This article is part of our Game Side series.
Just before he would cast the Grand Finals of ECS Season 2, RotoWire got a chance to sit down with James Bardolph and get his thoughts on the state of the Counter-Strike scene and more.
First off, I've been loving the interview packages that you guys have been doing for this tournament all weekend.
[laughs] "I haven't even watched this yet!"
I especially like the one that you did at the children's hospitals with the SpecialEffect charity. How did that one come about?
"We did a charity event. It's really hard to know because we've moved it so many times. I think it was at the beginning of this year. It's been a really long year. We did a fundraiser for this charity, basically. They make games more accessible for people. But then we went to their offices a couple weeks ago and saw how they allowed these people to play the games. The guy that was in the video, he found that charity by watching one of our streams, and now he does work at the charity. So that's really awesome."
I like the fact that eSports is starting to get into these charities much more since we have such a big viewership to get the message out there. Do you see the relationship between eSports and charities picking up down the line?
"I think there's a lot of work we can do, and it's easy work in terms of viewership and so on. It was a relevant charity as well. This allows people to do the same thing that we do, so it's very easy for the fans to get behind. It motivates them to get involved. Even watching [these video packages], people have been tweeting us and have been donating and you know, getting involved. That's brilliant. That's exactly what we want."
Looking more specifically at this event, how do you like the level of competition between the teams this weekend?
"I think it's great that we're seeing a resurgence of teams who used to be very strong such as Astralis. They won two of [ECS'] three finals last year and now they find themselves in the finals against the same team once again. They've got a chance at revenge. That's a great story. We [also] saw a rise from Cloud9 in the last few months; they've cooled off a bit, but now we have OpTic [Gaming] coming in there, as well. And again, considering the audience in North America, it's important that North American viewers and fans have strong teams to watch, to love, to aspire to. There was a huge following for Cloud9 [here] yesterday, but as OpTic is the last team flying the flag, a lot of those guys are supporting them and that's important. Everyone has people to look up to; stars on the team, such as Tarik "tarik" Celik - he's a really awesome guy. So that's fantastic for the region. And it's great to bring finals around the world."
In terms of the NA vs. EU debate, do you see NA closing that gap in a big way? Or is it more incremental?
"The thing is, if you ask that when one team in North America is playing good, then that's not really enough. You can't have North America on one team's back. In a way, you kind of have Brazil on SK [Gaming]'s back, but I don't think that's necessarily comparable considering all the opportunities that are available in North America. If you have Cloud9 and OpTic as very dangerous teams, then you start to get on the right track. With roster changes to come early next year, there is potential for more strong teams. Although we have to see how that turns out. Those are the key elements to a strong NA vs. EU."
Looking at roster changes, what do you think of the ones that happened this week with SK? Was this the right time to make those moves?
"It's impossible for anyone outside of the team to decide or judge when the right time to change the team is depending on what's going on inside the team. But it's clear that they've had colossal issues. Even when you're adding a permanent player, there's a lot of problems in teams because if that player is used to playing, say, the B-bombsite on Overpass, but he's replacing a player that plays A-site on Overpass and the team is unwilling to change up those positions, then he has to play outside his comfort zone. That's with a permanent one, even a temporary one [can have issues]. [Ricardo "fox" Pacheco] (stand-in for SK Gaming) is an AWPer through and through. That makes it even more difficult for SK. So it's a really hard replacement for them. You can see the results of that as they just got stomped by Astralis [in the semifinals]. In a short period of time, they did the best they could, but it's really weird because they essentially have two and a half AWPers on the team now. [Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo] is not the kind of AWPer you can replace, stylistically. No one plays like him, and he's the primary AWPer for the team. You could argue that maybe they should have had fox primarily AWPing, but hindsight is 20-20, right? And fox is not someone who plays on Overpass, so this has been a very funky tournament for SK. But going forward into the [ELEAGUE] Major, as well, they've just got so many AWPers on their team. At least [Marcelo "coldzera" David] can stay on the rifle, but it's less than ideal to say the least."
Looking at the grand finals matchup, what is it that makes OpTic so good? Is there one thing in particular that makes them so strong lately?
"If I had to pick one thing, I'd say that they don't play a passive CT-side. It's almost like they're playing poker against their opponent. They're trying to put their minds into the head of their opponent. What is our opponent expecting from us in a situation? Such as 'Oh, they don't expect us to push B tunnel,' for example. So they'll exploit that. So they're playing against what's almost a gentleman's agreement in the fact that 'you should be doing this and playing within these parameters.' So they'll exploit that and go way beyond those parameters. That's something we saw from G2 [Esports], as well, especially when they won at the ECS Season 1 Final. So that kind of playstyle is really exciting to watch, but if you can do it right, as well, and pick the right times to do it, then you can have a lot of success, as we've seen from them. When they played Astralis earlier in this tournament, maybe that wasn't the right time. But that bodes well for the finals."
Looking at Astralis, what is that has contributed to their resurgence?
"I think, you see these interviews from [Finn "karrigan" Andersen] and he says that the team didn't believe in his calling, and if a team doesn't believe in the caller, then you've got serious problems. He's moved on and had success, which is great. I'm a big fan of karrigan. But [Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander] coming in, a fresh approach to the game, is maybe what the team needs. We'll see if it lasts in the long-term; I hope it does. You've got people like [Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth], ever dependable. [Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz], as well, [is] playing out of his mind. He just did an ace in the pistol round with two knife kills. That is quite absurd. I've never seen that before. Maybe it's a fresh pair of hands that has done the job for them, but it's working well. gla1ve is fragging well, as well. karrigan was fragging well last year, as well. He was the in-game leader and he'd be topping the scoreboard with an AWP in some of the finals that [ECS] had. He fell off a bit in that team in the past six to nine months, so I think that the change has gone very well for them."
Finally, what's your prediction for the final?
"Two-ish weeks ago, I thought that Astralis were my favorite to win the tournament. But OpTic are playing so well, that it's going to be quite the clash of pawns. I'm going to stick with my original prediction, but really I think it's 50-50."
