment it feels like to me when I... I mean, look, maybe I'm overthinking it and this is just fans being a little bit too judgy too quick, but I think there's a disconnect in the timing that we used to have for teams making roster changes and when we would start to see the results of those. You could normally see that at different stages in CSGO.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You could normally see that within a month. And I think now the game has gotten so complicated and so many more layers and so many more protocols and so many more conversations that need to be had. That time is probably closer to, I don't know, maybe two to three months before you're going to see if a team has potential, if that roster change is going to make those improvements.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I think that disconnect in timing is causing a lot of weird, overreactive, emotional, quick judgments of where a team is at and where they can be.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah. But mouse is so unique in the sense that most teams that make roster changes like that, you look for the progression upwards with mouse. I feel like I'm more concerned about the progression downwards. Like what happens two months in when, when Brolin has to IGL and the shoey ideas start to kind of fade away into the background. What happens when they have to create brand new things?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
What happens when they have to change things? So mouse, I feel like is the opposite progression where it's like, is there going to be a drop off? Not how far can they make it?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yes.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
The actual VRS ranking seems to be going really well. When we get like seeding for events through VRS, it feels like it works really well. But I'm with you. I think my least favorite part is that whole idea of picking up a core, a three player. And like, it makes complete sense. Like you kind of have to do it as a team if you want to get- It's just a hack right now. Yeah. It just kind of sucks.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Where are you guys at with FaZe right now? Do you feel like there's a lot of red flags popping up? Are you panic mode with this FaZe lineup? Because I thought they'd be better out of the gate. I know what you mean. I thought that this was a team that was going to be primed to have a really strong honeymoon period, and it couldn't be further from a honeymoon period.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's actually the complete opposite. So I think when you look at the tweets from Kerrigan out of these losses saying, you know, disappointing and, you know, we lost too many good rounds yesterday, When you look at the comments from Alige in the post-game interview saying there's a lot of discomfort, he's not feeling comfortable and confident in his roles.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It feels like something that should be red flags, but I'm not sure if I'm quite in panic mode about FaZe yet.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It kind of sucks watching team building in that way.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, Sipa was probably the most egregious example of that, of trying to do too much. Even at his peak, even at his best, he would do that with frequency. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why the Alige move. I'm with you. I think he's still playing well. There just seems to be something important.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
There seems to be some critical impact missing from FaZe at this point, and I don't exactly know where it's missing from.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Come on. No, but I think this might be one of the... I hope FaZe isn't in Wood Now mode.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I'm fucking with you. None of these losses seem like a disaster in context, except if you add the context of we're in win now mode. And I don't know if it's the third, fourth place decider, but if you're in win now mode, you cannot lose to this.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
If you're in win now mode, You cannot be losing to a Virtus Pro that is still coming in and trying to prove themselves.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
We think there's potential. Win now mode means those are teams you have to be beating and we can handle the loss to vitality. We can handle the loss to spirit. But win now mode is beating VP, is beating Astralis in whatever situation you find yourself up against.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
That's why it's so important, though, to contextualize within your own team of where you're at. Because, I mean, we talk about this win now from the outside in. If you're phased and you have that mentality inside, like, we're winning now. We have a team that should be fighting for trophies.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
