Voltage: "I know for a fact that people were doubting us a lot"
Our very own Joe "tolkienfanatic" Cardali caught up with Logan "Voltage" Long at the ELEAGUE Major, where the player was attending as a spectator.
It’s been kind of a whirlwind 2018 for you already — how would you sum it up so far?
Obviously going into MDL near the beginning of the year, we had just won Main. Our expectations were still even, you know — not get relegated, not get knocked down. We knew it would be rough because that season of Premier was pretty competitive.
We didn’t have super high expectations, but we were definitely ready to play, and I think that showed. I think that at one point we were 4-4, we weren’t doing really well, and then we ended up winning out and that was a huge shocker to everybody.
Going into MDL LAN I know for a fact that people were doubting us a lot. I don’t know personally, but it seemed like Rise was getting a little cocky because they kind of didn’t put much preparation into us. It seemed like they thought it would be a breeze because they didn’t really do much work, and rightly so as they’d beat us five times in a row before that online.
I think for us it was more have fun and enjoy it. It was a once in a lifetime experience, we’re going to New York to play video games, so just enjoy your experience.
Did you guys have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder, with the way the community and Rise were viewing them before coming to the event?
Yeah definitely, it’s always nice being the underdog for us cause we’re kind of known for our upsets. I know that when I teamed with Ian "motm" Hardy we got a lot of upsets and that kind of got our name out there, especially getting fourth in the ELEAGUE qualifier, that was huge for us.
I think we knew that because we were down, people weren’t stressed out, people weren’t expecting to win, and people weren’t nervous; all the pressure was on them. When you have a lot of younger kids on a team, it’s a lot better when there’s not pressure on their shoulders, and everyone loves a good underdog story.
I noticed that a lot of the chat was mad at Rise because of betting and I feel bad for them. Outside the game obviously there was a lot of trash talking and none of us really cared cause Matt "mCe" Elmore yells at us enough that we were already prepared for it so it didn’t really matter to us. There was a time that I looked at my teammates and put my hands up like “what are they even saying?” [laughs]
They got a lot of backlash for that but it’s all part of the game, y’know? You try to get into people’s heads, and Andy "vSa" Xu is really good at doing that cause he gets really loud, and there were a couple of rounds where he probably did get into our heads a little bit. Outside of the game I really like him, after the game I talked to him and hung out, and I especially feel bad for moose cause I know he played really well. There’s a lot of games that should’ve gone there way. That day we were the better team, but I think going into it Rise was the better team.
Tell me a bit about the effect that mCe has had on your team, since he’s a substantially older player than the rest of you guys.
Right so, initially bringing him in for Main finals, he was kind of our coach, helping us. He called on Mirage — I think versus Adaptation — and it pretty much single-handedly won us the game because we were down pretty substantially and nothing was working. He kind of revolutionized our game and we instantly started stringing rounds together and ended up winning that. We saw him as a very, very good player and a very good IGL, which is what we needed.
After picking him up there were a lot of people who were skeptical because we dropped motm, and people were making comments like “mCe has the in-game ability of a double amputee.” We had our doubts, we weren’t expecting him to play very good at the beginning and knew his fragging would be low, we weren’t too worried about that since that’s not what we were bringing him in for. We brought him in for the experience, we knew he was pretty disciplined, and for a bunch of 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old it’s really important to have discipline so people don’t overpeek, and it’s helped a lot.
He’s definitely had a lot more impact than people see. I think that after our first five matches he had 99 ADR which is pretty ridiculous, and that’s mostly cause of his nade usage. I’m pretty sure he had a negative K/D, but still a ridiculously high ADR cause his nades are so good. He’s taught us a lot with flashes, nades, how to use it all properly instead of just wasting it. He’s had a lot of impact.
Speaking of playing with a 15-year-old, give your general thoughts on Ryan "Snakes" Amann and that whole situation.
It’s definitely really unfortunate. I’ve teamed with the kid for two, two and a half years now, and I’ve played with him since Open, he was on my first team actually. For him to not be able to play after making Pro League, and actually earning it himself as opposed to getting picked up… I can understand the rule if people are just getting picked up, and obviously it’s for legal issues, but it’s just unfortunate since he worked for it, he earned it, he had the highest rating on our team.
He was definitely in his form during that tournament and was the best on the team by far. He’s just ridiculously good — I mean he’s 15 and already doing the things he’s doing, always impressing, and is just such a talented and super smart player. It really sucks that he can’t play cause he earned it just as much as we did, and for that to get ripped away is just ridiculous.
