Asim, Assault, And Silly: How Minnesota RØKKR Can Exceed Expectations
If one team had to throw caution to the wind ahead of the Call of Duty League World Championships, it was the Minnesota RØKKR. With an impressive start to the season, the roster of Alex "Alexx" Carpenter, Obaid "Asim" Asim, Adam "Assault" Garcia, Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer, and Adam "GodRx" Brown were looking as outside favourites to be world champions, rivalling teams such as Atlanta FaZe and Dallas Empire.
Back to back wins at Launch Weekend followed by three solid home series performances, reaching a semi-final and two consecutive finals, the RØKKR found themselves firmly poised in the top four. They were proving to be one of the best in the league, coming ever so close to a LAN event win.
However, the expectations were met with unfulfillment, as the global pandemic forced the league to remain online for the rest of the year. Despite their second final coming in the first online event at the Dallas Home Series, the wheels quickly fell off the bus and Minnesota struggled to keep up with the pace of online play, picking up just 10 points in their final four events.
Going into the World Championships, the RØKKR sent shockwaves through the CDL community, benching GodRx, and bringing in the unproven Kaden "Exceed" Stockdale. GodRx, who started as arguably Minnesota's best player and discussed within the top four players in the league whilst at LAN, had struggled more than most in the switch to online, forcing Exceed to step in for his RØKKR debut at the biggest event in Call of Duty history.
We caught up with Asim, Assault, and Silly in a press conference before their World Championship voyage, discussing their aims for the event and how their brand-new roster is the best they've had all year.
Click to enlarge- Read More - Is The Skyz The Limit For The Florida Mutineers?
Opening Statements on the thoughts ahead of the Call of Duty League World Championships:
Adam "Assault" Garcia: I'm really excited for this weekend. I feel like the team has been preparing really hard for champs. The team's probably looking like the best it has done all year in practices so we're excited to show off our talents this weekend.
Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer: I definitely agree with him [Assault] on that front. Statistically, in practice, we're the best we have been all year. A lot of things that I have consistently been seeing us doing wrong have patched up, and i feel like we have gotten better at all three game modes across the board.
Obaid "Asim" Asim: I'm excited to showcase exceed with the new roster we've got going on because I know a lot of people didn't agree with the roster move.
I'm just ready to shock the world.
- Obaid "Asim" Asim
You guys haven't had the best of records against New York, so what's your game plan this time to make sure that you come away with the win?
Adam "Assault" Garcia: We have a game plan for them, but we're not going to go in-depth to counteract their play style. We're going to play our own game and do what we've been doing in practice.
Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer: Our record against any team in the past few events isn't going to be good, but that's pretty much why we tried to rehaul things and rehaul our entire playstyle and add another player to our line up. We'll be more prepared for them than we have been for any team all year.
Obaid "Asim" Asim: For New York, we've only played against them once, and that was with our old team. So I think this time around with the new roster we're going to be playing to our strengths and not playing to counter their strengths. I think if we play our game we'll come out with the dub.
[To Assault and Silly] How do you feel that your success in 2018 World Champions will fare this year? Do you feel that it will give you the experience to make it over the line this year?
Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer: Today [August 19] marks exactly two years since we won, I've seen some pictures today that has motivated me to want to win again. our experience of getting through a gauntlet bracket like that is definitely going to help us. I was looking up the stats from World War Two champs, and technically our seed is better and we technically have a higher chance of winning this year than we did back then, so that definitely keeps me motivated and really makes me think we can take this one as well.
Click to enlarge[To Asim] You’re in search of your first Major win since CWL Fort Worth Open back in 2019 with FaZe Clan Black, how much would it mean to you to win this year, and will the excitement spill over to nerves at all?
Obaid "Asim" Asim: Yeah I'm super excited. I'm looking forward to my first win. I feel like I've come close many times this year, especially over last year. I feel like champs is the best thing to win, so if ever there was a tournament to get my first win it would definitely be champs. I'm super excited.
