Fire Base: An Interview With the Philippine CS:GO Team

As the group stage draws for the Asian leg of the E-Frag CS: GO World Championship are revealed, Esports by INQUIRER.Net had a chance of conducting an interview with the members of the Philippine CS: GO team.

The national team members mostly come from Raised By Wolves, considered to be one of the top CS: GO teams in the country. The team has been featured in Mineski’s The Shootout CS: GO Invitational, where they lost to 5Peaks in the grand final, 3-1.

Here is what they have to say about their thoughts on being a member of the Philippine team, on being a CS: GO player and more!

Earl “Rave28” Guevarra: Hi! Can you please introduce yourselves to our readers?

Shane “z3r02” Wong: I’m Shane Wong, captain and sniper of the team.
Michael “43” Opulencia: I’m Michael Opulencia, offensive lurker and support of our team.
Marvin “whome?” Roque: Marvin Roque – Rifler/Support
Juren “Neruj” Aniero: I’m Juren Jude Aniero, the support of the team.
Kevin “Dispenser” Te: I’m Kevin Te. I am the entry fragger and secondary sniper of the team.

Rave28: How did you get into CS: GO? Do you play any other games?

z3r02: I played CS:GO because my first competitive game was CS Beta 4. When I play FPS, I usually try to see if it is competitive or not. Although I was successful in playing CrossFire and PointBlank, there is always something missing in those games that only CS can give. So as soon as CS:GO came out, I instantly wanted to switch to it and leave everything else behind. Sometimes, I also play Neverwinter Online and Dota 2 for fun.

whome?: I have been playing CS: GO since 2013 and I started to play competitively in 2014. I once played Mercenary Online and competed in the National Championship against other top teams which allowed us to secure the first place, taking home a cash prize of  P100,000. Sadly, the game closed on March 27, 2015, which caused me to play CS: GO in a full-time capacity on the same year.

Neruj: I’ve played a lot of games like DoTA, LoL, CrossFire, Dota 2 and the old versions of CS. Then, there came a time that a friend named Rabey Bocala invited me to play CS: GO. I did not have any difficulty in adapting due to the fact that I already played other FPS titles in the past.

Dispenser: I got into CS:GO on my own. I was playing Battlefield 3 when I found out that there’s a new version of CS on Steam. Yes, I do play other games, but most of them are FPS titles.

On the tournament

Rave28: So how do you feel going into what is arguably one of the world’s largest national CS: GO tournaments?

z3r02: When WCA was announced and the Philippines was included, I was really psyched to be a player for the Philippine national team, but there were rumors before that WCA already picked a captain and there was already a lineup for it. To my surprise, WCA released an article about the captains for each country. I only knew five days later that I am the captain for the Philippine team when someone linked me the article and people started to congratulate me. Due to this development, I became really thrilled and proud. I will do my best to lead my team.

whome?: It is a great opportunity for my team and I to represent our motherland in the global stage. We are aware that these teams are not to be taken lightly, but we will try our best to get out of the group stages and compete in the playoffs to earn a spot to the main event. Whether we qualify or not, I am assured that we have made an opening to the growth of the CS: GO competitive scene in the Philippines and to its community.

Neruj: I feel great and excited. At the same time, I’m a bit nervous because we have to play with a lot of the top teams, face different playstyles and deal with different strategies.

Dispenser: I feel so happy to play in one of the world’s largest national CS:GO tournaments. It’s actually my dream to play this kind of tourney. I really hope we advance to the Global Finals.

Rave28: What do you think of your chances in the Asian leg of this tourney?

z3r02: With the time that this team is spending on strats and enhancing individual skills, I believe we will get at least into the top three, this is our goal. CS: GO is a game where the ones who make the least mistakes win and we are focused on eliminating those kinds of small mistakes that make a big impact on the outcome of the game. We will certainly give our all.

43: The Asian leg will be great! All of the teams in the region are really good. With that being said, we are capable of winning against other teams and we have high hopes for this tournament. We are preparing for this tournament for quite some time now and our goal is to win and to qualify for the Global Finals.

whome?: We are really expecting to make it through the playoffs by getting out of the group stages. We are satisfied if we could not make it through the top 3, at least can show them a good fight. But of course, we should still aim for that spot.

