G2 Hunter: “We just need to keep up with how we were doing at the end of 2022. That’s all.”

The new CS:GO season is in the full swing, and with the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and IEM Katowice 2023 Group Stage in the books, we’ve already got to see a decent portion of top-tier Counter-Strike action. 

Naturally, upsets and surprises were present, as teams marched into the new season after a short winter player break, showing various levels of form. 

But how did they prepare for the start of the new season? Did they utilize the player break for rest? And what kind of improvements they focused on during bootcamps?

CS:GO pros reveal how they prepped for 2023

HUNTER, G2

“We had a bootcamp earlier in January. It was just a general boot camp practice, trying to prepare as a team because we didn’t do any roster changes, so we just need to keep up with how we were doing at the end of the year and that’s all.”

OSEE, TEAM LIQUID

“I think it was just more a case of a mental reset. We did a lot of long bootcamp days toward the second half of 2022, and I think it’s better to take a break and come back fully focused. If we’re not fully mentally in it and still trying to improve, it’s not the most efficient way of doing it. So having a break once in a while and just completely forgetting, or not thinking about CS, and just spending time with friends or family is really important. And over the long run, I think it’s more efficient since every season is a marathon and we gotta make sure that we’re ready for the whole year rather than just trying to force it.” 

TWISTZZ, FAZE CLAN

“The beginning of the year for us is gonna be a little bit shaky because rain is awaiting the birth of his first child, so we won’t have him at BLAST Spring Groups with us. And due to some other emergency thing, we also won’t have a coach there. So just trying to make the best of the situation. We just talked about what our situation will be, how we prepare for it, how we make the most of it and went from there.”

FLOPPY, COMPLEXITY

“I think just getting back into it after having a bit of a longer break. Remembering everything we had on each map, the biggest thing we’re looking at for the bootcamp.”

DEGSTER, OG

“We have some specific things that we were trying to improve. We were having some team talks together and other stuff that I will not share. But this talk was needed for us after the break. “