This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.
Jacob 'Pimp' Winneche is a player for the Danish 3DMAX team which will be competing at EMS One Katowice this week. As a member of Western Wolves, in the first part of 2013, he finished runner-up to NiP at Mad Catz Vienna and Copenhagen Games. Beyond that he also played in rivals Copenhagen Wolves, helping them to a top four finish at EMS One Fall.
In this interview, the Danish player discusses his transition from CS:Source, the different teams he has been a part of, some of the famous team-mates he has been matched up with and the NiP vs. Titan rivalry that continues to rage on.
I only attended one event with them, and actually preformed really well, but some changes happened after that event, so I was out on my own again. From that moment, I played more and more, and I had a few notable results in CSS, mainly with the core of me, MSL, and Nille, but we never reached the very top. I believe the best we ever got was a top 10 spot on the official Cadred source ranking list. I was, according to myself, a pretty skilled player in Source, but the timing were never really on my side, so my international break-trough in Source never happened.
A lot of people claim that 1.6ers were having a hard time adjusting to CS:GO, but I'm still convinced today that at least VeryGames were having it a bit harder than most of the 1.6ers. As far as I know, the 1.6 game style kinda changed at the end. The standard way of playing 1.6 was also becoming more and more aim-baised in the late stages, and that could maybe have had an inpact on the transition from 1.6 to GO. Everyone had to fight with the new things in CS:GO. As for VeryGames, I did not notice them changing a lot from 2012, but since then they have changed a lot.
Also, that GeT_RiGhT and f0rest just seemed to be so much better than everyone else helped them a lot. People started to fear playing against them, and when they both had the upper hand in the game, and the psychological advantage, it became really hard to break them. Anti-strats were also not as effective as they might be now, cause it felt like there was still so much to coordinate in your own game, before you knew how to exploit the things you might have found out in the anti-strats.
All in all, it just felt like they had the best players, they had found the right way to play the game at the time, they seemed to make less mistakes than everyone else and they had the momentum, in some situations, to become the most winning CS:GO team so far. When you look back at it now, it seems unthinkable that something like that could happen now, and you also feel a bit stupid to maybe now see the things that we see now. One thing is for sure though, the gap between NiP and everyone else has been closed since some time ago, and, as it is now, it feels like the remaining gap from everyone else to Titan is becoming smaller and smaller too.
When I look back now, I don't really see a clear way that teams might could have beaten them. The skill level between the players was just too big in the beginning, and even though that gap started to become smaller already, after a few months, the other things, like momentum and luck, played into their favour in the close games.
We started the team with the exact same goals, and some very specific deals about how much time we would spend on playing and some ideas about which LANs we wanted to go to. As for the roles, in-game it changed a bit. In Anexis, I was playing with the AWP most of the time and, with Nico coming on to the team, I had to change my role to rifle player. At the time it was actually the first time I had ever played the rifle role full-time on a team. As for the caller role, gla1ve took over full-time, where in Copenhagen Wolves he was doing the second caller role, together with Hunden. As for the leadership style he used, it was a mixture of both having the last Word, and make sure everyone on the team could say what they felt in a certain situation.
I think that the timing for getting in gla1ve and Nico was supreme, as that was in the Winter period, after the LAN season. That gave us a lot of time to prepare for the LANs we wanted to attend. Also, we made sure to stay out of a lot of Online Leagues, so we had all the time available to practise and improve on what we wanted to improve. gla1ve has always been a fan of the strategical way to play. Playing together as a team and having good communication has always been favored over having the sick individual players dictate how the game should develop. We tried to play as a unit, instead of five individuals, and for us that worked out great. It, overall, was a long process of two intense months of hard practise, where we tried to get the best out of every player, while at the same time we tried to play as a good working unit. Eventually, we just found out that way worked best out for us, as we individually were nowhere near VeryGames and NiP.
