Five players of Wings Up sat down for a lengthy talk about their results in 2020, the Chinese CS:GO scene, the leadership inside their team, and their expectation for the tournaments ahead.
2020 was a big year for Wings Up, from their victory at several local tournaments to the winner of the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Asia Qualifier. From signing two former Gambit players, Mikhail “Dosia” Stolyarov and Rustem “mou” Telepov, to an organization rebranding. Overall, Wings Up have been one of the big names around the Asian scene and is expected to continue to perform at the highest level.
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The Chinese team members chatted about their feelings after winning the eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Festival 2020 East Asia, beating The Black Company 2-1 on the grand final. Other than that, they also spoke about how the Chinese and Mongolian scenes have been recovering from the pandemic effects, as well as expressed their wish to go back to LAN.
CSGO2ASIA: Coming into this tournament, did you expect your team to win the playoffs? How do you feel about it?
DD: As you know, we are the only Chinese team left in the East Asia Playoffs. In fact, we did not expect to win because we did not have good results in our previous tournaments, and the momentum was not that great in the team. As we are entering 2021, a tournament victory was really needed to push our primary motivation going forward. In the end, I want to say thank you for eXTREMESLAND to organize this event. I hope eXTREMESLAND will be better and better.
CSGO2ASIA: Let’s go back to 2020, you won FUNSPARK ULTI 2020 and some smaller tournaments. Do you feel satisfied with the results you got in 2020? And talking about tournaments, do you miss the LAN environment?
lan: Overall, in the first half of 2020, I was not that satisfied with the results. The roster had been changing frequently until MarT1n came into the roster and stabilized everything. A trophy at FunSpark Rivals Pre-Season 2020 is something that everyone really worked hard to win. Regarding LAN events, I really miss them. I miss the environment when everyone is very excited and passionate about going to LAN; everybody is thrilled. When the COVID-19 situation has settled down, it is my greatest desire (to play on LAN).
CSGO2ASIA: Can you explain a little bit about the leadership inside your team to us?
DD: In the team, I’m the one in charge of leading the squad as their in-game leader. I personally think that the most important thing is to find a unified playstyle that suits all of our players. Other than that, I have shared many experiences with others that I feel can be useful in-game and even outside the game. The key is to understand and encourage each other, and then the trust will come within the team by nature.
“The key is to understand and encourage each other, and then the trust will come within the team by nature.“
-Hui “DD” Wu
CSGO2ASIA: Do you guys felt that the Mongolian scene is growing bigger than before? Like we saw more teams from Mongolia than before. What do you think?
ChildKing: I do not know what kind of environment in Mongolia used to be. After all, our scene in China is slowly getting better, while the world is getting better. It cannot be denied that the number of Mongolian teams are slowly increasing, which shows that the development of Mongolian CS:GO is excellent, and the competition is fierce. I felt very good (with the future of the scene).
CSGO2ASIA: Since we all do not really know the situation, how is the condition of the CS:GO scene in China? Do people already organize LAN events there? Or it is still all online-based competition?
Gas: The situation of the CS:GO scene in China has been pretty good. Offline events have slowly begun to recover. We participated in two offline events in 2020 (CS:GO_ProHouse Wuxi Villa Cup & Hot Pot Masters Championship). There are already many offline events for some semi-professional and amateur players held to date.
CSGO2ASIA: What do you say about your team position in Asia? Do you guys consider yourself in the top 5?
MarT1n: Of course, I believe Wings Up are competitive enough and have the ability and confidence to win against all of the Asian teams out there.
CSGO2ASIA: Coming into 2021, what’s the goal with Wings Up?
MarT1n: The goal of our team in 2021 is to become stronger, win more championships, and raise more awareness.
CSGO2ASIA: Is there anything you want to say to your fans outside of China?
Gas: I don’t know if there are any fans outside China who supported us. If so, thank you for your support.
Lan: Thanks for all the support. I’ll keep trying to stay in shape and head to the top!
CSGO2ASIA is an official Global Media Partner for the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Festival 2020.
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Cover photo courtesy of FunSpark
