On the second day of OMEN Challenger Series 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia, we sat down with Jason “forsakeN” Susanto, member of BOOM Esports and younger brother to Kevin “xccurate” Susanto. We had a chat about his team, Indonesian CS:GO, and the impact of his name after the scandal of the other, more infamous, ‘forsaken’.
CSGO2ASIA: How did you get into CS:GO? Was it only because of your brother, Kevin “xccurate” Susanto?
f0rsakeN: Yes, mostly Kevin. I was inspired by my brother when he played CS 1.6, so I also got interested and started playing CS in the 3rd grade.
CSGO2ASIA: How did you get the nickname, “forsakeN”? Surely you went through a tough time after last year’s cheating scandal with Nikhil “forsaken” Kumawat?
f0rsakeN: When I’m playing with my friends, I used ‘JS’ as my name. It’s just my initial. But my friends suggested f0rsakeN and I immediately agreed with that name. When the cheating scandal happened, there were many people who bullied me, on my Steam comments, DM etc. I thought about changing the name but my father encouraged me to keep the name because my name is already known. Another reason is when my brother mention me in an interview at StarSeries when he still played for TYLOO, which meant I got noticed, so I wanted to keep it.
CSGO2ASIA: Your team was the only invited team. Were you confident coming into the OMEN Challenger Series 2019? Do you feel like you got the results you expected or were they better/worse than you expected?
f0rsakeN: At first we are very confident, we need to prove our performance to fans and our sponsors. We started doing well on our first day. But after we got the tied score against Let’s Quit, our mentality was down and I think that made us lose against in Alpha Red in the last match.
CSGO2ASIA: How do you feel about the CS:GO scene in Indonesia? Do you think that after players like your brother and BnTeT went to TYLOO, this made the scene better?
f0rsakeN: Indonesia scene is behind compared to other countries in Asia. It’s different from Thailand that has many tournaments that can have a chance to better experience, especially offline tournaments. Everyone has a different perspective on the Indonesia CS:GO scene. With the players that can compete at the international level, the people also see the scene improving. But still, the Indonesia scene is left behind compared to other countries I feel.
CSGO2ASIA: Because of your age (15), it’s tough for you to play in tournaments outside of Indonesia, even if you qualify for them. Do you have plans to stay in CS:GO or do you think about playing other games?
f0rsakeN: Of course, I sometimes think about playing other games beside CS:GO. However, if you want to achieve dreams, you need to stay focused. As I’m still 15 years old, I’m fine with that and use that to study to make my gameplay better.
CSGO2ASIA: Who are some players that you look up to, both in Indonesia and/or internationally?
f0rsakeN: In Indonesia, of course, myself. For international, at first, I idolize s1mple and currently, I idolize NiKo.
CSGO2ASIA: Finally, what are your goals for the rest of 2019, and for 2020?
f0rsakeN: I hope the Indonesia CS:GO scene develops better, and also many tournaments. For my target next year, I’m 16 years old in March, I hope I can qualify for a major tournament.
READ HERE: The New Contenders of Asian CS:GO (2018)