As you can maybe imagine, it's hard to keep your best shape if you don't play for a whole week. What I did not know, and didn't expect, was that most of the other players on the team had decided not to play at all. From my personal perspective, it felt like the Vienna and Copenhagen Games success had made people complacent. We eventually ended up losing to our Danish rivals from Fnatic, which was a huge defeat to swallow, and it was kinda from that moment everything went wrong. After the Birmingham event, we talked and agreed that we needed a break from playing CS, but that we also would come back stronger, with the same energy as we had in the beginning. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
After our break, people started some very bad habits, in my world at least. Bailing on practise, telling half lies to maybe skip a practise day etc. It was just like all the good and positive energy we had gathered and used on Vienna and Copenhagen Games was gone. Aside from that, some personal life problems suddenly appeared. Something that we never have fought with before either. It was just a mixture of a bad mentality after our success, some unlucky timings and some dedication and trust problems, that suddenly took all the focus. I'm not going to hang anyone out to dry, I respect if people don't wanna take CS as seriously as others, but what I do not respect is when people lie, or don't have the balls to tell others so. That, unfortunately, happened to a degree that I, myself, also started to feel a bit demotivated and confused.
The reality was going from being a top 3 contender, at least, to now being a mediocre top 4-10ish team. We tried several times to talk it through, but it was just like we had had so much going against us that in the end it was never fixable. To give you an example, we only started to play four days before Dreamhack summer, because people did not have the time, motivation or at least something else was keeping them from playing the game. With those four days of preparation, we actually managed to beat NiP 16:2 on nuke, which I believe is still the largest margin they've ever lost a map on LAN with.
Even though we got that great start, we immediately came down to Earth again. With only four days of preparation, it's limited as to how stable you can be. We went into the quarter-finals against Epsilon (Fnatic nowadays) and lost 0:2. At the time, it was a team that we never felt it was possible to lose against, but I still, even today, believe that our ropy preparation made us struggle and eventually lose against a team that I, at the time ,felt we should have won over.
With this story it is of course to be said that everyone had a part and a responsibility to take care of and it was a mixture of a lot of bad timing and incorrect decisions that eventually lead us to the breakdown. Also, it's important for me to state that everyone kinda failed their responsibility, because in the end we failed as a unit, and not as individuals.
As for the people that have suggested that he isn't as dedicated to becoming a pro player, they're right. Nico has always been the guy with the lowest amount of hours before the events, and also in general. In comparison, I think everyone on Western Wolves in the latter days had two times his hours on steam. He has a lot of stuff going on outside his gaming life, and, at certain periods, he has decided to prioritise them over becoming a pro player. There is no doubt that Nico is one of the most talented players in the whole world. If he would have put in the hours everyone else does these days does, he would, without a doubt, be the best AWP player in the world.
When you see Nico with 30 hours in two weeks, 800 in total, destroying everyone at Copenhagen Games, you really see what raw talent can do. He's got all the star potential, but unfortunately, for us CS fans, he wants to do other things with his life. As I said before, I deeply respect when people have made up their minds and are being honest with what they want, and that is exactly was Nico is these days.
It quickly became very clear for me that the style I liked to play with gla1ve and the others in Western Wolves was not one that the Copenhagen Wolves guys liked. I was having some difficulties understanding their way of approaching the game, and I was constantly trying to speak my case, and explaining why I think we should do this and that. Eventually, I never really go through with my messages and I kinda had to accept, in the end, that there was nothing I could do about it.
In between that period, the team started to have some internal issues. People where having a hard time keeping focused in practise, a lot of the time in our practise was used to debate things that maybe even should not even have been debated. In that period, I started to feel more and more uncomfortable with the whole situation. I was not really sure where I stod compared to the others, and I strongly believe that that had a huge impact on both my mood and my in-game skill. After our ESWC 5th-8th place, which was not as good as we maybe could have expected, we decided, together in the hotel in France, to make some changes.
