Aureo: "Scrim results have been looking encouraging and we are making steps forward"

Limitless have not had the best ESL Challenger League season but showed up in full strength at Fragicago, claiming a 3rd-4th finish, only losing to the eventual winners Nouns. Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore chatted with Limitless coach, Brennan "Aureo" O’Connell, about the team's performance in Chicago, his backstory and rise as a coach, and the recent form of the team in ECL, having to use two subs.

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 rate your team's performance in that match against Nouns? It seemed it actually went pretty well against one of NA's best.

I think we are pretty happy overall. Those guys have so many years of experience and they are such incredible players, so to take a map off them and be competitive throughout the next two was pretty solid for us.

It's been a real struggle for this Limitless squad in ESL Challenger League, you guys haven't seen the results you wanted. Is it good to finally find some wins, especially on LAN?

Yeah, it's really encouraging, especially being the first big tournament for us without using the two [ESL Challenger League] subs. We were able to run some shit that we practiced, get some set stuff down and take some good results.

Part of these good results has to go to you, as you are the most recent addition to this lineup. You are a relatively new face to the NA scene, how did you get your start in CS and where did you come from?

I was a player for the last five or six years, playing in the lower levels, grinding it out, didn't really have the time to commit but I started to take it seriously a couple of years ago and then I developed carpal tunnel in my wrist, so from there I had to make a pretty quick switch to coaching and from there I have accelerated up, started with Cyberstorm, turned into Supernova and have climbed the ranks from there. I have gone from Main to ECL in less than a year, so I'm pretty happy.

That's a quite precipitous rise in your coaching career. What do you attribute that to?

I think managing players and making sure everyone is on the same page, everyone is in check and not getting in their own heads or anything is one of my strongest suits and something I think I do really well and bring to the team.

The team is sitting on the precipice between relegation and staying into Season 49 of ECL. Do you guys think you have what it take to get those last few wins and finish ahead of the likes of Take Flyte and Revenge Nation?

Absolutely. Scrim results have been looking encouraging and we are making steps forward, so I'm really looking forward to the next couple of games.