With the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals right around the corner, we had the opportunity to sit down with Tyler “tucks” Reilly and Peter “BL1TZ” Athanastos of The Chiefs Esports Club for our third installment of team profiles. In this interview we talk about their expectations coming into the event, how the line-up is shaping up, and what their overall thoughts are on the competitive atmosphere for Counter-Strike in Australasia.
The Chiefs Esports Club has been a household name in Australasian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive since their entry into the space back in May of 2015. The initial roster consisted of Paris “nova” Larkins, Kryan “dizzy” Crombie, Michael “Lightstep” Hall, Chris “ofnu” Hanley and Ryan “zewsy” Palmer, with two of those players, ofnu and zewsy, being on the current active roster today.
Active Roster:
Coming off of a surprise loss at the ESL AUNZ Championship, and some disappointing online results for qualifiers, The Chiefs Esports Club will be looking to come out on top at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals, having only needing to win one best-of-three to secure a spot in the Asia finals.
BL1TZ and tucks on eXTREMESLAND Finals
Following some rough recent results, we were curious as to what the team believes needs to be done to achieve greatness at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals. To open our line of questioning, tucks went on to say “we just need to keep working on ourselves. We also need to keep focusing on the mental aspect of our game and just individually keep working hard if we want to win this.”
He then went on to make it known that they have switched in-game leader roles by stating “we have made a few changes lately, with ofnu now as the in-game leader. He has been doing a killer job at it thus far.”
tucks then went on to tell us about their disappointing results at the ESL AUNZ Championship. “The mistake at champs was us getting owned by ORDER. They played great and also with confidence. We’re currently in a re-building stage with the new in-game leader swap and we’re also taking a different outlook towards the game.”
“We just have to keep working on it and we’ll get the the level that we want to be at soon enough,” tucks said.
Continuing our line of questioning, BL1TZ discussed how offline events shape a team differently to online events, with Genuine Gaming’s DreamHack Montreal Qualifier performance as an example. “I haven’t personally kept up with their results online versus offline, but I’d say LAN has sort of a barrier of entry, as it can take a few ‘important’ games to be able to warm up to the environment. I’d say their players might just need that time,” said BL1TZ.
“I also think that the case of more offline event time for ‘important’ matches, such as big qualifiers, is important for the scene as a whole,” concluded BL1TZ.
With BL1TZ recently stepping away from the in-game leader role, we asked him about how he has adapted to taking on multiple roles over his professional career thus fus. BL1TZ went on to say “I don’t mind doing whatever is needed to form the best team possible. I’ve played every role, besides a hard entry role, and I am comfortable in most roles after a month or so of scrimming. So at the end of the day, I don’t mind too much if I think the team is worth it.”
tucks rejoined the conversation and talked about how this team compares to past renditions of The Chiefs Esports Club. “I’d say this line-up is stronger than any other Chiefs roster in the past. We have great brains on board, and we possess an incredible set of skills.”
Tyler “tucks” Reilly on competitive atmosphere in Australasia
Tyler has been a long serving player in the competitive scene for Counter-Strike here in Australasia, with known rosters dating back to 2015. We were curious as to what his current thoughts are on the state of Counter-Strike here in Australasia and how he thinks the region is progressing.
“I personally think as a region we’re getting a lot stronger. Grayhound Gaming going overseas and doing well is a big boost for our whole region. But I’ve also found playing against lower level teams, you can see the individual skill is there and some teams like Genuine Gaming understand the game really well as a team,” said tucks.
“It’s good. We’re only going to get better as time goes on,” concluded tucks.
Although The Chiefs have had some recent results, we all know how well this team can perform offline. Currently sitting at fourth place on the HTT Power Rankings and with the Zowie eXREMESLAND Regional Finals fast approaching, only time will tell how well they have adapted to their recent role changes.
You can stay connected with their matches by connecting with The Chiefs on Twitter.
Credits:
.svg){kind=small}
