GotFrag eSports

(GotFrag) - Richard �ritch� Gibbs sits down with GotFrag to discuss European CS: Source.

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to sit down with us in this interview. Could you please take the time to tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm currently 19 years old living at home with my girlfriend. I am unemployed and not attending college, although I have taken some classes. I love playing games and going out clubbing on the weekend. I have been playing Counter-Strike: Source for a very long time. I have been known for my time in 4Kings and the Championship Gaming Series playing for London MiNT one of the two UK franchises.

What have you, and the rest of the MiNt crew been up too since CGS closed its doors?

Well, the Source team has disbanded and we have all gone our separate ways. Hughsy and I moved to a different organisation known as crackclan and joined up with ex London MiNT beta, HaZ from Stockholm Magnetik (also in the CGS) and Mx from one of our UK rival teams. As for the rest of MiNT most of them separated to dignitas, and team coolermaster.

How is the current CS: Source scene prevailing in Europe since the CGS?

UK Source is quite strong really, can't complain, but still the game isn't as active as it should be, but either is 1.6 - both games are having a tough time at the moment but should pick up as the year progresses. I believe this is going to be the closing year for Source.

What do you mean by "closing year"?

This is the last year for Counter-Strike: Source.

Why do you believe it to be the final year of Source?

Well I just think that most the top teams have lost their love for the game, and the American Scene its very weak in terms of top teams. The credit crunch has definitely had a massive effect in Europe, not sure about the USA.

What teams and players do you see as �top� contenders in Europe?

VERYGAMES, Dignitas, ROCCAT, RedLine - Whether or not teams have beaten me as people will say, doesn't mean I have to rate them. At the end of the day I know who is good and who is not; everyone mentions the fact Reason Gaming beat me when I was in London MiNT, but we didn't really have a strong team and honestly, they're not good at all.

In your eyes, how does Europe differ from America with CS: Source?

Well, without a doubt Europe has the stronger scene more top teams - but the USA has a lot more amateur active teams, but that doesn't really matter when it comes to true competition. I have always said that Europe has better Source team�s as well and I still stand by that statement.

You previously stated that Europe currently has a stronger professional scene, what makes you believe so?

Well there are more teams, most of the Americans just went back to 1.6 which is fair enough {If I had played the game from the start and was really good at it, I would too). Whereas Europe has LOTS of top teams.

Do you foresee any international events where European and American teams will be able to go head to head, such as the revival of the CPL?

For Counter-Strike: Source no, unless something DRASTICALLY changes.

Which leagues and lans will Crack Clan take attendance to in the near future?

We will be attending every European LAN, such as i36, the-eXperience and LAN79. We are currently due to start in the UKeSA league which is going to be huge for Source, I�m really looking forward to that. We also have the EPS Online tournament to look forward to with a big LAN at the end of it.

Thank you for your time, Gotfrag wishes you the best of luck this 09. Any shoutouts you would like to mention before we finish?

Just a quick mention to crack clan and anyone involved.

User Comments

hasbeen

I love playing games too

yawn

www.team-anomaly.com #Anomaly @ Quakenet

taken from http://www.gotfrag.com/css/forums/thread/.. on post #120:

QUOTE:
You're all pretty stupid, both games are fairly dead; well from a top team competetive view it is, the only thing holding it together right now is UKeSA which has just started in the UK.
The funny thing is, pretty much every last one of you are awful at both versions of Counter-Strike and post your opinion on both games, bunch of idiots really aren't you. =)

gotfrag, do you realize the person you just interviewed has no idea about what is going on around him, which is pretty sad considering he played in the CGS? this is someone who thinks UKeSA is holding eSports together. honestly, i'm a bit disappointed gotfrag would run out of ideas and just interview someone no one knows about outside of the UK. time to face the facts:

UK eSports != global eSports

since their shift to source and cod4 and whatever game tickles their fancy, the UK has been out of the loop ever since their exodus from 1.6. sorry mates.

This comment was edited at 02/16/2009 10:00 PM

"And dont act like our internet doesnt have to be checked and processed through customs" - zenru

That kid looks like a loser.

: ^ D

euro source is awful

watching their cgs teams was laughable

This comment was edited at 02/16/2009 10:11 PM

#5 i'm pretty sure he's referring to the UK scene, not the global scene.

