Peter Jarguz · @peterjarguz
27th Apr 2023 from TwitLonger
A few thoughts on NA CS and the new generation coming through:
A few thoughts on NA CS and the new generation coming through:
Since Covid, NA CS has had a steady decline and I’d say that it’s at its lowest point since I’ve started to compete back in 2015.
In 2019, we had teams such as EG, Liquid, 100T, Cloud9, Complexity, Furia, MIBR, Ghost, all practicing in NA and a lot of these teams could compete against the very best teams internationally.
The quality of practice was also at its peak. You could get great practice against teams that were eager to improve and took things seriously. Practices always felt productive. You could feel the other team trying their hardest, down to every detail. A great example that stuck with me over the last few years was when our EG team was practicing against Liquid on Mirage, and NAF got a stylish 3k. He had low HP, and instead of going for the highlight 4th frag, he tucked himself into the van spot at the B site and played to survive, ensuring that his team would maintain their 4v2 advantage instead of making a 3v2 and increasing our chances of winning the round. I understand that it’s such a small detail but this moment was a huge eye opener for me. I believe that it’s a testament to what Keith’s been able to go on to achieve. That kind of stuff is contagious to me, but I’m sure that his teammates also massively benefitted from playing with such a disciplined player everyday. Myself and our coach at the time, Zews, talked about that moment right after the practice game was finished and tried to instill more of that kind of discipline into our playstyle. With the new generation of players, I almost never see this kind of discipline. I’ve seen so many advantages thrown away because a player wants to be the star and keeps going for more when their team needs them to hold back and guarantee the win.
Everything about CS during that time felt right. There was an energy in the air that most of us craved. The players were hungry. They wanted to be the best, so they worked hard, and had the right mindset that allowed them to get to the top. One of the most valuable skills that any athlete can have is the ability to give and take criticism. Improvement is such a simple concept yet so many of us fail to realize how much we get in our own way. I’ve always been a proponent of the thought that hard work always pays off. Hard work to me doesn’t necessarily mean having the most hours inside of the server. As I’ve gained more experience throughout my career, I’ve realized that balance alongside efficiency, is the key to success.
Being efficient means achieving maximum productivity with minimal waste. What gets in the way of achieving maximum productivity? Yourself. To be efficient, you need to have a superlative mindset; a humble mindset where you focus on achieving the highest quality of the details of your regime. Obviously as an individual, you need to make sure that your mechanics are up to par. It’s like if you’re wanting to play soccer; a basic fundamental is that you need to have good cardiovascular endurance to be able to play. Same with CS, you need to have good aim to be able to keep up. There is so much more to CS though, which is why I fell in love with the game in the first place. It isn’t individuals against individuals. It’s a team against a team. A well drilled team will almost always out-perform a more skilled team that isn’t as well drilled / organized.
This new generation of players is filled with individuals that don’t understand what it takes to be a part of a winning team. “Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”
Some of the things that the next generation needs to work on if they want any chance of succeeding when CS2 rolls around.
- Ego - Drop it. It’s toxic to yourself and everyone around you. It makes you not try as hard as you need to because you think you’ve already got it. It doesn’t allow you to take criticism which helps you improve. It gives you this sense of superiority and makes you think that you can disrespect other people. Guess what? While you’re sitting there feeding your ego and putting others down, a true winner is keeping their head down and working.
- Professionalism. It’s shocking to me to see the amount of teams that show up late to a scheduled practice, or cancel practice altogether because of petulance. Teams can’t hold it together anymore. You don’t respect each other’s time, or anybody else’s. Practice is already scarce, so you better make the best of every second of every scrim because you don’t know how many scrims you’ll be able to get per day.
- Trust. Teams are so quick to change players without giving each other a chance to improve. On the contrary, individuals also aren’t taking the chance to improve when given the chance. Build trust within your team and you’ll be able to build something that can last. Historically, the core of most top teams have been together for a year or more before starting to see results. Every single struggle you go through is an opportunity to grow as individuals and as a group. Only when someone has failed to improve after being given several warnings about the same persistent issues is when you should consider a change. This means speaking up and being open about what everyone needs to improve on. It means being patient and allowing the person to improve. It also means being humble, and taking that criticism in and using it as fuel to push yourself to become better.
I know that I haven’t been as open / approachable as I’d like to have been to the rest of my peers / the community. I’d like that to change. CS has been my passion for as long as I can remember and I’m not ready to let that passion go. I know what it takes to compete at the highest level and anyone that would like some advice / guidance is more than welcome to reach out. I’ve always been the kind of person that just keeps their head down and focuses entirely on their own team, but now that I have a bit of time while I look for a new team to compete with, I’ll pick my head up and offer some help to whoever would like some. I want nothing more than for NA CS to get back to where it once was. I’m glad that Liquid is doing NA proud and always being competitive on the international stage, but surely we can produce more than one competitive team from an entire continent.