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HavoK: “Eclipse is a great team”

by Nikhil Hathiramani

HavoK Shares His Thoughts

We caught up with HavoK during eXTREMSLAND 2017 Asia Finals. It was a pleasure to finally meet him in person after knowing each other online for so long. Here is what he had to say:

CSGO2ASIA: Hey HavoK, great to finally meet you after all this time! It’s been an exciting tournament for you guys so far despite the result yesterday. You and KitKat arrived late to the tournament. Do you think that affected your play a little bit because of the late arrival and lack of practice going in?

HavoK: Hey man, likewise! I don’t think it necessarily affected us too much. If anything, it would affect the other 3 because they did not have a direct flight like me and KitKat. They had a 15-hour flight wherein compared to us, we only had an 8-hour direct flight. KitKat and I did not have enough time to sleep because we had to show up at the venue by 8:30 for the opening ceremony, however, we were focused on our game. 

Your first game against Recca was a bit of an upset. You had the lead in the first half and then it all seemed to slip away. Walk us through that a little and why you think happened?

Yeah, breaker had a solid game plan plus we knew what maps we were going to play, before the game. It came down to train and we had decided before the game that we would try to run some of our new strats on train T side, and most of them worked. When we swapped to CT, we lost many key rounds, the pistol round was a 5v2 that we lost, then moving on, we lost many 3v5s or 4v5s, and they took advantage of the inner bombsite because they felt it was weak. We did not have good rotations and Karribob was having an off day, which made it all worse when playing CT side. Also the fact that they won 6 rounds, then we won 1 round, then they won another round, so we were very messed up economy wise. 

The second game against UTM was a stomping, however. Did you prepare anything in particular after your first game against Recca or was it just a question of being a better day of CS?

The second game against UTM, honestly, was just us being very focused and ready to roll. We came out to play. We went into the game not knowing much about UTM but we also were ready to play Cobble because it’s one of our better maps especially on T side. 

Going into the best of three against Recca in the loser bracket, your team was seeking revenge for the first game against them. How did you turn things around after losing the first map in the series?

The first map was a map that was just full of mistakes, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. We started really slow and were making ridiculous mistakes that would never happen in practice. We were overthinking every situation which was just not right. We went outside after the first map, spoke about what was happening and why was it happening. We took 10 minutes to calm our selves and just told each other that we won’t speak about what’s going to happen or how we will play, we will just go into the game like how we would play a normal practice game and to have no pressure, also we knew that they risked banning Inferno rather than Nuke, and breaker picked Nuke instantly, so we won Nuke convincingly and then when we went to Train, we just adjusted to their gameplay from the previous game. 

What were your goals coming into eXTREMESLAND?

We genuinely wanted to win this eXTREMESLAND or place at least top 3, but we failed as a team.

It’s unfortunate that your run has come to an end. What are your thoughts on Eclipse? Have you played them before in practice or in scrims?

We played the old 5POWER if that counts, but honestly, we just thought that they do not have anything too special, we knew that they were good individually, though. When we played the game, man, you won’t believe how amazing they played individually. I honestly did not believe some of the shots they were hitting, but they played really good, props to them. They are a great team. 

Earlier we discussed a little about your experience playing EU teams and scrimming with them. Can you tell our readers a little more about what you think the Asian scene needs in terms of practice etiquette?

Asian teams, I feel, need to definitely start scheduling slots each day with different teams in terms of practicing. Europeans are really organized and very on-time and don’t really cancel practice matches last second. Also, Europeans play out the whole 30 rounds rather than just till 16. 

What do you think of the eXTREMESLAND tournament overall? Do you think it’s an accurate representation of the ‘best teams’ in Asia?

Yes, 100 percent. I don’t think there is any Asian top team that isn’t here. Maybe TYLOO & The Mongolz, but they chose not to be here on their own will, so yes, it is very accurate. We hope to come back next year again. 

And lastly, What is your view of the Asian CS:GO space? Your team has some experience playing EU teams, but do you feel that the scene as a whole is improving? If not, why not?

Asian CS:GO has definitely improved a lot, thanks to CSGO2ASIA for great coverage and support, and also SoStronk for creating stuff like neXt. The scene is improving and I’m pretty sure it will be on an up-rise after more tournaments and coverage. 


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