That you're comparing yourself now, you're setting the bar at winning the event massively, not building up to be like to be a championship team and all your losses hurt more in that context. So I don't know what kind of mentality phase have within the team, but I hope it's not like we should be winning these trophies at this very moment. This is kind of a buildup for them to the major.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Otherwise, you just get buried under your own expectations. We had the same problem when I went and coached Liquid. Like, that lineup when I got there, that team going through the roster change of Nitro going out, of Grim coming in, of then, you know, Twist wanting to leave the team. They were still kind of, like, in win-now mode, especially in North America. Like, we should be the best team.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And, like, they were still, like, kind of, you know, there were a couple times I'd come into practice, and I'd see a couple of the guys watching, like, the 2019 Intel Grand Slam highlights that happened like a year and a half, two years prior. And I wanted to be like, guys, we're not that team anymore. Like, you need to- You need to- They were actually sat watching.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Why are we playing like this? Why are we fragging out like this? I love it. Guys, you're not that team. Like, stop, like, comparing. Stop, like, dreaming that you're the 2019 Grand Slam team. If that is what you're doing right now... By the way, guys, you know one thing?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And by the way, it's one of the most impressive things about Kerrigan throughout his career is one of the things that I think players fall into, the trap that players fall into when they start getting a little bit more experience, a little bit veteran, especially when they have some successes. They think the avenue that got them to that initial success is always going to be the right answer.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
They have a really hard time giving up what got them to success the first time and finding a new path to that success. And that's what's so impressive about Kerrigan is that he's been able to kind of rejuvenate and refresh that sort of concept so many times with so many different lineups. So this is going to be another big test.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I'll tell you what, I think Alish is probably going to be the hardest test he'll have in his career of finding a way to activate him to be a player that can be a centerpiece on a championship team. So it's a really big task ahead of phase to be able to make this lineup work, I think, especially.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I appreciate the defense, but I feel like I need to step into the lion's den here because I was there helping orchestrate that move. Okay. Bold.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Bold to admit that. Was he GMing that? Well, no, look, because it ties into the conversation we just had. I mean, the context of this was when I stepped in, Nick had just left. They had just dropped Nitro to bring in Grim, who is like a fresh rookie. Yeah, he looked good.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And much like what we just talked about with Kerrigan making this change to bring Elysian, he doesn't want to bring in a young, talented player without experience and build them up. So I stepped into a team that also didn't want to be doing that but had made the decision to do that. So there was already frustration with grabbing a new, inexperienced young talent and having to build them up.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Also, Nick had just left, so our in-game leader was gone, and we had Naf opping. So at the time, I looked at it and I was like, the best way to resolve this was just to get a little bit more leadership into this team because Stewie's a brand new in-game leader is bring Fallen in. That also allows NAF to go back to his positions and drop the AWP. So there was some logic behind it.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But obviously, there is that inherent risk of picking up Fallen towards the end of his career. And I was looking for more of a leadership.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
There are sleepless nights where I'm like, ooh, man, that may be...
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Well, it's kind of interesting because there's a string of teams that we would normally say are going to be some of the best teams in the world that are struggling right now. And if you just look at the rankings, the HLTV rankings, it's like you have Spirit, Vitality, Mouz, EternalFire, and Mongols who all seem pretty much set. And their ceiling can maybe vary a little bit.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But the other teams we expect to be competitive, your 7, 8, 9, your G2, your FaZe, your Liquid, they all have... Strong rosters on paper, but those three teams are all battling and having the same conversation, except for maybe Falcons.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But G2, FaZe, Liquid, the role issues within these teams, those are all having the conversations of where there's slight details of how the team plays the game and what everyone's purpose is within this roster. where things are a little bit off. With Liquid, it's like the passivity of JKS and NAF together is causing some struggles. With FaZe, it's a leash coming in.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Being more aggressive has caused everyone to kind of shift their goals within their role within a round just a little bit to where everyone feels a little bit off. G2 as well. Mobs trying to pick up the pieces of Niko's positions. Heavy God coming in as a brand new anchor. Snack's trying to in-game lead without Niko. Hunter taking on more...
