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Natasha Charbonneau:
So its been awhile since we last talked, the CSGO team recently went through some changes, whats up?
Eric Newton:
Well, when we first started we had dyonz shotcalling and me as a support player. Once we started scrimming hard teams, we found that my style of leading worked a bit better with the tools that we have to use, so naturally I moved myself into a leading role. Another change that you might find is that our roster has changed, we released Ephrum^ as a rifler and picked up our new LzH rifler, Paprika! Overall, he has been a fantastic change to the roster and provides a solid rifle and a consistent performance.
Natasha Charbonneau:
Where did you guys pick up Paprika?
Eric Newton:
Curiously enough, we found him through his stream! Dyonz was browsing some smaller streams and found a rifle that could communicate well with his team. From there, we got in contact, and the rest was history
Natasha Charbonneau:
Haha that doesn't work out that well most of the time, looks like you guys got lucky! So that brings me to my next question then. When is the first league or tournament match coming up with the new line up to "battle test" the new group?
Eric Newton:
Currently we have been practicing as massive amount for the Winout Qualifiers coming up here in a couple days on August 7th. Every 2 or so days is filled with around 3-4 hours of practice, along with pugging together and demo reviews. We feel that we are as confident as a new team can be going into a qualifier for a LAN. Overall, this is going to be a huge learning experience for us and prepare us further for the CEVO season coming up.
Natasha Charbonneau:
Has anything changed with the way you play or different map choices with current map pool with the new edition to the team? I'm sure it may have made your confidence better on certain maps now with a better rifler
Eric Newton:
I think we have all changed the way we play ever since the beginning. We have played with each other so much, that I can be confident that someone can hold a position, or make sure to take 2 frags before the opponent gets onto a site. Honestly - I have the utmost respect and trust in every single one of my teammates at this point. I don't worry about sending an extra man to make sure to take control of a certain area and this allows me to be more confident in my calls and strategies. Right now I can't talk about our map choices right now just because we will be facing teams that will veto certain maps - but I'm sure you guys will be surprised at certain maps that we veto towards during the tournament stream
Natasha Charbonneau:
So I have to ask because I get this question a lot from people in the community. Why CEVO and these other tournaments and no ESEA?
Eric Newton:
Well, there are two reasons. One, because ever since the ESEA update and the measures they go to to reduce people cheating, it turns into something invasive. While I do agree that cheating has no place in a competitive game such as CS:GO, we do tend to be tentative towards allowing 24/7 system monitoring. While ESEA represents one of the main routes one can take to break into the professional scene, we believe that this is not the only way. Secondly, we simply like CEVO. The customer support is great, they make strides to sponsor tournaments, and they offer a great service.
Natasha Charbonneau:
Fair enough, I always felt while ESEA was solid for the most part anti cheat wise, the PR and methods have been insanely questionable. I must admit i'm running blanks in my head at the moment, is there anything you'd like to throw out there?
Eric Newton:
haha, not much - all i want to say is we enjoy everyone's support - and the community as a whole has been fantastic. We have some of our division's best players and we hope to add to the LzH brand with some strong results.
Natasha Charbonneau:
As always, where can people find you guys?
Eric Newton:
well, I'm pretty sure most of our team streams. EricN (twitch.tv/ericn_tv), one of the best IGL's and strategists in our division (if I might say so myself!) , Dyonz (twitch.tv/dy0nz), one of the best riflers, Paprika (twitch.tv/paprika_tvs), our new blood, and KoL (twitch.tv/k_o_l), one of the best AWP'ers in our CEVO division. Blehhs will also be streaming soon once he gets it up and running, so tune in for an incredible entry fragger and teammate. Finally, tweet me! at @EricN_CS
in ESEA Main this week (