Nifty: "I had learned a lot from my time away"
MIGHT are one of the more exciting teams in North America thanks to a number of familiar names within the squad. Headed up by Bobby "stamina" Eitrem and featuring Noah "Nifty" Francis, the team were expected to make a deep run in the playoffs at Fragicago. While the squad ended up being cut down by Badass in the quarterfinals, it was a positive first step for the squad as they look to grow into a regional powerhouse. Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore got the chance to grab Nifty to speak about his comeback to Counter-Strike, if he was ever actually going to come back, and what his career has been like since the early Renegades days.
Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.
How does it feels to be back at your first LAN in almost three years?
it's been about close to three and a half years at this point. Let's just put it this way, I'm super happy to be back in the server on LAN because I always felt like in my career I always felt the most comfortable at LAN. I always felt like I get a little bit of a LAN buff and maybe that sounds, you know, a little biased towards myself but that's just really how I feel. Coming to Fragicago was more about getting to spend time with my teammates because this is our first time spending time together in person. We get to know each other a little bit, have fun, have some drinks, go out to dinner, get to play some LAN matches, and I felt like we played great overall, to be honest.
Were you ever certain that you were going to come back to Counter-Strike?
It wasn't at first. I was not really sure if I was going to come back, I just knew that I needed some time off. It's very important for me to rest and decompress. At that point, by the time that the Envy project had finished, I had been playing non-stop ever since the day that I got on CS:GO for the first time. I never had a vacation - I mean sure, we had player breaks, but that time was always allocated straight to my family. I never had time for myself to really identify the lessons that I needed to learn while I was in my playing career, then not just identify them, but learn them, understand them, and then implement them into a new way of life, a new way of being. So because I didn't get to do that, that's where my time off was most valuable for me. I was able to go through that process and at some point, maybe about a year later, I released a Twitlonger where I said I wanted to get back into it. By that time I had I felt I had learned a lot from my time away and I had decided that I wanted to play again, that when I come back I want to do it differently than I did it before, and not just differently, but I want to go farther than I had ever gone before.
What do you think the biggest difference was between Renegade Nifty... Envy Nifty, and the Nifty of today?
I'd have to say that there's many things, but I think the biggest thing is that in that life I used to take a lot of things for granted, but not because I wasn't grateful for the position that I was in. It was more so because I was so caught up. I was so absorbed in the experience that I was having that I didn't necessarily understand what I wasn't doing that I needed to do. What's different about me now is that even though I'm playing for MIGHT and we're not even a paid team, we're just trying to climb the ladder, I'm just very grateful to have a group of guys around me and climb this ladder together get to show what we're capable, but also grow at the same time. Another thing for me is that I love people. I like to see people get better, I like to help people get better, and I'm a very observant person. I'm always applying those things to myself and paying close attention. So in short, the biggest thing is just gratitude man. I'm just happy to be playing Counter-Strike and doing the things that I love.