� hypje

#7 you're a moron, die in fire plssss :D

#7 yeah like that terrible salvo team that won cgs :(

Is this what gotfrag calls journalism?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhYhjmZJXG8 HEATON GETS USED LIKE A

=\ could of interviewed someone better :(

This comment was edited at 02/16/2009 10:53 PM

Ritch, forgot to mention all the lessons I gave yeh

How does it feel?

"I'm currently 19 years old living at home with my girlfriend. I am unemployed and not attending college, although I have taken some classes. I love playing games and going out clubbing on the weekend. I have been playing Counter-Strike: Source for a very long time. I have been known for my time in 4Kings and the Championship Gaming Series playing for London MiNT one of the two UK franchises."

'nuff said

BLACKHAWK

nice read but 2 things
1)css is not dead (not in canada at least) and is stronger than ever
next big NA lan = lanETS = more than 50teams probly :)
2)europe css top teams is not impressive, its not because u play with nice shirts, with a big shoutcast and decent money prize that u are any better than usa (Reffering mostly to EPS finals)
its not because u have "european national teams" LOL that u are any better than usa
I watched recently EPS france finals (verygames vs redline) and it was not impressive at all, literaly "wasted" my time, i'll rather watch a cal-main match, or any NA half decent team scrim

I really hope cpl come back stronger and use css, and that we see some of the top euro teams face north-american teams

What do you mean by "closing year"?

This is the last year for Counter-Strike: Source.

# i totally agree. by myself i played this **** 4years. and now i believe it too. 1.6 is the future CPL comes with 1.6 i dont think with source or CoD stuff.

No job, no education AND he plays a fail game?

Time to put him down

i think verygames right now can destroy any american team just for fun..

Put The Cot Down Slowly

who is he ? never won something and have iwiev? lol

CSS > 1.6

15 no you dont every american team dont have really tactics, its just run and spray, i am quite sure verygames can destroy you with 150 ping only with thier tactics

source? what game is that lol

"fRoD doesnt cheat" "#7 online/north america, you do the math" -qu4kE_

he forgot mTw :(

no but anyway, source is not dead! when cpl comes back with source it will be stronger than ever!

if you put mortal kombat characters on 1 side and street fighter players on the other side, "begin the match". thats how EUROPE AND NOA are. MULTI style, both are ROGUE but the art of production is completely challenging .

rofl you are an idiot ritch xD

raging these americans hard, lol

#15, your a complete and utter window licking dribbling spastic downer child... I forgot that, salvo (now known as dignitas) de_stroyed all of your 'top teams' with the exception of venom. Your beloved 'devour' was called $h1t, to his face by Rattlesnk.. and then Snake went on to dominate them, your teams are all talk and no action, from what we've been told, devour was spouting egotistical $h1t, while at the finals.. and when Salvo came along and destroyed them, and then was called $h1t, (once again), he had nothing to say against it.

Typical arrogant americans.

Btw, $h1t, interview... ritch wasn't the guy to choose at all, part from the fact hes got a huge ego and hes a dickhead. I can't believe I actually logged in to gotfrag to say this...

I also can't believe: $h1t, is censored...

Stupid Americans.

Euro CSS is a much higher standard than American CSS; only 4 Euro teams in CGS, 2 of which didn't play in the "off season", 1 which WON the CGS and the other was MiNT and their CSS team didn't do too badly. Missing from that list are roccat, VeryGames, the new lineups that formed after CGS, all of which would end you.

Look at what a mess your scene is when two of your "top players" openly cheat in the final of a competition.

Also, watching American CSS is like watching public, a load of one man heros running round screaming thinking that they can make like Rambo and take out everyone.

Awful $hit scene full of arrogant twats with no clue.

Also, just for salt in the wound - 1.6 > CSS. Always has been always will be

cy@ cy@ cy@

#subliminal.cs

#27 fvcking owns tbh

open up and die!

for a sec there, uk deserved it.

Funny how in the interview he rips on American source players but when we rip on Euro players we are stupid and arrogant. Amusing.

uk css IS BAD your precious salvo team is bad get real

QUOTE:
As for the rest of MiNT most of them separated to dignitas, and team coolermaster.

which london mint css players went to dignitas? 2 to crack, 2 to toxic and 1 to tcm i thought, still nice that they stay in close contact

#20 - i've achieved more in gaming than most people, in terms of an income, but thanks for your input.

