G2's AmaNEk On Increased Roster Sizes, Playing With NiKo, And Facing FURIA
The upcoming week for G2 Esport's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) promises to be exciting. Not only will the team get to play with their new hire Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, they will also be facing off against the Brazilians of FURIA, who have made the journey over and will be competing for the first time against European times since the global pandemic had erected virtual walls between the European and North American CS:GO scenes.
GGRecon sat down with François "AmaNEk" Delaunay to talk about the challenges of professional play in 2020, teaming up with NiKo, the recent trends of teams to add substitutes, their upcoming match against FURIA, and more.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The hardships of playing Counter-Strike are talked about by a lot of professionals - a lot of games, not in front of live audiences. How are your spirits right now?
It’s okay. We come from a lot of matches online, we had a couple of boot camps in the last four of five months. For the moment, it’s really difficult to find your own feelings playing online. It’s really difficult but we’re still going [to pull] through and we are finding a way.
One of the ways some teams have tried to solve those struggles coming with the grind is to increase roster sizes. Do you think substitutions are the future of Counter-Strike going forward?
I think it might be the future short term, but long term I don’t think so. I think long term it will be five-man rosters like it’s always been.
Can you explain why? When you say “long term”, do you mean when the world opens up again or earlier?
For me, it should be five-man playing every match. I think it’s difficult to have six players synchronised to play six different maps, to find routines, to find things for players to attach to in terms of how they play the rounds, and find consistency. For me, it’s important to stick together as five and not to have six men switching every time, every tournament, now even every match. It’s really difficult to find the consistency.
We’re meeting at an interesting time. Tomorrow the first match with NiKo will supposedly happen. Do you think a lot has to change for you guys in terms of roles?
It doesn’t change much in terms of role for me. Just on T-side in some rounds, I will do the entry role like [Audric "JaCkz" Jug] was doing in the past. Nothing different from when I was playing with the old line-up.
Are you more in the trial and error phase or are these things already decided? Do you think there’s still room for changes strategically, or do you feel confident with what you have right now?
There’s always some room for changes. The coach decided to have a test period. He’s not sure about which player will fit the most for the future. He’s testing some line-ups in the next weeks. He’ll make some changes. He just wants the best line-up for 2021, that’s it.
How is practice going so far?
Our practice is going well actually. I hope we will show it in the official.
You mentioned the 2021 season. Are you guys looking more towards the future or are you also focused on the short term?
On the short term, we aren’t putting a lot of focus on theory. We are trying to find our chemistry, how to communicate with each other, find solutions, just playing in a natural sense and not overthinking much. Just play and see.
There’s another reason why the match tomorrow is interesting - FURIA are playing in Europe for the first time. What are you expecting from them?
I think they will play their game style like they always do, something aggressive, something cool to watch. I think they will do well in Europe because from what I see they can adapt to the teams they play. They are not stupid, they are still all smart players. I think they will bring a fight to every team they will meet. I think they will do well in Europe for sure.
You're not exactly being eased in as you'll likely face Astralis next if you beat FURIA tomorrow. Can we already expect miracles out of your team this early?
I think we can honestly put up a fight against them like we always did. Although, we have to take revenge for the two games. We are still learning from them and I feel like we can have close matches in the next weeks.
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