Artikel » Interview with God - CS:S Captain | Anexis eSports e.V.

Today we bring you the exclusive interview with our CS:S team captain - Samuel "God" Räsänen. We talked about various subjects such as his

Hello Samuel, it's good to finally see you back into CS:S competitive circles. We all know that you have been away from the game for a longer period, what made you come back in the elite?

It's kind of a two-sided story. First side of it would be not having the motivation to start from a scratch again after my previous team 4Kings folded. Other side of the story is simply not having good enough PC-equipment to play the game, since as time went by I ended up selling most of my gaming stuff including my monitor and shuttle pc. I tried to start playing again mid 2009 with Attica.EU lineup because I missed the competition, but a 20fps PC and 8ms monitor combined together didn't exactly boost my motivation to play. Around last summer, I had the extra money and the motivation, so I ended up looking for a team to start playing again - that failed, obviously. Ever since I've felt the urge to get back to competitive CS:Source, and I've been on a lookout for a perfect excuse to start CS:Source again. For me that came in the form of being asked to join force with our first roster alongside reVicer.

I have always found you interesting guy because of your nickname, is there a little story around it? Or you are just ridged as a person?

Haha, you won't believe how many times I've answered this question in the past!
When people see my nickname the first assumption usually is that I am somewhat of a prick, but there is an actual story behind it. Long story short, when I got to CS 1.6 circa '99, I played under the nickname Godspeed. But when I got picked up to my first good team, my clanmates decided to shorten my nickname to God because the in-game nick wouldn't fit in with our clan tag. I just went along with it, as I felt I had the backing to use the nickname, as any cocky 13 year old would!

You started playing competitively with Quake 1, why didn't you keep up with playing it instead of moving to CounterStrike. Do you think you could have made a career in Quake Live for example?

It wasn't actually my first "competitive" game, I just used to duel with friends which was the kickstarter for my so called eSport career. First game I really got into in online gaming was Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, where I became top5 duelist on MSN gaming zone and won some WoW tournaments (Week of War, was no World of Warcraft back then). I think I only stopped playing it because I found HLDM to be more interesting when HL1 came out. The only reason I chose Counter-Strike over games such as Quake3, was because I got really hooked to CS - it was like exctacy to me. If I actually would've chosen the path of DM games such as Quake, I think I would've easily made a career on that road as well, as I've always been more of an aim based player myself.

Is there a certain someone who got you into top competitive side of CounterStrike: Source?

By the time when CS:Source came out, I kinda got interested in the game but remained true to 1.6 as my real life friends since childhood, countless & aNGeLduSt moved more towards CS:S. I think countless got my first foot in to the game as I played in some fun teams with him once in a while and freelanced in CS:Source generally as well. The other foot was snatched in to CS:Source's side when aNGeLduSt asked me to join Insignia Cadre's new roster around summer 2007 and ever since I haven't looked back.

After former 4kings squad folded, why wouldn't you consider making a team with UK players, same as players like warclown and stingeR did?

I only played CS:S actively for a short period of time compared to these guys, and I don't think I had any international contacts in the competitive scene to build a team. I honestly do not remember if I got any offers to join international lineups or not. Mostly I was a bit astonished that Team Logitech.fi decided not to bring me in, which lead me to thinking there is pretty much nothing out there for me in CS:Source at that time.

What are your personal thoughts about the sudden growth of CS:S with some big LAN events and ESWC picking up the game?

I personally don't think the game has grown that much, but this is a topic everyone has their own opinion on. After being away for years, I don't really see any progress in the competitive side of the game, minus VeryGames reaching an astronomical level compared to other teams at the moment. When CGS came out, I was sure CS:Source will bloom and when the league backfired I think the scene did as well. Prize pools are higher now for sure, but I really don't have much faith in ESWC turning around the ship. Hopefully it will though, I would love see CS:S reach it's full potential as 1.6 has done over the years.

Do you think smaller and more or less unknown teams could benefit from it in the future? Maybe advance their game even more if they play versus better teams?

Absolutely, the only way to become better is to play better teams than your own. I see a lot of upcoming teams in the current scene with great future ahead of them if they just stick together and practice hard. Being able to play the higher tier teams will certainly benefit them both online and especially on LAN. The more tournaments there are, the better.

