The truth about r0y

A change of environment

dM at KODE5 The Netherlands minto, r0y, xire, Apollo & luce (c) fragbite.se

Now, we can get almost anything we need to become a good team. Once we become a good team, we will be able to have anything a top international team deserves. So there’s plenty of growing possibility in LowLandLions. They are true professionals for me. We have the key in our hands. If we fail by skipping practice, it’s our own fault. We know the consequences and therefore, we train hard to enjoy the luxury of this beautiful organization.

When you joined the LowLandLions’ team, you came into a new and unfamiliar area. To convince the community of your team’s goodwill, you’ve tried to change their mindset with going head to head with the Belgian readers on the community site, bescene.net. A few discussions were intense; the water was almost boiling. Do you think it was worth the effort all things considered?
I came into a new scene where a lot of people I knew would look at me and my team with Argus’ eyes. I just tried to show my point of view. I usually don’t interfere on community sites, because I know it doesn’t matter what you say. There are always negative people, reading your words differently than they were meant.

So, because I was new in the Belgian scene I just wanted people to know what I thought and give them a chance to know me, instead of speculations where they think to know everything. After all, I think it was worth the effort because I might have changed the way of thinking of a few people. That’s already a success for me. Don’t expect me to try and explain a lot more, since it will be a never-ending discussion and you’ll always have people for and against you.

Roy enjoys a night in the lounge-bar

Nevertheless, many readers think that the team still has a cocky-attitude. What is your reaction on this and what’s the reason that led to this bad atmosphere around your team?
We have our goals and visions. A few people classify this as cocky and arrogant but the fact is that most of us already won quite a lot in the Benelux. It isn’t our goal to beat teams from the Benelux and be proud about that. If you found that cocky, so be it.

We will never underestimate anyone and extraordinarily, we just try to have fun sometimes with provoking people. You can label this behavior again but it’s just for fun. It’s perfectly normal that a team that wins a lot of qualifiers gets hated in whatever they do. In the end, every qualifier is about sending the best team and that is the winner. If you can’t win the qualifier, you don’t have the right to enter the tournament even if you’re really nice guys and practice a lot. So if I say, by winning a lot of qualifiers your team becomes less popular; the players itself become a bit cockier. It’s perfectly normal human behavior.

I remember when I represented DigitalMind. I played with the newly baked guys and they claimed they didn’t want to be like a mySOD- or CEA-player. Just look at them now, after winning a lot they got cockier and at the same time, got hated by the community. People generally prefer the role of the underdog. That’s normal.

Let's take TEK9, who are loved in the Belgian scene after winning a lot of meaningless Belgian tournaments. If they manage to beat us and other teams in the Benelux, they’ll also get a bit cocky and hated as well. You don’t have to take this too serious, like I said; it’s perfectly normal human behavior from both sides.

I know that a lot of people will assign my reaction ‘meaningless tournaments’ in the cocky’s group but to me they’re meaningless. I look at Counter-Strike at international level because that is where I set my goals. It’s my personal opinion, others are free to appreciate local skill bit I don’t value that. It’s not that I think we are much better because I think TEK9 could beat us on any giving Sunday. Still, I believe we can beat them and set our footstep on foreign soil.

What they can’t deny is the strength of your team; the experience and skills are inevitable for every competitor. What have you done to maintain / improve the team’s level and what are the plans for the coming days (week)?
We have just been practicing a normal online practice pattern so far, trying to come up with good strats and improve as a team. We are holding a bootcamp soon and after that we should be ready for the Belgian ESWC qualifier, where our first goal lies. If we win the qualifier, we’ll try to do whatever we can to make sure that we can represent Belgium as an organized team. If this will result in results is a question I can’t answer yet. I’m sure a lot of people have their doubts about our practice, mainly because of the history in the Belgian teams. That’s something I read but haven’t experienced myself. What I do know is that Dutch teams never really practiced for tournaments.

So, our goal lies in winning the Belgian ESWC qualifier and to represent Belgium at its best by doing something we never did before.

Individual training is from utmost importance. You can train your team to an unseen level – chemistry wise - but when you don’t hit your shots, the road to glory can be painful and long. What is for you the most important practice method to train yourself to maximum capability?
What I do to maximize my own play is not much actually, because I am an in-game leader. My main focus lies in leading the team. However, to make sure my aim will be on top for the right events I play some aim_maps against bots and try to tweak my sensitivity to a point I really like.Sometimes, I tweak my sensitivity up until 4 digits - like 2.123 for example. I don’t really know if this affects my personal game much; it’s just the personal feeling that has to be right.

I try to stay away from Deathmatch as much as I can, because I don’t believe it really does a lot for my aim. Usually, when I’m playing Deatchmatch, I just want to adjust my sensitivity a lot higher in order to reach every random spawn in every situation, which doesn’t really happen in official games.

A lot is at stake next week; when your team is attending the ESWC Belgium. Are you confident about this tournament? Do you feel prepared to go head to head and secure the top position?
I never attended a Belgian qualifier before, but I truly believe we have a good team and a good line-up of players. So yes, I feel confident.

We have to start our first match against TEK9, which for me feels like the real final statistically. What I know about them isn’t much but I do know they can be really random; from having a bad day – and losing 0-16 - to playing superb matches. So, the game will really depend on how confident they feel at that time. Then, if we beat them we will have to go up against dfiance or XIOP, where I think first one mentioned will be the eventually winner.

I think if we play our game, we should be able to beat them. After all, there is a lot at stake so everybody will try and fight for glory, so anything CAN happen but I think we’ll manage.

So, you are going to win?
Definitely!

Confidence enough in the ranks of LowLandLions. Now, talking about ESWC Belgium brings us to another chapter: ‘The Combined Forces”.