[To Asim] In the introduction you briefly touched on the fact that you wanted to prove yourself to everyone, so what can we expect of you in the Playoffs?
Obaid "Asim" Asim: Leading up to this year, I wasn't a very established player, so I was really looking at this year to prove myself to everyone. With how our new team is playing, it's really helped with me being explosives and being able to take over maps, so hopefully, at champs, I can take over series and play as explosive as I know I can.
You touched on the roster change before between GodRx and Exceed. Many have only caught glimpses of Exceeds gameplay from back in Black Ops 4 at Sicario, How different is Exceed from GodRx and what does he add to the team?
Adam "Assault" Garcia: Exceed and GodRx are two completely different players. Exceed plays a very fast and sub-orientated role, whereas Jerome [GodRx] is a more of a slower assault rifle player. That's what we were lacking within our team, pace, so to bring exceed in helps a lot and we'll showcase that this weekend.
Obaid "Asim" Asim: Yeah I think that with the speed on our team I felt that with GodRx we had too many assault rifle orientated players on our team and I feel like we were one of the slowest teams in the CDL so with Exceed he's brought us a lot of speed. That's what he specialises in, so to answer your question, speed is what he brings to the team and I really think that's helped us a lot.
Click to enlargeYou guys spoke about how you're having the best practices that you have had all season, in your experience, how much does that translate to officials, and have you had a chance to practice against New York at all?
Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer: Going into a tournament, most of the Call of Duty teams don't practice against the team that they play in the first round. it's just always been a thing. As far as practice transitioning over, I feel like our biggest issue was playing differently in tournaments. even if our practice is going great it doesn't always mean that it will transition over, but this is the most confident I have ever been that it will do.
You have a mix of experience and inexperienced players on the roster at the moment, how much will the mentality of each individual play a part? Will we see players such as Exceed crumble under the pressure or will you focus up and stay confident as a squad?
Adam "Assault" Garcia: Touching on Exceed, I don't think he'll crumble under any pressure. I played him last year in the open bracket, so I've seen what he can do and he has great potential, so I'm not worried about him crumbling under pressure or anything like that. I know he's going to perform.
Obaid "Asim" Asim: To answer your focus up and stay confident question, in terms of the preparation for the World Champs, I think Assualt and Silly have really helped us up the tempo and focus up in ways that us younger players like myself Alexx and Exceed don't really know how to. Like little things in practising and hours of work that we put into the game every day, they really focus on making sure we polish our game so that it can transition over the official games.
How far do you think you can go at World Champs? Do you think you can win it?
Justin "Silly" Fargo-Palmer: I absolutely think we can win it. We're kind of seeing glimpses of our EG team [Evill Geniuses, the 2018 World Championship winning roster] right before champs. We're winning a lot of our scrims, you know, we're blowing many teams out in map count on scrims. We're feeling really confident, the most confident we've felt all year, more than when we were all on LAN. I think it's anybody's game, especially with the online switch, any team could win it but I think it's going to be us.
Obaid "Asim" Asim: I think with how well our practices have been going, I think the minimum we can go is at least top four. When it comes to the top four it comes down to very minor things to win the maps.I think right now we're looking really good, so I don't expect anything less than a top-four, and I'm really looking forward to playing the top-four teams and try and win champs.
I think if we can clutch up in the top four then we can easily win this tournament
- Obaid "Asim" Asim
The Minnesota RØKKR kick off their World Championships run against the New York Subliners tonight (August 20, 9:30pm BST/ 3:30pm EST), in the Winners Round 1. The winners will advance to play Chicago Huntsmen in Round 2, with the loser dipping into the elimination bracket versus OpTic Gaming Los Angeles. London Royal Ravens will take on Toronto Ultra in the only other match of the night, looking to set up a run of their own at 8pm BST.
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Image via Minnesota RØKKR
