TaZ: "In Valve I trust"

We caught up with Virtus.pro's Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas to talk about the upcoming major, DreamHack Winter, set to kick off in two day's time.

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas's Virtus.pro have been increasingly inconsistent lately, though having to use a stand-in at a number of events has definitely played a part in their struggles.

With nearly four months having passed since their last international win at Gfinity 3, the Poles hope to return to the podium in Jönköping, and repeat their championship run from Katowice.

TaZ had a couple of things to say ahead of DreamHack Winter 

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?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: It feels like we have a few options in our game at the moment. I wanted us to be more flexible in our play, and it's looking promising, obviously all will come down to proper execution. We didn’t change too much in our “style”, main focus is: Don’t lose enemy eco rounds, or win more ecos than them! = win. Bootcamp is really nice, IOS changed for better during these couple of years, it was really great move from Valve to allow all the teams practice like that, keep it up boys!

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.

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: That’s a very hard question. I would love to have higher prizes for Valve tournaments, no doubt, but I think that we need to respect what their company wants, and what plan they have. Next thing is, if capsules pay good money for teams which qualified, it still does its job = tons of young players motivated to play the game and go to one of these big events. On the other hand I bet Valve is already planning some Daddy of Majors event.

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?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: I don’t really know what to think about our group… I think we hold a bit of an advantage over other teams, not only in map pool, or seeding. We were training a lot lately, we let down many people during ESL Cologne, I want us back in the final. I want us back to crushing other teams. Na’Vi is always an interesting opponent, seems like this time they want to prepare nuke and play some games on it, we are open for this scenario, and we are not afraid of them. As for Flipsid3 and myXMX, they are underdogs, but we are going 100% hot into games agains such teams. If you let young skilled players take a couple of rounds from you, they are capable of taking the map… and well, groupstage = BO1.

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?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: I love the system they have in Dota2 – The International. That would be just sick if possible. First 2 big groups of 8 teams… Each team plays others 2 times… I know that I’m probably dreaming here. There is no perfect way to improve the qualification system… Game is still evolving, and cheating is hard to stop... As for DDoS, I think that Valve will fix some things so it won’t be possible to get your IP via Steam, and then just fix Skype IP and you are good to go?

Could Virtus.pro do it again? 

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?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: CZ-75 should be nerfed/moved to SMG. At the moment it just makes certain players deadly at range… And even more dangerous in close range combats, you just type kill :D. On the other hand it makes teams try harder on eco rounds, makes game more interesting, obviously more stressful … But you need to work better as a team, as one mistake, one misstep can cost you a round.

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?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: We are here to win. Teams that will have good showing – NiP, LDLC, iBUYPOWER. I also want ESC to play some good games, they actually helped us a lot on Cobblestone, so we finally can have some sexy games on it!

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 weren’t caught, yet?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: I would never imagined that you can cheat on LAN. I’m in shock that nobody recognized such people earlier, by the size of their balls… I don’t know if these players cheated, but I hate these shitty statements, at least they could make it interesting by saying the truth, still we all know that they couldn’t say all, because it could just destroy reputation of whole organization and its results, even more. I saw so many strange videos lately, that it feels like I should say – hell yeah there must be more, but I won’t. I hope we will catch all pro-cheaters, but witch hunts are not the best idea, maybe there are some kinds with weak minds, and are clean, and won’t handle the situation/pressure, respect until proven guilty? In Valve I trust. (god dammit… Valve I BELIEVE)

Your team has had to use a stand-in at a number of recent events now. How has that affected your team, if in any way?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: I hope that in future we won’t need to use a stand-in so often, it is bad for a team and also for organization, from results stand point. Funny thing is that as a player I love to play with a stand-in, as I can just go back to my old style of play. Still results are the first priority, statistics and all this fame is for nothing when you are not winning.

Since the win at G3 your team has seemingly gone back to relative inconsistency, where you can’t get great games from multiple players at once, as you did when winning there or in Katowice. Can you think of any reasons that have hurt your performance?

Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas: Yes, lack of effort, lack of work ethic, and other teams getting better. We are working on fixing these issues, but there is no sense in hiding what is our problem, as I like to be open and it’s funny in some way. I still believe that this lineup will become a unstoppable force when we finally learn to use all of our assets, and work hard.

TaZ's Virtus.pro will begin their campaign towards another major championship on Thursday, when they will take on the Danish myXMG squad in the group D opener.

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