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You have all these small factors and those three teams where we look at them and they say, I don't necessarily know where the ceiling for all three of those teams should be, but all of them should probably be better. And they're the three teams that you most often hear these like little conversations and annoyances, like little paper cuts of how these roles aren't quite figured out sort of yet.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And that's what's preventing them of escalating to the top. But then you go back and you have like the Mongols, Eternal Fire, like those teams don't really have any of those role conversations. We just question whether they have the experience and the high-pressure gameplay enough to win on the big stages. Mouses looking like they don't have role issues as well and they're still cruising along.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Vitality certainly doesn't have those. Spirit doesn't have those role issues, but you have the question of once you get past Donk and Shiro's playing really good this year, but you question how deep the firepower can go. True. True that. I was going to always put that in there for you.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I pushed y'all. Y'all try to lay the pipe?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I might even just drop the screen.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
All right, cool. God bless. It's such a lie.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Wait, wait, wait. Before we do that, can we touch on something? Can you hold this for a second? Because I wanted to touch on this because it's been on my mind since we started talking about operas. Can we talk about the level of fucking device disrespect out there in the universe? It's absolutely mental how much disrespect. I don't even think it's intentional. It's just by omission.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
When I'm watching players do top opera of all times lists and device isn't there.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
all right i'm confused when i'm watching people talk about the greatest players of all time and it's like simple zywOo and i'm where's my boy device have you all just forgot that he existed in the realm of counter-strike at some point why does he have why does he have so i don't even i don't even know if they're haters it's just like people forget he existed and i'm so confused
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
He played them on the academy teams. Walked and put himself on a top five all-time number list and not device. And I was sat there, I was like, this can't be real.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Come on.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's so mental to think about. And I don't even know how he's still not in the conversation for GOAT status. Like, we all want to go to Simple and ZywOo and you want to just leave Devise completely out.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I mean, yeah, I mean, I think I'm, I literally have him above simple as my greatest of all time Counter-Strike player for me. And I know that some people aren't going to agree with that, but I think he was incredible. And then you go back further in his career and you realize he was like a top five player when he was right there as well. Yeah, he was very good, yeah. It was like 2014 on the rifle.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
He was like ranked like sixth or some shit. Like it's crazy. I don't know. I find it's amazing. It'd be one thing if people had an argument against why they wouldn't put him in the list. But the fact that he just doesn't exist.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
What is happening?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's wild. That's all I wanted to get at.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You did the French pre-team one, right?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, I would imagine though that Royal Arena is out of their thing now. Wasn't that their last Royal Arena last year?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Because it was iconic, right? Yeah, I thought – I mean that event was starting to build up to that point to where it was going to be.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
After the conversation we just had.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But I think they still have that availability with – I think Lisbon would be a good one for them to target, which is good timing because they're coming here. But Lisbon has always been a really good event for them. So if they can keep building up Lisbon, I think that will be their new Copenhagen essentially because the crowd is going to be awesome. The arena is going to be cool.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
They were the first perfect team in terms of what everyone brought to the table. I mean, yeah, Device with his AWP, we don't even really need to go there. Gla1ve was one of the original first fragging IGLs. High output, huge positions. Zypyx with all of his clutching. You just couldn't beat him in clutch situations. Like, Dupree, smart players, super strong entries.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Like, they had literally everything. Magic, one of the best anchors of all time. Like, Zonic, a great revolutionary coach. Like, they had a little bit of everything. Everyone was an expert in their one area, and that's why they were just so dominant.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Do you think that's some of, like, if we have the conversation and the players are always bringing up how the game feels more individual at the moment and there's a big push for firepower now on teams as well, do you think that's a reaction to kind of the more tactical, saving, strategic approach of the end of CSGO and in the early days of CS2?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Is this like the pendulum swinging the other direction now in terms of the meta? Yeah.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's going to be loud. It's going to be packed. It's going to be sick. I think –
