Stewie2K responds to EVY in impassioned stream

Starting off the stream, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip stated his intention was to stick to topic and refute some of the points Paolo "EVY" Berbudeau made in his interview to 1vpr.fr. Despite the initial plan, the stream got quite emotional with Stewie2K making a number of claims about the team, his mentality, and his future in the hour-and-a-half-long stream. Dust2.us, in an effort to make a concise synopsis, has slightly edited some of the comments to improve clarity and reduce the repetition of some words.

I wrote down some points to remind myself, so I don’t go off-topic and talk about random shit. The fact that words are just taken from my throat… it's fucking disgusting. We’re going to chill a little bit before we get into it.

We aren’t here to talk shit, we are here to just touch on shit and talk about what happened and give context behind it because clearly this guy [puts mouse on EVY] had no… I don’t even remember having that many interactions with him or him being a part of having a tainted relationship. And like this is not for him to speak on. If it was chosen to be spoken on that's between me and maLeK because we know what happened.

“...we won a major we know how to do”

First of all, none of our mindsets were ever like that. I never thought that a coach is just a yes-man and a hype-man and is only there to help us. Whatever Tim’s [autimatic]- I don’t know if it evolved but whatever he says about the coach, like, I don’t think there is anything wrong with this statement. [referring to “my vision of a coach is a guy who doesn’t decide and assists.”] Maybe a little bit with “who doesn’t decide”. Valve designed the game to be that way, in a sense. You only really have 30-seconds to speak and you can really only say so much. But, I do agree with the part where he assists. I think a coach's job is to come in- For example if I’m going to come into Liquid as a coach, I’m going to see what Liquid has. I’m going to see, from my experience, what I can help them on. See what they’ve got, what they’re good at and paint the full picture in my head of what they are, who they are, areas that they need to work on, and point them out and try to help individuals.

Stewie2K then proceeds to talk about his vision of what a coach should be and how it should be helping the team.

“Hey Brehze, your A-site lurk is terrible, I have some suggestions for you, I saw NiKo do this, I saw this guy do this.” That’s how I think a coach should be and also a person that- As a coach, I feel like you want to be a person that the players want to come to you. They want to go out of their way to come to you for help, and no you throwing yourself on there all the time making it known that you’re available for help because we know you’re available for help but…yeah anyways. That’s what my vision of a coach is.

As the stream went on, Stewie2K began to address EVY's comments about his attitude, specifically when the former assistant coach described it as a "Red Flag" and decided that it was not okay. In what was an extremely mature response from the IGL, he acknowledged the criticism, but pushed back at the description and perception.

I’ll address it now and I’ll address it in the end. I know my attitude is not the best. I am a guy who does not like to lose. I will win in any other condition, I will do anything to win. Anyone who has been watching me, anyone who has played on my team knows that. They know that winning is everything to me. I do understand that my attitude does get in the way and at times when it is brought up I notice it and I know I have to work on it. Even though it has been with me throughout my entire career from the very beginning when I joined Cloud9 There are moments of good and bad and I think that comes with a lot of players; s1mple, NiKo is like that, but we are different in our own ways. But on this specific day, Day 2, we both lost our shit that day.

For a guy who knows attitude can get in the way, I am aware of my being in tilt and I’m aware of the effect it can have on my teammates. But after the second day, maLeK brought it up to me “Hey, it was not okay that you acted like this or said this.” I kid you not, as a person who knows I tilt, it's my first day there and I’m happy to be there and I’m happy to play with the guys. I kid you not, I did not know one thing I did wrong in terms of attitude and I wanted to start fresh with everything that happened the year before. We went on a 45-minute argument that went nowhere and it didn’t come to any understanding. maLeK insisted on showing me the review to see that it was wrong, it was really bad. It got to the point where I couldn’t see it and I had to ask my teammates.

This was the first indication of a real fracture between maLeK and Stewie2K, something as little as an argument over perceived attitude inside of the server. However, Stewie2K described how his teammates sided with him and did not see that issue as anything - that it was not even an issue at all.

