autimatic: "I've had a lot of room to play the way that I like"

Following the interview with Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott, Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with Major-winner Timothy "autimatic" Ta prior to the start of BLAST Premier Fall Groups. The two talked about his permanence with the organization despite the core of the roster, his time adjusting with his new teammates, and how the bootcamp went.

You are the only member left from the previous EG lineup. What does that mean to you?

I don't know what that means, honestly, why I'm still here. I think that it just means that they have faith in me and that they still believe in me as a player, and that's why I'm still here.

You are the only player from the previous line-up that would always stay with the new one, regardless of the EU or NA core. Does that make you feel like you have to take the leadership of the roster?

I don't necessarily feel like I need to do that right now, just because it's not really my role. On this team, we have Walco who was leading the team beforehand, and we have Axed who is coaching the team, and those are the guys who are leading it. I'm just trying to give my best to do my job and to do it well.

Regarding roles, on paper, EG Black joined you, but how does that translate to the server? Are you having to adjust your playstyle and roles to fit their own?

No, I think they actually gave me a lot of positions that I was playing before. Some positions I switched because I wanted to try and because it made sense, but overall they have been really accommodating to me and I've had a lot of room to play the way that I like.

HexT and junior have already had tier one experience, but that didn't go as they wanted. What can you say about them? And what can you say about Jeorge and Walco who don't have tier one experience yet?

I think for junior it's hard for me to say, because I've been playing with him for maybe two weeks now. I'm still waiting to see what happens, but for HexT I think that he just needed some time and that's something that, unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of in tier one CS. I think he had a little bit over six months in the main team, but you need more than that. I think this time around it will be different because he had the experience and now he's had some time to grow and now it's time to put it to the test. For Jeorge and Walco, I'm also just waiting to see, I have not played much with them yet.

From the bootcamp, what can you say about those two?

I think Jeorge is a very patient player and actually that normally translates pretty well to tier one CS, it's better to be a naturally more patient player than a very aggressive player when you are transitioning, I think his playstyle will remain pretty solid. For Walco, I think that he just needs to define his calling style a little bit more and he should be fine.

Do you think that you can do some great things during this BLAST event?

For this BLAST event, I think it's going to be tough because, like I said we only had a little bit over one week to prepare, so some of our maps aren't that good, some of them are better and the maps that we are better on, I'm hoping that we can at least play the way we played in practice and see what happens.

Have there been any major changes in the map pool or roles inside the server?

For map pool changes, I don't think I can say that yet. Roles, I think there were some changes because RUSH played a few different roles than me and he kind of had a different way of contributing to the team, so I think everyone had to make some adjustments there.

What can we expect from EG vs. Vitality? Is there potential for an upset?

It's hard to say because, even though we are a new team, they also made a big roster change so it's going to be interesting to see how they manage everything, so I want to say yes and we'll see.

Do you believe that this is the line-up that can turn things around for EG in the future?

I think it's a pretty good start.

What do you want to tell North American fans?

Just keep grinding, keep playing the game, and thanks for supporting us.

Do you believe that NA can return to its glory?

I think there's a lot of talent in North America. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of opportunity, but also maybe not the right mentality as well, so I think if there's more opportunity and people are putting in the work and effort that's needed, then yeah.

Evil Geniuses will take on Vitality tomorrow at 09:00AM to open BLAST Premier Fall Groups.