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I think that's kind of what... I think that, like, ties into kind of the meta shift that I have because I think at the moment in Counter-Strike, having a player who can just explode into a bomb site or just get a really quick, really strong double kill and take that initiative is so important. And I think there's a few teams... that don't really have that.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I think that's what feels like a lot of these teams are kind of missing, is that whether they have the player to do it and don't have the understanding of that's a viable thing to pull the trigger on, trying to play too tactical, I don't know. But I think we're going to see a lot of roster changes.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
When I look down the HLTV list, there's maybe four teams I think that should not be considering roster changes, and everyone else should be looking to upgrade firepower to be a little bit more explosive. And I think teams who don't get that explosive angle to them are going to really struggle as this year goes on.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, and I think Mouse have that in exertion. Spirit obviously have it in Donk, although I still think Spirit should probably be considering a roster change in the next couple months. But I mean, I think if you go down the list like Spirit, Na'Vi, G2, FaZe, Liquid, Falcons, Astralis, I'll hold off on VP for now.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But those are all teams I think that in the back of their mind should be kind of thinking and game planning if they need to make a roster change where they want to target it. The only teams that I think should be immune are like Vitality, Maus, Eternal Fire, and Mongols. And Eternal Fire and Mongols is probably mostly because of the region they come out of.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I don't know how easy it is to just go get another player. But outside of that, I think all those teams need to find a way to upgrade to have that ability to take a step back from the tactical and strategic approach and go for an explosive style.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, but I think, you know, if we want to go meta on this and, like, look into it in depth, because, I mean, obviously, let's just say if the timeline is after the All-Star Major, just to be a little bit more realistic, if the general assumption is that Monacy is going to come in for Dexter... Now, I'm a massive Modesty fan. I think he's incredible. I'm not super high on all.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Because I actually don't know if Modesty comes in for Dexter. Is that enough of a jump in performance to take them to the next level?
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I don't know, man. I don't know if that's going to be enough. I think you need a strong rifler.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I know, it's perfect. We obviously can't put the whole sentence in there.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Niko was so good towards the end of CSGO that he was winning awards as an entry fragger. Yeah. Which is like the most ludicrous thing. We had plenty of arguments on this, Diego, because it's like, you can't really deny he's getting a shit ton of opening kills. He's fighting all these, but he's not doing it in a traditional entry fragger style.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
He has one of those... He has like a greatness quality to him that not a lot of players have where like... He feels like to me... And I think this is a lot of what G2 is feeling at the moment. He is someone that comes into your team and does so good within his role and his goals as a player within the team... that he makes everyone around him better as well.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Someone like Simple can come into a team, and just by the sheer force of how good he is, it is going to make your results better, but it's not necessarily going to make the players around him better. Niko comes into a team, and he makes Monacy's life easier, makes Malb's life easier when he's in the team as a rookie.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
There's not many players who can actually elevate their teammates in the way that Niko can and does.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
conductor of the whole team i think he's just thinking of that famous line that like ceo guy said where he was sort of like you know we could have kept nico if he wanted which almost implies that you think you've got his replacement if it's not true you know whether whether you intend to put that pressure on him or not by putting him in the position to kind of inherit that role within the team you're you're implicitly putting that pressure on him even if you're not trying to design to it's always going to be the way he feels
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I think there's some level of, yeah, with that quote from the CEO, I don't think they expected mobs to come in and be, I mean, if you expected it to be one for one replacement and he's going to be able to match, you were insane to begin with. I don't think that was the case. Um, but you are, you are expecting mobs after what you saw from him last year with Nico in the roster.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I think they expected the transition to be smoother. I think they expected the drop-off from Nikko to Mobs to not be quite as intense in terms of lacking some quality within this G2 team to win now. These results, I think, are disappointing compared to what they expected, although not a complete disaster.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, that's the other thing. I'm not like trying to sell him down the river and say I think he's shit. It's going to take time. And even, I don't remember if it was an episode or two ago or just even outside of the podcast, we were talking about Niko joining Malz back in, you know, with Duncan's dad joke was the fucking badass fragger. And that's all he was. He was a turret.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
