Austin: "This next year is going to be very telling for my career"

At Fragadelphia x Tap 2, Austin Meadows came out to Philly with a hastily thrown together mixed roster on TSM 2.0, finishing in the top 16.

For Austin, it was a chance to get some more experience in and an opportunity to distract himself from the disappointing demotion that Mythic suffered at the end of ECL S48. While at Fragadelphia, Austin spoke to Dust2.us’ Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about his time so far with Mythic, and what his short and long-term goals look like.

The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath.

A bit of a hastily thrown together TSM 2.0 roster here. Despite that you managed to finish top 16. How do you feel about the overall run?

Pretty good. We brought one of my friends out of retirement to come play. It was mostly just to get some more LAN experience, because I still want to compete a lot and Mythic isn't really going to a lot of events. There’s always the chance that one day we might qualify for something, and I want to be used to playing on LAN.

Since we last talked, you moved on from Wicked to Mythic. What’s it like playing with those guys?

I mean I really enjoy playing with them, but it’s been very jarring going from a team taking the game more competitively to a team that’s a little bit more casual. I’m having a very hard time adjusting to that level of play. And as you can see clearly we haven’t done very well. But it’s been enjoyable so far, and I don’t have any regrets playing with them.

What has joining Mythic done for your content goals?

It’s helped me quite a bit when it comes to stream and content growth. It’s done a lot for me. It’s been a nice push when YouTube started to stagnate for me, and getting some attention from the bigger streamers on me has been good.

The team now faces direct demotion to Advanced after a rocky ECL season. Why do you think the squad has struggled so much?

First of all I think it’s because the level of NA has risen to the point where we can finally be taken out. The gate [to ECL] has not been kept anymore. Everybody has different goals; a lot of my teammates are playing more casually or just for fun, it’s very mixed right now. I don’t know, we’ll have to see.

Last time we saw the team get demoted, they took a season off before coming back to win. Has there been any discussions about that?

We already talked about it and had a few discussions: we’re not going to be making any changes and we are going to play Advanced, unfortunately we will have to wait out an entire season of Advanced before we can play again. But I am kind of looking forward to having a few months off. For a while there we were having back-to-back-to-back-to-back nights with matches. For next season, our goal is 100 percent to win because we want to be back in ECL.

So what are your other short-term and long-term goals?

It’s hard to say. I have my hands in a lot of baskets right now. My short-term goal is to continue growing my stream and improve as a player. For long-term goals, I see myself playing on a mid to high-tier ECL team, but that’s really long-term, like four to five years from now. I’ve always been a player first and a content player second, so this next year is going to be very telling with what I do with the rest of my career.

ESEA Season 52 is set to begin in January 2025.