Neruj: I have high hopes for my teammates: As long we work together, we can reach anything. I believe that our chances will be big in this tourney and I believe we can make it to the top three. We know very well that if our mindset is negative we will automatically lose this league.

Dispenser: I know it will be hard. Because most of other teams are paid. They can play whenever they want. But we will do our best. I know we have a chance!

On team creation and the Philippine scene

Rave28: Since you’ve come from different teams, how do you synchronize with each other?

z3r02: The group is composed of players from different teams, each of us has individual skills and right now we are working on our chemistry because this is the most important factor to achieve success. I told them to treat this team as their own, that there would be sacrifices and hard work involved. They must be committed only to this team.

The first two players that we chose before joined us under false pretenses and almost ruined our chances for WCA. That is why the Mineski Invitational Tournament became our testing ground; we made the new team one day before the tournament. Now, I am more confident with this new lineup.

43: We would try to keep the team chemistry as lively as possible so that if there would be any CS: GO events in the future, there would be no major changes to be made in our game and our upcoming matches would be flawless for us in order to be victorious.

Rave28: Can you give us a general impression of your gamestyle?

Neruj: Our game style can be likened to a pack of wolves that hunt as one. We make sure that we are the hunters and not the hunted.

Dispenser: As a Terrorist, sneak around and look for opportunities to open up the map. As a Counter-Terrorist, I usually play aggressive to get more info about the enemy whereabouts.

Rave28: What are your goals in the future as far as CS: GO is concerned?

z3r02: For this team the future is bright, we have three young stars Marvin, Juren and Kevin. I can see myself in them when I was starting, hungry and full of dedication.

43: Our goal in CS: GO is to compete on the highest levels of the game.

Dispenser: My goal is to see the Philippine CS:GO scene grow this year!

Neruj: Our goal for my team is to play a top-level performance in the near future.

Rave28: Do you believe that the Philippines can rise again as the major CS powerhouse in Southeast Asia?

z3r02: For me, the Philippines is still a country to watch out for. FPS players in our country are really playing in a high level since the 1st medal that FGWolves won for our country back in 2010. We made the players know that it is possible to win against other countries.

whome?: If the Philippine eSports community pays full attention to the CS: GO scene, yes.

Dispenser: Yes I do believe that we can do it. I just hope some organizations will hold tournaments in our country to find more potential players, just like what Mineski did.

Supports ace games. Photo: Marvin “whome?” Roque

On training and pressure

Rave28: Can you describe to us how much hours do you put into training in a single week?

z3r02: For me if you wanna become on par with the teams from Europe, we need to play at least 10 hours a day; unfortunately we only have around six hours practice together. But still we make sure that we maximize each day.

43: It varies individually but the full team practices for at least 5-6 hours a day.

Dispenser: 40 – 50 hours, I usually play at night.

Rave28: Legendary player Devilwalk from Fnatic said that a pro player must put 40-45 hours into CS: GO in a single week in order to play at a top level. How much do you think a person must practice to keep up with the opposition at the World Championships?

Dispenser: For normal players like us that got a job, 40-45 hours in a week is good. But it is probably not enough, because we believe that more game time is much better.

Rave28: What are your playing conditions at the moment? Do you think it is enough?

z3r02: For me it is never enough until I become a champion again, That is why my alias is z3r02 to to make me remember that there is always someone better. It makes me do the extra mile like playing solo after team practices and fixing my aim whenever it is needed.

The slow Internet connection and/or random game lag is really a challenge for us. It is difficult because other countries have far more superior Internet connection. Still, I hope that PLDT can spare us a good connection slot for our boot camp.

43: We are trying to make the most out of the time that we have left before the tournament. For me, we still have lots of room for improvement but I hope our preparations will suffice.

whome?: We are still practicing all the maps one by one until we are satisfied with the results of our matches for each map. For me, it is not yet enough to say that we are ready to compete yet so as of now we are preparing every day because the games are near and we value every hour, every minute and every second of our gameplay.