He was a headshot machine. You put him somewhere and he's going to get you two to three kills. And then over time, as he joined FaZe and got more experience and played under Kerrigan, he started adding the other things to his game. So Mobs is on that path. And yeah, maybe he is putting too much pressure on himself to be able to pick it all up super quickly.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And hopefully he calms that down and alleviates some of that on himself. But to talk about something positive with G2 in terms of trying to overcome this loss of Niko... I mean, the other prong of their strategy was, you know, to replace Niko's impact, you know, by committee. And bringing in Heavy God along with the development of Malbs is going to be a great way to do that if it can continue.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And Heavy God just had a beast mode fucking series against Mongols yesterday as well. Like, he was a monster. And if you get those performances out of Heavy God... Malbs' job is going to ease up. He's going to have an easier time of things, and you'll start seeing G2 convert more of these games into wins.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yes.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, that part is nonsense. But I think there's a lot more wiggle room than people are willing to do.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, I think I have an issue always with the modern conversation around roles and how kind of rigid they seem like when I see people talk about them. I always get really frustrated because you should be able to play multiple roles or multiple styles or multiple positions. As a player, you have to be able to.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's crazy to think that on like a, I don't know, for me, and I realize this isn't a typical line of thinking, but across a six map pool, if your team has a permaban, the idea that you have to play the anchors on every single map, like maybe you're better suited to play, you know, a supportive rotator role on this map versus this one.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I think sometimes when I see these conversations, I'm like, everything is always talked about within a team of putting people where they can do their best work. And that seems like such a smart way to go about it. But I think there's also an element that doesn't get discussed of where, you know, when you're a five-man team, it's not about getting the best out of everyone every single time.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Sometimes you have to use someone to accommodate for a weakness, right? Like, maybe you have a map where just everybody fucking hates this bomb site. You're never going to have a strong anchor on your team at this bomb site because nobody fucking wants it. Everyone hates it. And you have to have someone there who's willing to take the sacrifice to make up for that weakness.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And you have to use your teamwork to kind of hide and mask that sort of a weakness. And, you know, I think there's so much rigidity in how roles are talked about. I think it's very unreasonable in Counter-Strike because it never used to be this way. It was never this.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
never hard roles and the game has evolved and things have changed and there's always going to certainly be some some hardcore roles that you discuss but they're they're way more fluid and they're way more kind of like manageable than people expect sure all right in my mind i guess blast playoffs
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
No, Duncan, you're at the top of my list. There's only so many people I would bring on for an online episode as a guest for this podcast. You're at the very fucking top.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
yeah so so it's like what those are some very concerning signs for them i think what the others yeah jason i mean i i i think i think navi is just in a really really you want to know my perspective on navi right now because i actually i've already kind of gotten on the the the bandwagon of I don't think they have the firepower and the star power to compete in modern-day Counter-Strike.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
So I'm taking a very nostalgic look backwards, and I'm saying, you know what? This Na'Vi team, I don't think it's going to last much longer. I'm going to enjoy the 2024 they had that seemed so unlikely. Oh, yeah, for sure. I think the way to look at Navi in my mind right now is to appreciate how good and how much they did last year. That felt like it shouldn't have happened.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
From the overperformance of like kind of like five players who don't really have a place in the scene, working together better than the sum of their parts, Blades tactics, Alexa DIGLing to a masterclass to the best team of the year, to all those trophies, to all those finals.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
jl had one of those crazy years where i don't know who he sold his soul to but for one year he got to win every single important impact round that they needed from him that's never going to happen again he's going to win some big problem is his carriage turned back and all pumpkin already that's over yeah it's 12 and that's the thing like we can look back and say this team they actually achieved excellence last year and doing 10 times better than they should have but i think this year is going to be a return to probably what they should have been last
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's the best players ever, boys, you know? It's the most ridiculous thing because I actually think their best player last year was JL. And if you look at the stats, you'd be like, you're drunk. And then I'd say, go back and watch the games. Look how many clutch rounds and clutch moments he stepped up and delivered in impossible situations. Which, again, is just not replicable.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And if Hero cannot become a better AWPer, there's that too.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
That line.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It might have been because the phone call was coming in. It might have been.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And I think, I think they pummeled them. Like, I don't even think it was close the last time.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, I was going to say, I'm thinking of the Pro League final.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
They had no chance of that at all. No, it was not even a fun final. It wasn't even enjoyable.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
And Zaruz finally fulfilled the prophecy and actually playing like the best player in the world. We don't have to fudge details.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
No, he's mega. He's just a god this year.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's all. This is the moment in time where Vitality is starting to clear some fucking space on the trophy cabinet. They're like, okay, we're expecting at least two major trophies out of this. We're expecting a couple more wins this year, probably Cologne. Let's make the space now because we know it's going to happen.
