bLacKpoisoN: "We feel prepared"

We sat down with Bravado's Robby "bLacKpoisoN" Da Loca to talk about the South African squad's outlook and preparation for DreamHack Winter.

Without a doubt the largest question mark of the tournament in terms of prior play and exposure, Bravado will be looking to make a strong debut at the fourth CS:GO major. Their showing will be the first time that a South African team attends a CS:GO major.

Bravado were last seen in October, taking down fellow countymen from In-Finity to win the Telkom Gaming CS:GO Championship. We talked with one of their players, Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo, to get a read on the team.

Can Bravado surprise everyone and reshape the global nature of CS:GO? 

How well prepared do you feel for DreamHack? Did you change a lot of things in how you play or simply focus on refining your current style? Will you be taking part in the official Inferno Online bootcamp, considering the problems having all teams on-site might bring?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: We feel prepared. We have been doing a ton of work over the last week at the Inferno Online Bootcamp in Stockholm. A lot of bootcamping was also done in South Africa. Our game style is basically the same with a bit of adjustments against the teams in our group. A big thanks to Valve for giving us the opportunity to bootcamp at Inferno Online with most of the teams that will be participating in DreamHack Winter 2014.

What’s your stance on the stickers? Were you surprised at how much money teams made from them for ESL One Cologne? Do you think more of the money should be allocated towards prizes? As things stand, the Legends capsule pays (per Cologne) more than winning the event.

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: We are actually very happy to have our team sticker on the market. I actually had a chat with n0thing from Cloud9 and he mentioned a few teams made some nice cash from the stickers (I don't want to mention numbers :P). I think the way it is right now is actually perfect, because Valve are taking great care of the competitive scene and are funding teams off these stickers.

How do you expect your group to play out? Can you talk about each of the teams in your group in detail, what you expect from your potential match-up against each of them, and how do you expect to fare?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: It is pretty diffucult to answer this question as we have never played any of these teams before,  nor have we been to a major like this. We do have a very tough group but we have been practicing very hard non stop so we are ready to surprise! Each and every one of us will be ready on the day.

Our recent article “Major problems” brought up multiple issues such as the online qualifiers (cheating, DDoS), inconsistent format (best-of-one groups) with very few matches, etc. What is your stance on the qualification system and the tournament format? How would you like to improve the majors?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: With regarding to the cheating I just hope Valve dig deep and catch all the others players that are cheating. It is disgusting to see professional players getting VAC banned for cheating but that's their choice :). DDoS'ing is a big issue also but I feel, if players don't want to get DDoS'd, they can also protect themselves by closing all chat programs and going offline in Steam Friends. With regards to server DDoS'ing, maybe just try and hide the server IP from the public. Best of 1 is not an issue for us which means that we only have 1 chance.

Another big issue for debate right now is the CZ-75. Suggestions for it have ranged from altering its rate of fire and damage, to even making it an SMG while upping its price. Do you think it should be changed, and if so, how would you recommend Valve do it?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: The CZ-75 is a very powerful gun. I feel that the weapon just needs to be nerfed a bit more. The great thing about Valve is that they take care of the competitive scene and that they listen to the community, so sooner or later something will happen.

Obviously going into the event the favorites are fnatic and LDLC, but so far the favorites have never won a major. Is there someone else who you think could surprise us and win it all? Who do you expect to place in the top four?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: I must say, we have been scrimming against most of the teams here at Inferno Online, but personally I think that iBUYPOWER will surprise a lot of teams at this major. Maikelele is also the new 5th in NiP so I'm really keen to see how this major is going to go.

What do you make of this cheating scandal? Were you surprised players might have been cheating at tournaments, or did you expect it? Do you believe the players caught cheated in LAN tournaments, and do you believe more players cheated who simply haven’t been caught, yet?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: I was surprised that players were cheating at tournaments and I was also very shocked to see that good/professional players were cheating, but like I mentioned before, I hope Valve update their VAC system frequently and catch all the hackers. There have been also politics about Flusha, but I cannot say much as it is Valve's choice to look into those replays/vods. The videos that I saw were very suspicious but I really don't want to get involved.

The average fan doesn’t know much about your team - can you give us a quick rundown of your roster, explaining the roles and playing styles of each player to give us an idea of what to expect from your team?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: Bravado Gaming's CS lineup consists of the following: 

Andreas "⁠cent⁠" Hadjipaschali	Captain/Awper
Richard "⁠deviaNt⁠" Groves	Fragger/Carry
Dimitri "⁠Detrony⁠" Hadjipaschali	Entry Fragger/Carry
Dane "⁠racno⁠" Friedman	Support
Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo	Entry Fragger/Carry

You’re obviously largely isolated from the competitive scene, but get to at least bootcamp for the six days at Inferno Online. Have you hired anyone to help you as a coach or taken any additional measures to ensure you’ll be ready in time for DH?

Roberto "⁠blackpoisoN⁠" Dall'Occo: It is really sad and heartbreaking that we are isolated from the compeitive scene but getting an invite to DreamHack Winter 2014 was a great achievement for us. I must say this major is very organized and we are all really impressed. The accomodation, transportation and bootcamping have been amazing. Being able to spend time with these great players in different regions is a once in a life time opportunity for us and we feel as grateful for every moment. The Inferno Online Boot Camp was such a smart idea and this helped us improve our gameplay much more. We do feel that we will be ready. We have played some teams and we have had some really close games so we are looking forward to DreamHack.

Bravado's first match-up will see them facing off against the ESL One Cologne finalists of fnatic. Their group also features Cloud9 and HellRaisers.

Andreas 'cent' Hadjipaschali Age: 27 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.65 Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo Age: 22 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.70 Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali Age: 24 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 1.25 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.64 Richard 'deviaNt' Groves Age: 26 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.63 Dane 'racno' Friedman Age: 27 Team: Bravado Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63