EMUHLEET: "I just wasn't feeling joy or happiness playing Valorant anymore"

Karma attended Fragadelphia CS/DO as one of the four ESL Impact teams to make their way out to the event. However, their lineup is unique compared to the other three as it is distinctly a call back to the pre-COVID, pre-VALORANT scene with Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido, David "Xp3" Garrido, and Carolyn "artStar" Noquez serving as elder statesmen of the women's scene.

Unfortunately for these veterans, their run was cut short following two losses to Detonate and Persona. However, Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido still felt that the experience was incredibly valuable, something she told Dust2.us’ Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore. The duo also discussed playing her first CS LAN in four years, why she decided to come back from VALORANT, and having your husband as your coach, among other topics.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

How do you think you did overall, despite the fact that maybe you didn't go as far as you wanted to?

I'm disappointed. Obviously, I don't want to get grouped but you just take every loss as a learning experience. We have a few new players on my team who don't have as much experience as the rest of us, so that's why we come to these tournaments and we are going to keep going to as many as we can to help them get that experience and help us improve as a team as a whole.

Unlike the young players, you have been to a million LANs. Is there still something that you can take away from the LAN events?

Definitely. The last time I played Counter-Strike at a LAN was in 2020 in Dubai, that was a long time ago, four years ago. The scene has changed, it's a new game, there is a new playstyle, so every LAN I go to, I learn more and there's a whole new crowd that is here too and it's just fun getting to know each player because eventually, I'm going to be playing them online. It's definitely a learning experience.

Last ESL Impact season we saw you come back to Counter-Strike after an extended period of time in VALORANT. Why come back to Counter-Strike now?

I just feel like I grew up in Counter-Strike. I played 1.6, it's where my heart truly was and I just wasn't feeling joy or happiness playing VALORANT anymore. So, I decided "let's decide as a team to go back to the roots". We want to bring home a trophy for North America again because it's been a while for the women's scene at least. That's our goal.