We had a long and good talk about the future and who we might would like to pick up to the team. In that specific moment, I kinda felt like, even though I had been under-performing, which I clearly had, the team still had some faith in me. That was apparently just wishful thinking, because the day after we returned to Denmark, the team had decided to bench both me and Friis. When I look at it now there are, of course, a lot of things that could have been done differently. There are also some funny and internal things that might could have changed everything, if people had been aware of them at the time the scenario played out.
In the end, I have no hard feelings against the team. We were never really the right mix of players, so I can fully understand that the other guys might have been thinking that another change could fix the problems. I still consider the, now Dignitas, players as being my friends and if someday it plays out that I can play with some of them again, I would love that. They are nice and down to Earth people, and they have the most awesome manger in the form of Jehan!
In terms of differences, it's mainly that we don't have a dedicated AWP player, as we had in Nico. Instead, on this team, we have two young and talented aimers. Where we had Nico as an driving force with the AWP and me as the main rifle, we now have three solid rifle players, a decent part-time AWP player and a support player in MSL. That also means that we had to change some of the roles in the team, we had to use new tactics that allowed us to play more with rifles than with the AWP. We are very well aware that Nico was a driving force in our old team, but we also know that if we can get the full potential out of our current team, we can become very dangerous once again.
Rotations on nuke are extremely important to nail evey single round. In 1.6, you did not have the long way under located close to the T's and you did not have the option of running through the vents. I could imagine the opportunities to rotate and make a round-winning call must have been pretty restricted in 1.6. In Source and CS:GO, the rotations as CT are really important. If you play a style where you like to read the game, read the opponents, you need to make the right rotations to close down the areas you expect them to hit.
That was exactly what we did against NiP in the 16-2 victory. Every time they went towards ramp, we had two men shutting it down. Every time they went inside, we had three men shutting it down. From our side, at least, it felt like we won that match mainly by reading the game to perfection. Even though our preparation for that event was terrible, we still used some time studying the other teams.
Based on that, and previous experiences with NiP, we managed to read it all correctly. It's easy for me to say this when I was playing on the winning side, I'm sure NiP felt that they could have done so many things differently, which they probably could, but in the end what we expected turned out to be right 13/15 rounds. My point with that example, is that if you rotate correctly, you don't necessarily need the five best players in the world to beat NiP on nuke, you just need to guess right and rotate correctly. I can also give you plenty of examples when we have failed with our reading of the game, and we have lost some crucial rounds that ended up in ecos and costing us a lot of rounds, but that's just your shot in the game.
I could be wrong on this, but I don't think there is any team, not of the very best at least, that base their strong nuke on a good T side. It's not often you see a team consistently taking 6-8 rounds on T side nuke against the very best teams. The victory is often based on a solid CT side.
Specifically for NiP, I think their rotations and individual skills makes them really hard to play against on nuke. Inside is often closed totally down, with two to three men. Xizt is maybe the best player in the world at closing down yellow, and friberg could arguably be named as the best player to lock down door. With that in mind, you need to open the map at other places than inside, and outside GeT_RiGhT is playing it really well, poking, doing a lot of damage, sometimes taking a kill without really taking a big risk himself. An extremely difficult role, but a role he normally plays to perfection.
That leaves you with ramp and the long way under, where f0rest and fiffalren often make some plays together. It almost feels impossible, when you write this down, to see the openings. Mainly because their rotations are so damn good, and their individual skill is so damn high that, even if the rotation comes a little slower, the individual skill saves them some rounds.
From my perspective, it's all about making the CT's rotate incorrectly and hitting the small gaps that will open up when the CT's make those rotations. It's often a case of really small windows, and it's often really hard to hit them. If you can, you can quickly gather enough T-rounds up to win the map.