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Yeah, I mean, there is a very large feeling at the moment that Vitality is here and the next closest team is way down here.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
I'm with you. Yeah, he's great. Yeah, he won it a couple years back. Was that 22, I think, Janko? When we did that blast test? I think 21. 21, yeah, he won that year as well. Because he had fucking Kyojin on his team for a while and still managed to be good in big tournaments.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
It's a freak show. Yeah. All right. Yeah, that's all good. Anything else you want to talk about? Anything we want to chat about? Anything left in the world of Counter-Strike? You guys excited about Jambo joining?
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
and they haven't played each other in a while that one should be that one should be awesome yeah cool all right well thanks duncan i appreciate it we're gonna get out of here appreciate it duncan always fun
Talking Counter
Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
There's no way. I think, too, with, I mean, the BO5 finals and MR12, like, the time limit was the biggest restricting factor to BO5s and MR15. Like, that was, like, the biggest argument against having BO5 finals was they could last seven and a half hours. And you can't really fuck with that. You can't really argue with that.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
So I think on top of that, I think we're going to see more teams do the third, fourth place decider like PGL did at Cluj. I think that was actually a big resounding success that I want to see more of, especially since it has VRS implications. And I would like – I would obviously like, and I know – I'm assuming you guys would also like it too.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Eventually, as much as this format works in terms of skipping to semis and two quarterfinals and two semifinals for the scheduling of an arena, I want to see more events go to four quarterfinals. I would like to see more phasing out of the skipping stages. Honestly, I even don't like the major format where you get to skip to stage two or stage three.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But I understand with the number of teams, you have to kind of have that built into it. But I'd like to avoid most events getting out of that skipping straight to semis.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
We need men like Duncan in esports podcast territory. We need men like him to come and protect our borders.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You know what I've really come to like about VRS? Because this could actually be a fun conversation. This comes around with the whole Zonic coaching clip. You should just title this whole episode, like, what we love about VRS. I know. Yeah, it's great, the system. It's kind of scary how positive this has been so far.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
You think about this Zonic coaching thing where we had the Falcons organization come out and kind of condemn. Like, I get it. My take on it is, one, if I was blasting, I would have never aired that clip that made Zonic look like that. I would never have done it.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
They have the complete right to air that clip, and there should be no issues. Oh, they do, of course, yeah. And it's also the Falcons guy who came out and made that tweet. It's his job to get upset about shit like that and protect his players. So despite the fact that I probably disagree with the sentiment, he absolutely should be coming out and saying that and lodging a complaint.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
But the fun thing about VRS is it has given power back to the TOs in the sense that, I hope Blasters tells them to fuck off. I hope Blasters says, fuck it, we're going to air whatever the fuck we want. And if that happens and we choose to air that, it's completely within our right. And if you don't like it, if you really want to lodge a complaint, don't show up to our events.
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Episode 129: Featuring Thorin - CS dramas, should FaZe be panicked?, BLAST Lisbon and J.R. Smith
Don't fight for the VRS points. Just don't come here if you don't like the way we're doing our broadcast. And you can't do that. You can't skip events like that anymore.
Talking Counter
Episode 130: EF/Aurora, m0nesy and niko reuniting, siuhy loaned out, PGL Bucharest
Yeah.