You yourself are pretty young, 17 or 18, talk about how you’re able to balance school and this, something that’s become a career for you.
At the beginning of the year I was taking three AP classes and those started to build up pretty quick. It definitely was difficult to balance it, but for people who try and say that they can’t balance school and CS, and try to use it as an excuse, you’re just not trying hard enough. You can do it, it’s gonna be frustrating — this whole week was finals week, so I’ve been up till 5 AM every single night.
I think I was on seven hours of sleep the whole week while still practicing four or five hours a night, so you can definitely balance CS, it’s just that you have to learn your limits. I did start to learn my limits so I’m cutting down a little bit on my classes cause I need to start focusing on CS a lot more. Most people take AP classes to help pay for some of their classes, but I should be able to do that now.
We saw the SoaR entourage at MDL. Your families are pretty involved. What was your family’s general reaction to what you’ve chosen to spend a lot of your free time doing?
Initially it was pretty hard to convince them. My dad has always been pretty on board cause my brother tried to do competitive Call of Duty. I think the first LAN I went to was some eBash LAN in Indiana for my brother when he was playing Call of Duty. He’s always been really good, but my mom was really skeptical cause he’d be up till 2 in the morning playing it, and that was unheard of for my family so he would get yelled at a lot for that. But I think he helped pave the way for it to be acceptable for me, and that definitely helped a lot. Having him kind of take the beating for me — obviously not physically or anything — he made it more acceptable.
Initially it was hard cause my mom’s not really been on board, she’s a teacher so she’s really strict on grades. If I get below a B, or even an A, I can’t play, so that was the motivation for me to keep my grades up while balancing CS.
Now that I’ve made pro she’s definitely a lot more lenient, and realized how much money and opportunities are in esports. Before we made pro, me telling her I might take a gap year before college seemed like a joke. Now that I did it, she set up a meeting with my principal to help lessen my schedule, and to see her take the initiative is a huge surprise. I told that to my brother and he didn’t believe me [laughs]. If he told her he might take a gap year for Call of Duty she would not be happy, that would not happen.
You talk about going to LANs. Fragadelphia has been a big portion of your story, the first time anyone really heard of you. What kind of role do you think events like that play in North America, and how do we get more of them?
I think it’s really good for up-and-coming players. The people who came up to me today to sign their stuff they asked me, “what’s a good way to get your name out there?”, and I told them to go to smaller LANs. Even if it seems intimidating. For example, the first time we went to Fragadelphia, we were like “oh, Bee’s Money Crew is going to be there, are you sure you want to go? We’re just going to lose to them” type of thing. You go to a LAN to try to win obviously, but when you’re playing against teams like that, you just do it to put up results and get your name out there. Once people see you put up 12 rounds against Bee's Money Crew at that level, people are like “oh, that’s pretty good, you guys are pretty sick!”
Once we almost beat Eanix at Frag 10, it was super impressive for everybody. We were beating Daniel "roca" Gustaferri, and Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir was on that team, so that was huge exposure for us and I think it’s very important for organizers to do that.
I know we went to Mad City in the midwest and won that, and the qualifiers for that are online now and people are playing it and it’s getting a lot of attention. I think if smaller organizations start investing in doing those smaller LANs instead of these online cups or something, it’ll go a long way.
You just made your way out of the MDL, but I’m sure you’re still keeping tabs on things. Who do you think will emerge at the top of the food chain this season?
I think this is a very competitive season of MDL because a lot of the teams that were in the middle of last season have improved a lot. I know Etherian, motm’s team, have improved a lot. Josh "oSee" Ohm is my boy, he’s a ridiculously good player, and every time I play with him he never fails to impress me. That whole team, Blake "Strings" Stringer, super good, and Eric "Kwong" Kwong is on the team for a reason despite the flack he gets. They’ve been putting up numbers, and were doing really good against Rogue in a qualifier.
I was initially thinking Mythic, but the past couple of games haven’t been looking too good. I don’t think Mythic will ever realistically be able to win it just because they stream all their practices and stuff. If you have someone who puts enough time it’s almost impossible to lose to them in that sense. Obviously they’re all individually skilled, Erik "fl0m" Flom is ridiculously hard to play against because even though you know he’s going to peek you, you still lose the fight somehow. Eric "adreN" Hoag knows so many nades and flashes, it’s ridiculous how many times you get flashed playing against them.
