During the second round of the Vita Nova qualifier two teams sat down to face each other, neither knowing the onslaught that laid in front of them. I sat down with imGaming to catch up on the recently concluded game.

In what has to be one of the best games of the qualifier competition, imGaming faced off against Property seeing three maps, one over time and what has to be one of the most intense games I have laid eyes upon over the past few months. These two teams we're battling it out for preinvite access, both proving round after round that they are worthy of the channel.

I sat down with the imGaming lads after their game to see what they had to say about the goings on; from the highlights to the low points I go into every detail about the game and see what the players that took part have to say.

2				1
Map: mp_backlot, mp_crash, mp_strike
Team Property ChipS isaak polk! tiMEEH mats				imGaming Chris  STUZZOR Frazzy GoTTi Raz Minime

You can find the interview below.

Hey lads, quite a few of the UK scene know you guys quite well, but for the wider audience could you perhaps just explain who you’re all about?

Hi pTER, yeah sure. We are imGaming, a team formed from friends who have played together for years in different teams, but always together. We have been going for it competitively now for about 4 months, which was all kicked off by us signing up for i43. We want to progress and see ourselves as a serious team, so hopefully people will see even more of us soon!

The first round didn’t seem to pan out to well for you guys, getting quickly shut down by the opposing side, what went wrong? We’re they simply the paper to your rock?

We decided to open slowly, a call came over TS to just not die and not push with the aim of trying to see how they were going to play. It seemed not everyone had the same idea as to what that meant so we just ended up in no-man’s land and didn’t really do anything. This allowed them to take the first round easily and just pick us all off.

In the fifth round after receiving a multitude of crushing defeats we saw you guys holding your ground, what changed from your perspective? Did the alternate bomb site really make that much of a difference?

Well we needed to do something different, we had started so badly and just keeping on pushing into a brick wall wasn’t going to work. We opened the round with our standard split, but with spots being watched from different places to mix things up a bit. If I remember correctly we got a nade kill and an opening pick somewhere around mid - B. We then just worked B side and it paid off. Breaking a losing streak is always very important so yes I think it did make quite a big difference.

Through the majority of the game you managed to gain access to key areas of the map with relative ease, but seemed to fail at the final hurdle. Was this a case of nerves or just a lack of experience?

Personally I don’t think nerves really came into it, not for me anyway, I can’t speak for the others. As a team though we did enter the game knowing it was important and that always heightens the nerves a bit. Experience I would say was a factor, we have only just got a new 5th and so the teamwork isn’t quite back up to standard. It sounds a bit like excuses I guess, but we just weren’t playing to our full potential. If anything I would just say we were under performing compared to our usual standard.

You seemed to rampage into the second half with a newly found determination. Do you think this confidence gave you an advantage, or do you think in retrospect that it was actually your un-doing?

I think when you change sides if something is going to really change that is when it’s going to happen. I also think defence suits a team that is slightly underperforming because an individual can make such a big difference if they stop a rush or get a key frag. With Backlot usually being a strong map for us we went into the half as if it was a new game and just played better I think. As for being our un-doing it might have lost us a few rounds because we relaxed and lost concentration a bit, but overall I see it as an advantage. Pr0p were playing well and if we hadn't done well at the start I don’t think we would have had the morale to see it through.

 

At the tipping point of the game, where you managed to claw back vital rounds to bring the score line to nine a piece you suddenly found yourselves in a 2v2 situation, with stu and raz up for your side. What was going through your minds at this pivotal moment?

Haha, I think all was going through my mind was 'don't lose'. I seem to remember getting a lucky frag on the guy proned in lower A. When me and Raz then moved into the site it seemed obvious that he was probably out at bricks. Raz then died and time was running down so I had no choice but to push him, got a lucky headshot and got the round, all I was thinking then was 'thank f***' :D.

Chris seemed throughout the game to be a pivotal member of your team, pushing forward into positions that could have easily tipped the favour of the game, but you always seemed to fail at the last hurdle. Why do you think this was, and what went through your mind when this occurred?

I think that because of the team’s poor start to the game, my mentality was that each round was becoming even more important. This no doubt affected my play style and I was perhaps more reluctant to be the aggressive smg that I would have been normally. Like you say, I do feel that I managed to push into some good positions, but it was generally just poor play that let me down in the end.

You certainly shocked me when you went from being 4-0 down at the beginning of the game to a comfortable 4-1 victory in overtime, you must have been overjoyed with the result of the first map. Is this the case?

