Pugg: "Our team would have loved the opportunity to play [Canada] and have the winner go"

After the original Team USA that conquered a spot in the IESF World Esports Championship 2023 got replaced by Detonate, with Collin "CoJoMo" Moren replacing Landon "landmaz" Lawrence, there was some controversy surrounding the decision to send Detonate to Romania. Today, just a few days before the start of the tournament, Team USA landed in Bucharest and is flying to Iași at the time of publication.

Between flights, Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with Spencer "Pugg" Moore, Detonate's IGL, about the whole situation, USA's opponents, and how they prepared for the unknown to the general public teams.

All throughout the interview, Pugg made it very clear that this was a unique opportunity for him and his teammates and they want to soak in as much experience as they can from their time in Europe.

We are all very excited about the competition and want to use this tournament to take the next step in developing as individuals and as a team. Outside of a couple of rare instances at a couple of Fragadelphia LANs, none of us have too much experience facing international opposition. We want to use our time wisely in Europe with scrims (mostly after) the tournament, as we have two weeks total.

Detonate has gone to Romania without Landon "landmaz" Lawrence due to school obligations and has been replaced with a familiar face - Collin "CoJoMo" Moren. Pugg and CoJoMo played together during their time in Davenport and got along very well. The main preparation the team did for the World Esports Championship has been regarding the map pool and acclimatizing the AWPer.

In terms of our own preparation for the event, it’s mostly been making sure we are comfortable with our map pool and getting CoJoMo integrated into our system. He fits in very well into our team environment and while we have to tweak some things, he is enjoying his time with us so far and I am very happy to be reunited with him after things ended in a way I didn’t want them to.

When asked about their opponents, Pugg acknowledged that some teams are completely unknown but that the team tried to learn as much as they could about every team they will have to face in the group stage.

I’m really happy for Algeria and Indonesia to get this opportunity with us. We could not find too much info on Algeria, but I am happy to witness African CS get on the map and I’m excited to meet their players and hear their stories. We believe Indonesia is a good opponent off the preparation we did, as they have a lot of very talented players representing them. We are excited to see how we play versus different regions, and no matter what every game, try to give our best effort and learn.

Outside of those two, we face a good core of EU teams in our group and I am interested to see what gaps they expose of ours and how we can adapt to our opponents. The most important thing is we have a very mentally strong team and will be fighting tooth and nail for every round.

Regarding the controversy around Detonate being the ones representing the USA, Pugg was understanding of the reactions from the community and agreed that the situation could have been handled better.

It stings a little because I am very understanding of their position and have thought about it a lot. Our team would have loved the opportunity to play them and have the winner go, but we were approached with a direct invite with a time notice to accept and send information in. They are completely valid to be upset and I respect all the players on the Team Canada team! I will say that this could all have been organized a bit smoother and with more time to spare. I hope this event can show our passion and abilities as players so we have the chance to play again!

Finally, the IGL for Detonate sees this opportunity as the start of a new cycle for him and the team, as this is something that no member of the lineup had previously experienced. They hope this can improve their careers in the long run.

We also have been working our whole CS careers to get an opportunity like this, and want to take it as a learning experience and “first step” into the bigger CS scene. We don’t want to view this as a “we made it” because we could have very well not have had this opportunity and want to keep pushing and make this a serious option for the future.

Team USA will debut on the 26th of August against North Macedonia. The format of the group stage is round-robin BO1s with six teams per group, from which the top three advance to playoffs. The group winners advance directly to the quarterfinals as the 2nd and 3rd advance to the Round of 12. The playoffs are single elimination, with all games being Bo3.