Team Brutality the front-runner with the Indian flag at ESEA League Season 21 are all set to compete the Indonesian lineup at the grand finals on 22nd of April, stream will be made available by ESEA. We sat down with Brutal RiX to get some details about their preparations for the finals, we got some.
After, we covered the story of our beloved Counter Strike: Global Offensive roster which are en-route to the grand finals happening the day after tomorrow, we got loads of responses and best wishes for the Mumbai based roster. The messages were so overwhelming we thought not to have them solely on our inboxes and contacted Team Brutality’s one of the founding member, Aakash ‘RiX’ More to share with him.
We were digging some of the insiders of the foundation of Team Brutality and gathered some rare and fun facts from within the organization from the players itself. Read below the interaction between our Sports Journalist Sajid ‘evo’ Paik and Brutal RiX.
We all know from where do you belong, please tell us what we don’t know, about your previous association other than Brutality?
RIX: Way back in CS 1.6 I was in Team Wolf which I joined with my friend Sangram . I’ve never been the guy who keeps jumping teams for short term profits, I prefer playing with friends and enjoying the time I play with them. After Team Wolf it was Team Brutality which I myself made along with V3nom.
Your role is in the team as an AWPER, did you chose it or it chose you?
RIX: I was an all rounder since 1.6, I was good with assault rifles and awp both but back in Team Wolf when I recruited V3nom I had to step away from awping since he was a full time awper but now in CS GO V3nom is much better with rifles than with an awp and since we don’t have a dedicated awper in the team I took it to myself to be the awper that my team needs.
Roughly for how many years have Brutal Rix been playing Counter Strike franchise as a whole?
RIX: Around 12+ years for sure. I started playing CS 1.5 in cafes, those were the good old days when everyone sat together and played all day long.
You are into the finals of ESEA League Season 21 facing team Signature, what’s your special strategy?
RIX: Nothing special to be honest, we will just try to play our game and be confident in our play style. Whenever we try to do something extraordinary it doesn’t work out so we don’t want to repeat that mistake. We will just keep our basics right, focus on our trading and play as a unit. If we do all this correctly, I don’t think there is any need of a special strategy.
Have you ever faced team Signature before in any friendly matches?
RIX: We have played a few scrims with them but that was a long time ago. We also met them in this season of ESEA and lost Cache 16-5. They are a good team and one of the best in Asia but if everyone hits their shots on our side, we might just win this. Let’s see how the finals go, I have my fingers crossed.
Who will be the IGL for that game?
RIX: For this game I think Fox will be leading us. He was the one doing it in the semi finals as well and it worked out for us. Though we do have Ad1 and V3nom to fall back on if fox is having a bad day reading our opponents. In our team there is no fixed IGL, everyone has the experience and we just go with the one who is feeling confident to lead on the match day.
Team Brutality looks great as a brand-name what are your plans for future endeavor with the organization?
RIX: Thank you for the complement. I would say we have planned a few things for this year but are still sceptical whether to go ahead with them or not. We will take a call depending on how the scene progresses. For now our focus will only be on our CSGO squad as we want them to get better and make a consistent place for themselves in Asia.
Your team is the only consistent team in India with such a strong fanbase and sponsors on papers, how does it feel to represent in India at such a big stage? Does the pressure uphelds?
RIX: I sure take great pride in representing our country where ever we play. I won’t lie, there is a lot of pressure when there are so many fans rooting for you to perform and beat teams from different countries. You just have to be confident and everything works out fine. Our aim is always to play for our fans and country and to make them proud. We feel blessed to have these amazing people around us who keep supporting and help us get good results. Also when we are going through a rough patch these wonderful people are always there to help us get back up and we are thankful to them for being so kind to us. We promise that we will keep trying our best to make all of you happy.
We see lineup changes very often in our scene. At the beginning Brutality was not doing well. Did you ever feel that you need to join another team? You being one of the oldest player in the Indian counter strike scene what was your thought process.
RIX: When CSGO came out, me and my teammates didn’t really switch from 1.6 to CSGO right away but after a year or so. I was convinced that CSGO was the future and started playing/learning it, my teammates still stuck to CS 1.6 though. CSGO is way more tactical than 1.6 was and once I got the basic hang of how to play it my thought process was to teach my old teammates from 1.6 how to play CSGO. Being in the gaming scene for more than 10 years, I knew it’s no use to make a team with players who keep switching teams and have ego issues and so on. Sometimes they want to leave the current team and join other team or they want to kick out someone from the current team and bring in new players. Its fine I understand that sometimes changing players is necessary but in Indian gaming scene it’s pretty much due to mood and ego of players so if I want my own team I have to make a team with players whom I trust. I think success comes with team work and synergy, you need to have a strong bond between your teammates, you can’t have 5 good individual players in a team and expect it to have very good results all the time.
Faze is a perfect example of such a team which consists of 5 good individual players. I knew we won’t have good results right from the start, it takes time to get everything and everyone working as a team, to be on the same page and eventually you will find success if you practice together.
You share a good bond with V3nom during your games, is the duo blended well even off-screen?
In Brutality I never felt that I needed to leave this team and join some other team because of few back to back losses. I was confident that one day we will make it to the top as everything takes time and my synergy with V3nom and his attitude towards the team and managing skills are impeccable. I also wish for a team on which I can rely on so it was no surprise that I got into my teaching shoes and started teaching my old teammates from CS 1.6. V3nom is my oldest student haha, I taught him how to play CS 1.6 and the legacy continued in CS GO as well xD He is by far the best captain in our scene at least I would say. He is the one who keeps everyone in their limits and also enjoys and creates that magic which a team should have. Without a doubt I can say that we 2 are a deadly combo 😀
Any final shoutouts to the community from Brutal RiX?
RIX: I would specially like to thank Zotac India, G2A and SoStronk for their tremendous support towards the team. Also rest of our sponsors Gunnar Optiks, Esportclothing, Antec, MadCatz and LXG for helping us get this far. Last but not the least our fans who have been an important part of this organisation and TalkEsport for always being there in appreciating our efforts in one way or the other.
