stan1ey: "It’s a great opportunity for someone like me"
With Tramaine "stan1ey" Stanley set to move from the UK to Ghost Gaming, Dust2.us's resident Brit Michael "DuckMoriarty" Moriarty poked some questions stan1ey's way in anticipation of his move.
As an unknown player to most of North America, explain a little about yourself and your playstyle
There's not too much to say about me really. I’ve played CS for quite some time in the UK now, and I've always been quite an aggressive entry player throughout my career.
You’re the third UK player to make the move to NA. What’s it like and how were you scouted?
Obviously it’s a great opportunity for someone like me to make that next step in my career and I’m sure it’s going to be an amazing experience for me moving forward in the near future. I can’t really comment on how NA has been for me as I haven’t made the move over yet.
I think the guys were looking for some EU players to try out and came across me as I had quite a good performance in the EU MDL season just gone.
How's your preparation for the move been going?
My preparation for the move has been going good, I’ve started playing a lot more CS. Just casually playing a lot more deathmatch, aim training and watching demos, always to improve my own game and benefit the team in anyway I can.
How has practice been with your teammates so far, considering both the time difference and latency issues?
It’s been kind of hard, especially the latency issues. I’m always at a disadvantage on 120 to 140 ping, so I’m lacking in the fragging department at the moment, but I’m sure that will change once I make the move over.
My sleeping pattern on the other hand is always pretty messed up so the practice hours fit my schedule fairly well!
Have you taken a break from education to move to the USA to play CS?
I actually finished my college A-Levels [High School Diploma] two years ago and been playing CS ever since. My plan once I finished college was to take a year out of education to try achieve something in CS which I managed to do and here I am now.
A lot of people in the UK had you down for being a top talent, which was compounded by the fact you were one of the Top 5 Elite Series players in Season 2, has this ever really pressured you to perform?
I’ve never really had many problems playing under pressure. I’m quite a confident player in general and know that I can perform well versus good teams. I mainly focus on myself, my team and tend to block the majority of things out.
Before making the move to Ghost, it was looking like you were starting a new project with Endpoint, what’s the plan with them after your departure?
The big picture was to move Ian "Immi" Harding to coach then bring in Joe "Luzuh" Loose and Reece "Puls3" Marrs which would allows us to bring more fragging ability in-game, but once Immi went coach we kinda lost all leadership within the team. Things weren't looking great but now that I'm joining Ghost I think the guys' plan is to carry on with the project without Immi as coach and bring in Aaron "AaroN" Hemmings.
I’m happy for the guys, I’m sure they will show some good results in the near future with some practice down as they’re all keen individuals who wanna be the best.
