JazzPimp on the NA scene: "It can still grow a lot, but it really needs that help"

After Nouns' RMR journey came to an end with a tough loss against Imperial, Dust2.us' Dafydd Gwynn caught up with Nouns rifler Dominick "JazzPimp" Dimpfel to discuss the state of the NA scene, the experience of playing against legendary players and what the team plans to take back with them from their EU trip.

This is a hard loss for you guys. How happy are you with the overall performance that you've had at this event?

I would say we are decently happy. We were able to beat O PLANO and brought Imperial pretty close, these guys are legends so it's cool. But I wouldn't say we are happy because we wanted to make it, obviously. We actually had a chance, if we beat Imperial we have two more BO3s and we had plenty of practice on them from just this tournament. We could have done something.

In that first map you had the lead and you lost it in overtime. That's the second day in a row that has happened. What was the team talk about after that map, how did you try to get yourselves out of that mentality and prepare yourself for the second map?

The team morale was pretty low after that. It was 15-8, we had a lot of winnable rounds that we just didn't win. We had to say that map doesn't matter, it has already happened, and the result happened. I told everybody that and I said we needed to focus on Overpass, and we have another map on Vertigo once we win that. I think most of us reset pretty well.

You mentioned playing against legends. How does it feel to be on the same server as FalleN and all these guys?

I'm glad I got to play them because before they were picked up by Imperial, their name was Last Dance and I think they made this team to play this major, who knows if there will be another chance to play them? If this was the last time, it was awesome to get the opportunity to play against them, for sure.

When you guys get back, what is the biggest thing you guys want to work on as a team?

I think the biggest thing we need to work on is keeping our heads in when we lose a few rounds. If we lose a few rounds in a row that maybe we shouldn't win we start making more rash decisions and we need to bring down the rash a little bit.

Would you say the mental game is your biggest weakness at the moment?

Our mental game is weak but we just don't have enough substance to what we are doing to back up when we are feeling tilted. We just need more protocols, that's for sure.

As you mentioned before this is quite a good experience for you guys, now you're gonna go back to NA what are the hopes, what are the expectations?

The hopes are we go back to play ECL playoffs, win playoffs and get to go to Conference. I mean we have the experience from this LAN. Unfortunately, we are going to play online (laughs), which is not fun at all, it's way worse. But I mean, we can take a little bit of info from every game we played and watch the demos. We will definitely improve a lot.

What's the biggest thing from bootcamping here that you are going to take back with you?

Using our time more wisely for scrims. We definitely scrimmed a lot during our Bootcamp and we learned how European teams scrimmed. Obviously, it's better than how North American teams scrim because North American teams are just inexperienced back home. They use their time more wisely, try more things and they take breaks so they can actually analyze their scrims. I think that's pretty key, we need to analyze what we are doing instead of just doing it over and over.

You guys have had SEMPHIS as a coach, I had a chance to speak to him earlier in the event and one of the things he said to me was that his job isn't just in the server. It's about bringing you guys together outside of the server, how good has he been at that, and what's that experience been like?

SEMPHIS has been a fantastic coach. He's really good strategically in the server he puts in a lot of work, watching demos or counter-stratting and prepping for other teams. Outside of the server, he's got the experience of playing at huge events and he can tell when people are getting tilted. He's really good at trying to calm everyone down and get their heads back like the 3-12 against O PLANO.

Talking about jeorge, he went crazy for you in that first map. His statistics at this event are much higher than they have been before, he put up a 1.21 rating at this event. How important is it to have a player that can have that impact, is it a silver lining to see him be able to pop off at this event?

It definitely feels good to have someone who can pop off like that. Knowing that he is going to get that 2k or whatever is pretty good, it's easy on the mind. so it's pretty useful.

How do you take that form and make sure he can replicate it in the states?

I think he is going to come back with a lot of confidence, so I don't think it will be a problem for him to replicate it.

That's all the questions I have, is there anything you want to talk about or say?

I wish people in NA could be a bit better about practice and use everyone's time better. They aren't just using their time they are using our time as well.

Is there anything that a tournament organizer or a gentleman's agreement could do to help shape the way scrims are done better?

I think TOs could possibly help with scrims...I mean they couldn't help with scrims but they could help with like, FACEIT could add cash cups to the week and cash cups are a decent way for teams to get exposure. Or ESEA could up the prize pool by like 5k, then we get the better teams to play in the cash cups. There's not much incentive for FURIA, Complexity, or Liquid to play in NA. Pretty much we just need more NA-based events, like we used to have ESEA LAN finals, ESL Pro League, Flashpoint, ECS, and now we just have like nothing. Besides ECL and the occasional qualifier. It's just really hard to grow, it's like NA is already a dead horse and everybody's just beating it constantly. Which makes sense like EU is bigger and has a larger player base but NA is just sitting there in the shadow. It can still grow a lot but it really needs that help.

You just reminded me of another question, the NA scene isn't in the best state but it's great when a team like Nouns makes it to these LANs. did you feel the scene was behind you?

The NA scene was definitely behind us. People didn't think we would do well, because we are still a new team. We are an ECL team in NA, people thought we would go 0-3 or 1-3 so being able to go 2-3 and have people like messaging me and showing support is pretty cool.