There was no problem, I didn’t affect my teammates, and it couldn’t be accepted that it was ok. It put me in a state of mind where I felt super self-conscious that I did something wrong when I didn't feel like I did anything wrong.

At this point, Stewie2K pivots back to the second day of bootcamp and re-tells what is now colloquially known as "The Starbucks Incident".

After that argument maLeK wanted to go to Starbucks, “I don’t want to talk about CS, I want to talk about life, I want to talk about you.” Stewie declines, “he’s a total stranger for me and I’m not on his wavelength of doing that. I understand his intentions of having a healthly relationship and maLeK being in a coaching role, but I’m not ready to move at that speed. I don't know Cerq, I don't know Brehze, it's my first time meeting them and I believe that relationships need to be built organically. Especially with no history between anybody, it needs happen naturally and build over time." Stewie moved on to say that he understands maLeK reaching out about the Starbucks thing was an attempt to "mend what happened", but for Stewie, he just wanted to move on to CS and get back to what they were supposed to talk about. In the end, Stewie felt like he was being watched 24/7.

I am not blaming maLeK for that situation, I’m just talking about what happened in the beginning, the argument that led it onto the wrong foot. It shouldn’t have been an argument or a problem. The key thing is maLeK didn’t feel involved but I didn’t feel that was the case. We just couldn't move on from what happened that day.

Moving onto the topic of team-building, Stewie2K and maLeK had some contrasting ideas of how they wanted the team to play and their roles.

It became a problem because of the impatience, I feel like maLeK wanted to adopt the G2 system into Evil Geniuses and I wanted to bring pieces of Liquid. I’m sure they’re both good, I’m sure we can put both pieces together but at the same time this isn't G2 nor is it Liquid. We never shut down anything maLeK said.

Stewie notes the major differences at this time were about in-server time. Stewie wanted to be in the server more, while he felt maLeK wanted to spend more time theory-crafting than Stewie preferred. The conflict continued to spill over into some work time. There was a miscommunication between maLeK and Stewie, where the latter began watching VODs in an informal manner without the head coach.

After our first match, I pulled up the VOD, watching the game. It was not planned, nothing was organized. Anyone was welcome to join. Afterward I hear that maLeK felt he was left out and wasn’t involved. But, I never intentionally excluded him. He was welcome to come and interject and say his two cents. I did not go out of my way to exclude him or do anything malicious. Me having to worry about this is kind of tough. I want to be focused on the game and solely on the game.

The Steam Friend-Request Debacle:

One day maLeK sent me a friend request on Steam and I didn’t accept or decline it. The manager, Matt, told me he might have felt a type of way because I did not accept his friend request but it wasn’t even brought to my attention.

On the Stewie-maLeK “camps” that EVY brought up:

There was no Stewie camp. There was no maLeK camp.

General opinion on EVY in regards to the interview:

Everything he says is overexaggerated and I can’t agree.

One of the more attention-grabbing quotes from the EVY interview where he claimed that Stewie2K denied tactical breaks during matches.

I had to message maLeK to see if this was true. He said that it did happen in the first game. It was literally our official debut. I didn't do it out of malice. I just hit a wall.

Bringing up the clenched fist incident:

First off, all of my interactions with EVY were always friendly. I don’t remember a time I disrespected EVY, I had to go back and ask maLeK. He said yes, there was a time he just took it and was even walking up to your PC. I was unaware of any of that, so I asked him what I said.

maLeK informed him the cause of the incident was after EVY forgot to start the demo recorder, Stewie2K gave a “you had one job” joke that EVY did not take well.

The other scandalous accusation was that Stewie2K stopped calling in the middle of ESL Pro League Season 15, right in front of the organization's CEO. Stewie2K made sure to respond to this. He began talking about the struggles of preparing and touched on the accusation that he stopped calling.

