eXTREMESLAND Finals Team Profile: Avant Gaming
With the eXTREMESLAND 2019 Oceania Regional Finals fast approaching, we sat down with two of Avant Gaming’s Counter-Strike players, ap0c and J1rah, to discuss their competitive progress so far as a team, their mindset coming into this event, and their opinion on the competitive atmosphere in Oceania for Counter-Strike.
Avant Gaming have been a part of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for a long time in Oceania, with first class Australian matches dating back to January 31st, 2014. Despite there being countless iterations of rosters for the organisation, this current line-up has arguably achieved the most to date, and really solidified the Avant Gaming name in the title.
Active Roster:
Although this roster has only been together for just under five months, against all odds they have managed to qualify for the Asian Minor, finish third equal at the ESL AUNZ Championship Finals, and qualify for the up-coming Zowie eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals later this month. Previously, the Avant Gaming organisation has never qualified for an Asian Minor and haven’t placed in the top four of a regional offline event since the middle of 2018, excluding the Gfinity Elite Series.
Active Roster’s Achievements:
- 3rd/4th - ESL AUNZ Championship Season 9
- 1st/2nd - eXTREMESLAND Asia Closed Qualifier
- 3rd/4th - ESL AUNZ Championship Online Stage
- 4th - Asia Minor Championship
- 2nd - Asia Minor Championship Closed Qualifier
J1rah and ap0c on Zowie eXTREMESLAND Finals
We kicked off our interview by asking their veteran player, ap0c, what he believes the roster needs to do to achieve greatness coming into this event. “In general, I think the biggest problem for any up-coming team is complacency. As a team and as individuals, we need to keep learning and keep developing. It's easy to take shortcuts and get some decent results, but at the end of the day you won't achieve your ultimate goals,” says ap0c.
On the topic of rosters, we were curious as to how ap0c approaches the game now that he is competing with players much younger than him. “My approach to this game doesn’t change too much playing with a young team,” he said. “I believe any team should strive for continuous improvement. At the beginning, this roster was perhaps my most inexperienced line-up at this level, so I do my best to give advice where applicable to help progress.”
“The atmosphere in the team is pretty good. It helps that the four kids have been friends for a long time. Except Jay (soju_j), he hates us all,” ap0c concluded.
J1rah continued the line of questioning on what needs to be done to achieve greatness at this event. “For us to win this event, we need to focus on what our problems are and make sure we’re constantly striving to fix them before the event.” He also told us about the recent results at the ESL AUNZ Championship, “we try to talk about all the events that are coming up and decide what our goals as individuals and as a team are. We didn’t put too much emphasis on AUNZ Champs and decided to instead focus on the bigger international qualifiers.”
Insight from Avant Gaming’s In-Game Leader (IGL)
We asked J1rah about how he has adapted to the in-game leader role, despite being younger than most of the competitors at his level. “I’ve been an in-game leader for nearly my whole career. It’s been incredibly hard. When I first started out, I found it extremely confusing to just grasp the idea of how big of an effect an IGL can have. For example, if your team can sense your mood is off, it can affect them mentally,” said J1rah.
“Before I started playing with more experienced players, I mainly learned and adapted through watching demos, listening to podcasts, and just constantly thinking about the game,” J1rah continued.
Now that J1rah has established himself in the region as one of the best in-game leaders, we were curious about his approach to leadership in general. He mentioned that he tries to keep the guys positive at all times, because he’s noticed that emotions can sometimes get the better of them.
“In this team, we discovered that we seem to individually get in our own heads with our emotions. To counter this problem, I try to be positive even when things aren’t going our way. But that is easier said than done,” J1rah concluded.
View on competitive atmosphere in Oceania
Like many of our previous interviews, we wanted to get J1rah’s and ap0c’s thoughts on the competitive atmosphere in this region. Both of the players had interesting takes on the situation.
ap0c kicked off by saying, “I think that within the top ten, the competitive atmosphere has plateaued a bit this year. It’s always going to be tough, as most teams aren’t full-time players, but I feel that some teams just play to play, not to practice and improve.”
However, ap0c has noticed an exception to this observation. “Genuine Gaming do more than just play, they learn, grow, and get better, and their results show. The rest of the top teams should be looking closely at Grayhound Gaming, and their blueprint for success.”
J1rah then went on to talk about his approach to the topic, “I think there is a big demand for leaders and experienced players in Oceania, that’s why there is such a big gap between teams. Due to this, there is a lack of guidance for teams on how they should be improving, what they should be practicing, and how they approach the game.”
“I believe that this is why Grayhound Gaming has been the best team in the region for such a long time. They have a team with highly driven players, and a player like dexter to lead them, who has an exceptional work ethic,” J1rah concluded.
Currently placed as fourth on the HTT Power Rankings, Avant Gaming will be looking to make a statement at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals. The other three teams at the event are The Chiefs Esports Club, ORDER Army and Grayhound Gaming, who are considered to be placed above them competitively.
You can keep up-to-date with Avant Gaming’s performance here.
- Written by Ben Scott.
- Edited by Adam Taylor.
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