DAVEY: "I'm not enjoying playing CS2 at all"
After making playoffs with two wins and a loss, David "DAVEY" Stafford's Peekers Advantage fell to LAG on the round of 16 on the second day of Fragicago 2023. Despite the early elimination, the legendary Canadian player is enjoying the LAN vibes at the Scrims Esports Center.
DAVEY and Dust2.us' writer Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore talked about the shift from the Canadian's career as a pro player to a streamer, the change to Counter-Strike 2 and more.
Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.
It's been quite a long time since you played a LAN event, I believe dating back to EPL Relegation in 2018 or 2017. How's it been getting back to the server in a LAN setting?
It's fun. Back then, the stakes were a little bit different, no disrespect to this event, but I'm here playing with my friends whereas we were playing for our jobs essentially, so the stakes in the past were a bit different. It was also weird for me to come to a local LAN setting and not feel the expectation to win the event, because, historically, the last Fragadelphia I went to, I won, and usually when I go to local LANs, I bring my friends and we just stomp. Now, I came here with my buddies who aren't pro players or semi-pro players, it's more of a just-for-fun vibe which I really enjoy. It was fun.
You have worn a lot of different hats in your career, player, caster, podcaster, streamer... How would you describe your role in the space right now?
I have no idea, no clue. I still love Counter-Strike, I don't like what Valve have done to it but I still love the game, it's been my life since I was 11 years old, so it's just one of those things where I just sort of fill in wherever I feel like I'm needed or wherever people want me at any given time.
How do you feel about CS2? Are you enjoying it?
I'm not enjoying playing the game at all, no. The only thing that's enjoyable about it is playing games with your friends, essentially. Even games like Among Us, it isn't a fun game to just play, it's the fact that you are playing with your friends that makes it fun. I definitely don't like what they have done with CS2, I can see the promise there and I understand why they decided to go with the sub-tick system. I get why they did that but they just haven't figured it out yet and they need to fix a lot of things and figure it out before the first Major because, if the first Major ships anywhere close to how the game is right now, that's going to be bad.