The first month of bootcamp is the longest practice we ever had as a brand new five. No core, system, foundation, culture, nothing. Then we had to come back to America and complete our scrim obligations. We all know the state of NA and how beneficial it can be. For us, it hurts us because we are a brand new team. We have a lot to work on. This was our very first LAN. We go one week before EPL which is nothing. We can only prepare so much. I was literally in the room, they can't deny it, 10-12 hours a day trying to build something.

We got destroyed by every team in the beginning, and it was tough the first few games. Once we realized we couldn't make it out of groups, that's where, for me, tournament life is done. Now, I'm in reflection mode, thinking about everything that I've done, everything that went wrong. How I have led a team to not even being able to win a map. How everything just feels like shit, and I even get to a point in the match where I run into a brick wall. I don't know what to call, anyone can call, anyone can suggest anything, nothing that I am saying is working. Its such a new team, that if I call something complicated there is more room for error. There is just so much running through my head and I'm taking it all on me.

”If Stewie is still here, it's because contractually and financially speaking there’s something.”

Anybody that fucking knows me knows that I don’t play for any paycheck. I could be on the best team in the world and not get paid, I will still play. Winning at all costs is everything to me. The fact that this guy put these words in to his mouth shows he never even knew me.

”American game mentality” comment:

I hate how he generalizes us, we aren’t Liquid and we aren’t Complexity. Everyone is different, don’t generalize us.

On being a leader in a team that does not have one, and responding to apEX's comments:

One thing I learned is I’m not cut out to be a captain. Those things that apEX said for example, I’ve seen it. There’s a reason why I’m not talking about it. I know it, its the truth and I’m facing the truth. That’s how it is. I know I shouldn’t be IGL’ing and I know I shouldn’t be captain. Even after we failed at the RMR I told them ‘guys you should look into finding an IGL that can actually lead you, whether it's me in my natural role or me sidelined.’ I understand I might not have approached things the best way and that I could have done things better. But, the way things are being said devalues the team.

On EVY's comment about Stewie2K having a 0.55 rating vs top 5 teams:

The fact you even brought up my rating, don't you think I'm aware I suck? That I’m putting the team in front of me, worried about the other side of the map? The fact that we aren’t ready and I’m trying to focus on everything else BUT my game? I’m not blaming anyone for that, I took accountability for that after EPL. This doesn’t define what happened to me.

Regarding coaching changes:

On my life, I had nothing to do with the changes to the coaching staff. I didn’t even know it was happening. No one knew it was happening. Nobody. After we bombed out of the last qualifier, all maLeK tells us is there are possible changes, there's an evaluation and we went on a break. The break is still now. All of the sudden, we are notified about “Blueprint” and the release of EVY. That’s all. We all were notified on the same day. Everything he knew is as much as I knew or anyone else on the team knew. I don’t know what game he is playing in his head that somehow I had something to do with, I had some type of involvement. No, I didn't say anything.

As a matter of fact, after everything that happened, I reached out to Damien (maLeK) to apologize for everything. Understanding I had the wrong approach, I could have treated him with more respect. I apologized and understood that if I had the experience I would have approached it a different way. I wish I could have done things differently but it already happened.

Talking with maLeK about the situation moving forward I knew my name would be talked about being removed. I know what I did wrong. In the end, as I said I know I’m not made to be a captain. I can’t do it. I know it would be nice to have a FalleN or a gla1ve around. Anyone around that can actually lead that is reputable.

Stewie2K states he and maLeK spoke prior to the changes about “starting fresh” with one another and agreeing they could make something together if they tried, but understood changes were still possible.

After reading all of this, when the relationship between me and EVY was never even like this. It shows he really came out of his way to- like it's all me. All of it is on me, and it's like, you don't think I know that? You think I don’t know I failed the project? You think I don’t know I failed being a captain? You think I don’t know that? I’m sorry to all the fans that had to watch our results this year. We couldn’t win a map.

In the end, I know I fucked up and my attitude and everything I’m aware of. I wish I could have done better, everything.

As Stewie said, the team is still on break with their next potential tournament, for now, being the BLAST Premier Fall Groups in mid-August. If the organization opts to send another roster, then the following event is ESL Pro League Season 16, running from the end of August to the start of October.