I am aware of the fact that Titan lost to NiP at Dreamhack, which definitely was the most important match, but I'm also sure that if VeryGames has decided not to go to China [For MSi Beat It], and instead had held a boot-camp and power-practiced up to Dreamhack, that they would have won that game. I watched them play against compLexity, I played against them in the group stages and I never felt that driving force that Titan lately have been showing everyone. I would properly blame it on the trip to China, they definitely know themselves what went wrong. I heard someone in their team, can't remember who said it, that their preparation wasn't good enough for such an event.
As for the one on one duel they hopefully will have at IEM, I simply see Titan as the stronger team. It feels like they are more balanced in the way that it's not necessary for ScreaM to have a great game for them to win, where on the NiP side it seems like they are a bit more dependent on f0rest and GeT_RiGhT showing up with really huge games. It probably has something to do with the way they approach the game, where I just feel that Titan right now has the upper hand in that duel. Not to say that it couldn't go both ways, depending on the day, but if I was told to bet all my money on either Titan or NiP, to be the leading team for 2014, my money would end up on Titan.
I think his transition was harmed a lot by his team. He played on that IMG lineup with ozstriker and some other players that weren't really a top team, in all fairness. Since he was not a part of the VeryGames line-up and there weren't, at the time, any other French teams he seemed to fit well with, I, myself, find it inspirational that he still kept fighting and playing until the right offer landed at his feet. There was, in my mind, no doubt that when VeryGames picked up Shox they would become a stronger team than with kennyS.
In my head, he is the most complete CS:GO player there is right now. It's always a wild guess, because you can never really say how much they contribute to their teams when you dont know them well, or have played with them. But from what I hear, sense and see, he is a monster aimer and a great addition to Ex6tenZ's way to play. It gives them some diversity.
That has always been the case for FeTiSh, he has always had the option of putting together a sick individual team and making some results out of that. His successful teams in CS:S were also based one some sick individual players, himself and then 3k2 as the all-around guy. The new lineup they have now, with cajunB instead of Wantz/Nico, is kinda the same. It is the strongest individual team in Denmark, without a doubt, so the potential of their team is really high.
The problem for them has always been to realise the potential they've got. I mean, with me on the team, we also had by far the strongest Danish team on paper, but it was like we needed just that last thing to really be good and realise all the potential. It seemed to be the case with Nico also, he came in made an good amount of impact, got in some controversy and then left again, to focus on his real life. They were on their way to something good, they played an extremely close match against VeryGames in the quarter-finals of Dreamhack Winter.
As for their performance in Stockholm, at the Dreamhack tournament, I was actually very surprised. They have been practising a lot ever since they took in cajunB. Using most of the weekends to play, really putting in an effort to become good. For me, it kinda seemed that they weren't really prepared for their opponents. It was a combination of them losing some unlucky rounds, and being unaware of what Fnatic did to close them down on dust2. It was clear for me that Fnatic knew almost every single move of Dignitas, I know for a fact they spent some time preparing for them on dust2, and that really shined through. Maybe if Dignitas was aware of that, they would have had some more luck and they could have turned it around.
But also, keep in mind that playing two bo1 maps does not always shows the correct balance of power between teams. I'm sure that Dignitas is going to do well in Katowice, they have been playing a lot since they got home from Stockholm, and I would not be surprised if they could pull out another top eight placement. But, going to the semi-finals could be hard for them.
He has a really strong aim and great self-confidence that he can win the duels he takes. He is a pretty defensive player, which means he might not be the typical CS:GO player, who just likes to bind mouse 1 to their W's, but more kind of a guy who likes to hold his angles and positions, which in CS:GO sometimes can be extremely hard. He is going through a learning phase right now, where he has to learn some of the basics that haven't been shown to him yet. He is still improving and if he continues, he will have a great showing in CS:GO.
He reminds me of f0rest because he likes the same roles as that player has in NiP. He likes to be the peeking guy, take first peek, play offensive, out-aim people, overall be an aggressive player etc. The difference between him and many others, that might wanna call themselves f0rest v2, is that dupreeh can actually manage that role to perfection.
Photo credits: Dreamhack, fragbite, Hampus Andersson