CS:S legend God"speed"

What are your plans for the ESWC competition. We know all about the rule that only one team is picked from each country. Do you think you can overcome squads like CKRAS and eXelon and march your way into the competition?

For the time being, it's uncertain where and if there will be qualifiers for us finnish lot, so it's hard to predict what's gonna happen with the ESWC for finnish clans. What comes to eXelon, they haven't really been playing after 30p, which is good for us in this aspect since we will have more time to prepare. As well CKRAS is taking a lenghty summer break of a month or two, during which we will be keen on getting our game straight to knock them out from ESWC qualifiers.

So who would you mark as your biggest rival in the Nordic region and why?

That's a tough one, since there are some major teams in our region. But I think I'd have to go with CKRAS, since they've really been doing well and constantly finishing top3 on every LAN.

CKRAS has never been taken seriously as a top3 team in past six months, according to LAN seedings so far. But now they have proven their quality by winning 30P and performing good on Copenhagen Games. Do you think that your team has more potential than the current CKRAS roster?

The CKRAS team doesn't really PCW that much so I can't say that CKRAS would lack potential. I honestly can't say that we would either when potential is one thing we do have for sure. Of course at the moment they are out of our reach, but I do think we have the ingredients to cause them an upset in the near future.

Considering their loss at MaxLAN, everyone anticipated that VeryGames era might be coming to an end. But after winning CPH Games yesterday we can tell that they confirmed their number one spot once again. What are your opinions about their game and do you think there might be some teams that could actually challenge them in the closer future?

Well as in any sport or eSport, there are 2 factors that matter: skill and amount of practice. I think the portion of skill/talent can be matched in means of individual success, but as a team it's going to be hard to get around them just because of the amount of time they put into this game. In 1.6 they wouldn't be considered weird, but in CS:Source they're really on another level with the time put in to playing the game. As long as there are no professional teams that get salary (minus german ESL, who really only focus on EPS), I doubt anyone will be able to challenge them and put in the time needed to do so.

Just out of curiosity, who do you think is the most complete European Counter Strike:Source player at the moment?

Judging by my nationality, this might sound a bit biased. But in my opinion kononen is the most complete player around: he handles both in-game leading and personal skill in means of aiming, game IQ and teamplay as well. He always performs!

Okay, lets make this a little bit interesting for our readers out there. If you could make a new team for yourself, excluding Finnish players and maybe the language barrier, who would you pick for your teammates and why?

I don't really know the scene very well at the moment, but deciding based on the few events I've followed I'd pick something along these lines: NBK, RpK, shoxie & someone with good in-game leadership

To make a little switch on Anexis eSports team now, you joined only recently with a new, promising and ambitious roster, What are your thoughts on the organisation so far?

Anexis has been very professional about the lineup change, and they were even ready to send us to CPH Games as well, but I decided we need more practice as a team to attend our first major event. From the beginning I've really enjoyed my stay in the organization and I can't really say I would have anything negative to say about Anexis and it's staff - smooth sailing!

Exactly where I was pointing. Recently you suffered some roster changes with three new players arriving. Could you give us a little insight on how are things going after the changes?

Where the first lineup failed, the new lineup is doing absolutely brilliant. We've really started to click with fAlsu, PIKSELI and HENE more than we ever did with our last roster, and it has shown in our results in both officials and PCWs.

HENE, fAlsu and PIKSELI are all really perspective players, but unfortunately without much experience in the top European tier. Have they been using the past experience by Harri and you so far?

It's a learning curve for them. We're constantly pushing them to play better and learn how to play the game on top tier level where they really haven't had any stability before. Every time were practicing  they're learning, so in no time they will be purebred CS:Source players even on top level. Top it off with some bootcamp & international LANs and there you go!

Simple question. How far can this team go?

All the way around the globe, literally. As long as people stay motivated, I don't see anything stopping us

It was a pleasure talking to you "Mr. Godspeed" and I wish the best to you and Anexis CS:S in the future. Hopefully your plans will find their way and actually materialize. Any final words?

Thank you, was my pleasure. Special shoutout to Anexis eSports and the sponsors of course, and to all my friends in CS:Source! See you on the battlefield!

#3

old 4Kings legend Captain God, good luck boys!

#2

nice one

#1

VERY NICE INTERVIEW paappadessu