Yes definitely, there is no better start to a game than taking the first map. I did feel we deserved it as well, which is always a good feeling. We had come back and played a solid game, admittedly with a few mistakes but you can’t really ask for much more than that.

Moving onwards onto mp_crash, you found yourselves the victims of the prop’s melee assault, being forced onto the attacking side. How did this affect your team’s strategy going into the second map?

I don’t think that losing the knife round affected the team's strategy too much because we had just taken the first map which gave us a lot of confidence. The biggest issue we faced starting off the second map was having to replace our 5th player, with our strats not being executed in the way they would have normally and with the team play not always being up to scratch.

On the third round you found yourselves the victims of the clock, running out of time to complete your objectives forcing a win for the defensive side. This couldn’t have been a pleasant moment for you guys, what went so wrong that this came to pass?

Haha, this was just a failure on so many levels. We had some major indecision on what to do, knowing that there was a person at each site. There are no excuses, we just didn’t do anything at all and failed to push one of the sites effectively.

Towards the end of the first half you managed to pull off an excellent team ace obliterating the opposing side with what seemed to be ease. What in your opinions allowed you to do this? Was it simply a lucky round or was it something deeper?

I don’t think this was completely down to luck to be honest. Our SMG’s managed to find a gap in Props grenades and managed to push the fps jump quite quickly. I think Prop’s must have had bad A spawns on that round so were quite slow into A whilst at the same time did not really push middle. That allowed for our SMG’s to breach back A unexpectedly resulting in the quick round you saw.

You found yourself exchanging rounds on more than one occasion with the score line flying in one direction then another. What was it about your opponents that made them so troublesome?

They were playing a good game, and so winning a round was never easy. We didn't have a full strength team either so the utility parts of the game weren’t always being done leaving gaps in smokes and cover allowing pr0p to take advantage. I think this mainly lead to the random starts and stops in the game.

In an interesting moment during the 16^th round you found yourselves in a two vs one situation, with one sitting back A and another defending the B site. Polk, one of pr0ps Aks had spotting the A defender and was about to take him off the proverbial chess board, but minime came in at the last moment and saved the day. It’s moments like these that really showed your team work and dedication. What exactly is taking place at these amazing periods of team work?

This round started off quite badly for the team with us losing our scope and a smg early on.  As the round progressed we were left with a 2 vs 1 situation and the smg trying to change spot having just killed their scope.  Comms throughout the team were high and even when people were down, the rest of the team were calling and trying their best to ensure the team secured the round.

Towards the end of the first map you saw pr0p slowly pull away until they had secured a 13-9 victory on crash, a map you started off so favourably on. What went wrong?

Our communication fell apart on defence that was our main problem, things weren’t being called and tempers frayed a bit. Just the usual stuff that happens when you lose a few rounds, we just let it get the better of us on Crash.

You started off the third map so confidently, managing to secure the first three rounds. It’s safe to say you really did function as a team, and it was a great sight to see. What is it about strike that allowed you to perform to this extent early on?

We have played Strike a few times now with this line-up so basic strats are more or less sorted, which automatically ups teamwork. We also really wanted to win; we still had it all to play for. Some good early frags upped morale and we carried it through the first few rounds.

Pr0p started to defy trends however managing to pull back the next three rounds bringing it back to a three all score line. What triggered this turn of events?

I think that firstly Prop’s just adapted well to how we played those first few rounds. We didn’t change much in particular and thinking back we were just a little predictable in our play. After losing the next few rounds, we changed the strat but could not execute it effectively.

You found yourselves on numerous occasions in two versus two situations, which on the whole you seemed to lose. Did nerves get the better of you or did you simply get out gamed?

I think it was mainly poor play from us. I can’t say we should have won them all as with those situations it can often go either way but there were some that should definitely have been ours.

When you won the 17^th round it must have been a relief after such a disappointing half to finally bring yourself one step closer to victory. What went through your minds at the point, and more importantly, did you think you could pull it back?

I don’t think we ever felt that we couldn’t win it. The way I see it if you let yourself think that then it’s more than likely not going to happen. At that point though it was just an overall feeling of 'come on let’s do this'.

We eventually saw what to some may have been described as the inevitable, pr0p finally pulled off a 13-9 victory. Without a doubt you both played an amazing game, any last thoughts or feelings you would like to share?

Just good game really! Pr0p played well and at the end of the day deserved the win. We are disappointed, I don’t think we played as well as we should and can do. But it was a close entertaining game, well played to all!

Finally now, any shout outs to your adoring fans?

We would like to give a big shout out to our good friends from x.evo, marius coren and tom kalleth russel.

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