#31 - i'm not "ripping" on American Source players, i'm giving my opinion which is what an interview is for. Feel free to rip European Players, I don't care - results speak for themselves.

#32 - if you believe that, sure, its your opinion, but results can speak for themselves.

#33 - no CS:S players did, but ChrisyB and Stune did from the London MiNT Franchise.

let's see what kind of a stir up this can create then. :)

verygames would probably crush every team, doesnt matter if europe/na

it's cool that brits finally won something 'big' in esports, but all in all... this game is still so fvcking bad (probably just like 'ritch').

and yes, Euros >> NA

P&P

yanks getting their nipples twisted

Ive watched so many demos and just trust me the euro teams are good, but nothing compared to the coL or EFG cssource lineups.

Hi.

#38 - and your demo viewing as a gotfrag writer means that you can make the best judgement? we beat optx in usa, salvo beat everyone, get a clue man, you're so annoying with your crappy judgements.

you have 1 good team and pow now all euros are better DAMN
THIS IS BETTER THAN SHAMWOW

#39 CGS was a joke imo. when you guys keep referring to "we beat optx" honestly you won a match good for you. Really though do you believe that the euro source scene is stronger than the NA? i highly doubt it. I am not saying any of your teams are garbage because you have some quality players but if you were trying to compete even with the top teams now i do not think you would be the favorite at all. but than again you should never underestimate people like you guys are doing.

p.s rich the interview was not good. You talked to someone that clearly has no idea what he is talking about. I am not one to judge but he is 19 unemployed living with his girlfriend. I do not know how it works over there but i don't think that's a good thing. but a good attempt because you have gotten a lot of attention and maybe this is the first step to getting everyone involved to make a stronger css scene.

ritch knows all

Curt

#41 - i may be unemployed and not in education, but what has that got to do with what i know about Source? sorry that i'm too lazy to get a job mate, i have enough money left from CGS to do what the hell I want for a while.

I can compete against anyone in the world, I play for one of the top european teams, so what is your point? VeryGames for starters are the best team in the world by a clear mile. Enjoy. Going back not so long ago, SALVO beat everyone, and we would have beaten most of them and our team wasn't even great, we had big internal problems and some of our players weren't upto par anymore. You're an idiot to even think Europe is worse than NA because NA has literally no-one in it anymore as they all went back to 1.6, which they can't even compete in anymore either.

This comment was edited at 02/17/2009 12:10 PM

this guy is a joke

#43 Just from how you responded tells me everything i know. you can sit there and tell everyone that NA is horrible and tell me that Europe is so great. i did not once say that Europe was bad i just said they are not clear for sure when it comes down to it. the fact that you are attacking me because of an opinion makes me think that you are very insecure. You have enough money to do whatever you want for a while congrats on the success but that is not a good mindset at all. The fact that you say you had internal problems well how do you not know that any other team did not as well. CGS was complete garbage it was never all the players that should have been there it was a who do you know show. you cant expect to throw 5 power houses and expect to tear up every team. with every power house comes a very large personality. so the fact that you are so upset that i said a few things that were not offensive at all and for you to come back like this is a joke. all you do is make yourself look weaker. For you to say so boldly that there is no good teams in NA is a joke. which also gets me back to my original post that you have no idea what you are talking about. So i suggest you do some research before you come talk crap.

This comment was edited at 02/17/2009 12:50 PM

Didn't the Salvo lose to the Furia in CSS 12-6?

http://www.myeg.net - GET SOME! - http://www.djWHEAT.tv - Live on Three!

MiNT never played VS coL....so...dear ritch u can't handle it as fact, that the european teams are stronger then the north americans i think.
Watch some coL demos....or play versus them, of course with the classic LU both teams...than i'll believe your words.:-)

You have experience with CSS in the UK and within the CGS...I think I can safely say that your experience is really overrated, much like 4Kings was for years in 1.6.

4Kings sucked in 1.6, great I don't care? This isn't about 1.6. The top NA teams were in CGS; my experience isn't over-rated and isn't stuck to UK and CGS, I've travelled Europe too? You don't really know what you're talking about.

#47 you're right, i've never played them in an official but I played them 2-3 times in practice in LA.

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Counter-Strike Source: Richard �ritch� Gibbs on European CS: Source

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