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EG autimatic: “I felt that the team that EG was putting together was my best option.”

Autimatic was one the CS:GO legends who after the launch of Valorant decided to switch to the new FPS... Henrieta | 21. October 2022

Autimatic was one the CS:GO legends who after the launch of Valorant decided to switch to the new FPS title and try their chance in the newly emerging competitive scene. One year later, he was back in CS:GO as a part of EG’s newly formed star roster, side by side with his former teammates from the Major-winning 2018 Cloud 9 roster, Stewie2K and RUSH. Although both have left the team since then, autimatic stayed with EG, and according to his words, “can’t imagine playing for anyone else.”

Currently at the BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2022, Evil Geniuses, one of the favorites of the tournament, are about to face team Fluxo for a spot in the semifinals. There’s only one ticket to the Fall Final, and if EG beat the Brazilians, they will likely meet another favorite of the event — 00 Nation.

In an interview ahead of the Fall Showdown, Fragster spoke to EG’s Timothy “autimatic” Ta about his expectations from the event, we also talked about his Valorant career and why he decided to come to CS:GO, and touched on his thoughts about Project Blueprint and his hopes ahead of the Major in Rio.

The goal is to qualify

Fragster: So autimatic, the Fall Showdown is starting soon, how do you feel about the tournament, and what’s the atmosphere within the team? Are you prepared? 

autimatic: We had a few days off where we just tried to reset and recharge a bit. Since then we’ve had a few days of practice and we did some prep for the teams that we feel like we’re gonna play against. And yeah, I feel like we’re well-prepared. 

Your first opponent is team Fluxo, who you’ve never officially played head-to-head. What are your expectations from this match?

I haven’t played against many of these players, but I have played against felps and I know the type of player he is. So I’m prepared in that sense. But other than that, I have no real expectations. Um, I just want our team to play a game and to play well. 

How do you see your chances in the tournament overall? Do you see yourself finishing on stage? 

The goal is to qualify for BLAST Copenhagen. So, yeah, I hope we can make it all the way through. 

I wanted to play with Stewie again

I’d like to focus now more on you, as at the beginning of this year, you returned to professional CS:GO after a year-long venture in VALORANT with T1. Why have you decided to switch back from Valorant to CS:GO? 

Initially, it was because of the team that we were putting together. I really wanted to play with Stewie again, and I thought that would be a fun thing to do. He’s obviously a really good player and he’s had a lot of success, so he was able to teach me a lot and also remind me a lot of things about Counter-Strike. And on top of that, just to be able to work with Valens again. Back then, he was still doing the data science thing, but I guess just being part of the same organization was a motivator for me.

And then obviously on the team — RUSH, CeRq, and Brehze — they were all factors that really interested me. And I also had calls with coach MaLeK and I felt like we would get along pretty well.

What about your Valorant career, how did that go for you? 

I enjoyed my Valorant career, it was a new challenge and I felt like I learned a lot of things that I probably couldn’t or that maybe would’ve taken longer for me to learn in CS. And yeah, I had an enjoyable experience and I liked the game. It was just that I felt at the time that the team that EG was putting together was my best option. 

You played for T1 for almost a year. Even though you stayed in North America, you were still playing for a Korean organization. How did you enjoy the time with the org and could you feel any differences when compared to NA orgs? 

I think that the main difference was that T1, being a Korean-based organization, I don’t think they had as much staff in North America compared to some other orgs I’ve been on. But we had a general manager named Wawa and he was doing everything he could to make us feel comfortable and he did a great job.

I knew that there weren’t a lot of staff, but I couldn’t really feel it because T1 did a great job with the amount of staff that they had. 

How would you compare CS:GO and Valorant esports scenes? What did you like, and dislike, and what do you think CS:GO could learn from Valorant and vice versa? 

The things I liked about the Vaorant scene ended up being the same things that I didn’t like. So for instance, we played a lot of online tournaments and we were mainly playing at home, which was nice at the start because I had been traveling a lot throughout my CS career. But after a while, I missed going to tournaments, going to boot camps, and I missed the intensity. 

Obviously, it would’ve been different if we qualified for a few VCT events, but even with that, there are only four tournaments throughout the year I think, which is way less than in CS. I think more tournaments is one thing that would be cool to see implemented into Valorant.

And then the parts that I think CS can learn from Valorant is… I really enjoyed playing Valorant ranked. I felt like everyone was trying really hard and even though there are some games where it’s really annoying to play, overall my experience with playing and trying to climb the ladder was pretty fun. 

Project Blueprint could be a great thing for CS scene

I’d like to also ask about EG’s Project Blueprint, as a part of which the org has currently three active CS:GO rosters. What do you personally think of the idea of multiple rosters within one organization? 

I think that the idea is very innovative. And I think that it’ll help the CS:GO scene. I’m not the one who came up with the idea so I don’t really know how to make it work, but I’m assuming that EG has a plan for it. And I think that if it works, it’s gonna be really great for the NA CS scene, and maybe the CS scene as a whole because people can maybe use this model in the future if they want. 

And how would you say is it working so far? 

I think as of right now, it’s too early to tell. I don’t think we’ve gotten a chance to, implement all the things that EG wants to because we’re just now starting to build a foundation in our current team and I’m sure other teams are doing the same thing. So I think once we’re set, in a way, then we can start to experiment. 

I  want us to just fully experience the Major

You had quite a successful run at the RMRs, and qualified for IEM in Rio with a Challenger status. What are your expectations and how confident are you ahead of the Major?

I guess for the Major itself, I’m expecting to play in front of a really great crowd. That’s one thing that I’m looking forward to that I haven’t done in quite some time. For myself, I just expect to play my game and to come well-prepared. That means doing all the prep work, doing all the research that I need to do beforehand, and then I think the same thing goes for the team. 

And I think for some of the players, it’s gonna be their first time playing in front of a big stage, so I just want us to play our game and to really just fully experience the tournament. 

Header: DreamHack /Stephanie Lindgren