di^: "We wanted new, fresh blood"

CLG narrowly escaped Group E, after two close 16-14 maps against Frigid in the decider match, avenging their earlier loss.

You’ve been to a couple Fragadelphia events before, but in general don’t get to LAN too often.  What do you think of the LAN experience in general?

Whenever we go to Frag or an LAN, it is really exciting, this game wouldn’t be anything without LAN. Brings brings out a whole new aspect where you are playing people right in front of you.

You’re one of the few females to recently play in a mixed-gender team at a high level, standing-in for Muffin Lighting at the ESEA Global Challenge.

It was totally last minute, they told me their fifth (arkimonday) might be dodging, I didn’t think anything of it because “Who would dodge LAN?”.  It was a really good experience, I had never played on such a high-level team.

What differences did you notice between playing with them and your team?

They were a Premier team, so their skill level was way higher. They definitely have better comms, and took things more slowly than we do [in CLG Red].

What is your view on the female scene being somewhat separate from the male scene?

I think female tournaments are still a great thing, they are definitely a motivation for other females to come out of hiding and play. I think it shouldn’t be taken so negatively, the female to male ratio in CS:GO is definitely low, so I think it is awesome that we get female tournaments.

You recently replaced long-time member missharvey and klaudia with relative unknowns emy and refinnej. What caused this and how did you find the new players?

Klaudia and missharvey were both awesome teammates, it just didn’t work out because klaudia couldn’t come to LANs and we saw things differently than Steph.  It came down to the fact that we wanted new players, new, fresh blood.  When you get new people, new ideas come into play.  It was really awesome that we got to pick up Jenn and Emy, who we got from ESEA.  We gave them a trial, and we ended up liking them.

This is the second LAN with the new players, have you seen improvement from them and the team?

I think they are both playing way better, they just need those nerves shaken off. I feel like even when I go to LAN, before the first game, the nerves still get to you. For them to be playing this well at their second LAN is honestly amazing. They are still getting used to the LAN environment, but they are improving and I see so much progress from them.

You also brought in a coach, cubed, what impact has he had on the team?

Our team struggles with live help, so he helps us make adjustments. He also goes through demos with us and points our mistakes. He’s basically giving us solutions to fix our misplays.