Neruj: We still need more practice because it is still not enough.

Dispenser: It’s fine. But I know it’s not yet good enough. That’s why I keep practicing. Sometimes I watch some professional matches to get some concepts from other players.

Rave28: How do you feel that you are handling the Philippine flag?

z3r02: We are proud to be representing our country again with our own unique skills in gaming.

43: It is always an honor to represent the country in an international event.

whome?: I feel really blessed because out of all the good talents that we have here in the country, I have been chosen to represent our country to compete with other nations to grab the spot for the main event.

Neruj: We are are proud to be representing our country.

Dispenser: I feel so lucky and so blessed for the privilege to fight for my country.

Rave28: Do you have any messages to the Filipino fans out there?

z3r02: Keep believing and keep supporting teams from our country, it will benefit us all in the future. And I want to thank all the guys supporting our team Wolves.eXg and of course this WCA Philippine team.

Hi to Karla Tania Wong, Aphrodite Io Wong and to my family and friends!

43: I would like to greet family, friends and readers.

whome?: I honestly have nothing to say to my fellow Filipino players out there. I just hope that I could meet more Filipino players that are willing to play at a competitive level and hope that the Philippine CS: GO scene could grow rapidly this year.

Neruj: First of all, I’d like to thank Extreme Gaming Philippines (Mr. Evan and Mr. Niklas), as well as to Coreon Gate Internet Cafe and Ntop Internet Cafe for supporting the team! To my family (UNO – UBC ROXAS City) and friends, thank you very much!

I would also like to thank the Filipino fans out there for their unwavering support!

Finally, I would like to say hi to Daddy Aji ‘Matandang Pro’ Lopez!

More power to the OFFICIAL CS: GO-PH group!

Dispenser: ‘Sup guys! Thank you for supporting us for this upcoming World Championship. Also thanks to Extreme Gaming Philippines (Mr. Evan and Mr. Niklas) for believing in us. Also for Coreon Gate Internet Café, Ntop Internet Café and Mineski. Thank you so much!

To Girlie Ojenar and my family, thanks for your support. Much appreciated!

One-liners:

Shane “z3r02” Wong:

Favorite weapon: AWP
Favorite maps: Train, DD2, Inferno, Mirage
Favorite foreign pro team: Complexity 2006
Favorite moment in CS:GO career: 52 frags against Team Jynx from Thailand (2012)
Favorite foreign player: fr0d
Favorite food: Kare Kare
Favorite drink: Arizona Iced Tea

Michael “43” Opulencia:

Favorite weapon: M4A4
Favorite map: de_inferno
Favorite foreign pro team: NiP
Favorite moment in CS:GO career: ACG 2015
Favorite foreign player: Zonic
Favorite food: Lechon
Favorite drink: water

Marvin “whome?” Roque:

Favorite weapon: AK-47
Favorite map: Cache
Favorite foreign pro team: Fnatic
Favorite moment in CS:GO career: Mineski Shootout
Favorite foreign player: olofmeister
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite drink: Monster Energy

Juren “Neruj”Aniero:

Favorite weapon: AK
Favorite map: Cobblestone
Favorite foreign pro team: Virtus pro
Favorite moment in CS:GO career: Mineski the Shootout
Favorite foreign player: NEO
Favorite food: pinakbet
Favorite drink: Water

Kevin “Dispenser” Te:

Favorite weapon: AK47 & AWP
Favorite map: Cache, Inferno, Mirage
Favorite foreign pro team: Ninjas In Pyjamas
Favorite moment in CS:GO career: Mineski Shootout CS:GO
Favorite foreign player: friberg
Favorite food: Adobo
Favorite drink: Water

The Philippines is paired up with Indonesia and Nepal in Group D, with both of their matches to be held on Tuesday, September 1 at 7 and 8 p.m. PHT, respectively.

The team needs to win two matches in order to go to the Winners’ Group where they can have a chance at getting a ticket to the offline finals to be held on October 8-11 this year at the Sava Centar in Belgrade, Serbia.

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