GotFrag.com - In the past few weeks Cyber-Revolution has been shaking up the Counter-Strike: Source scene. Recently Shaffer joined the Stormakt lineup and acquired sponsorship from a European based organization, Vitriolic. Vitriolic was going to financially back Stormakt, including flying them over seas to i37 to compete against European teams. Shaffer instead decided to join the Cyber-Rev roster who has a solid 14-1 lead in CEVO-p coming off of winning Cevo-p last season. Shaffer also brought TCK along with him, leaving p0s out to dry. But that is not all Shaffer and TCK brought to the merger, they also brought the Vitriolic sponsorship. What this means for someone like Nearcry who has managed and financially backed Cyber-Revolution for the past 2 seasons of CEVO-P, is now left with no team. After these events Stormakt has been left with a 4man roster for ESEA-I s3. Xperience has been left teamless throughout this event. Today we had the opportunity to interview a few of the people involved in this tangled web of a situation.


NEARCRY
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Nearcry I would like to start this off by saying thank you for sitting down with GotFrag.com to discuss recent events with Cyber Revolution. How many seasons and events did you support Cyber-Revolution through, and what kind of backing did you provide them during that time?

I've started CyberRev back in FarCry and the players earned $40 each per match at the time. When we were on top we decided it was time to move to a different game and picked CounterStrike: Source. We started off in season 6 of CAL. Players at that time earned $40-$100 per win and we slowly worked our way up as we picked up more experiened players. I was later introduced to the team FEVER and that's where things started to take off for us. We negotiated a deal that would have them become the new CyberRev team. When we picked them up, they where competing in CEVO-P as well and would join the new CGS Pro-Am leauge the following season. After the CGS shutdown, they concentrated on CEVO and won easily, beating many of the best CGS teams in the process. I was able to provide the team with LAN funding for whatever events they wanted to go to as well as a salary for playing in the Pro-Am.

After all of the time, money, and effort you have spent with this team, how do you feel about the current situation?

Well around the time that the CGS shutdown, the economy wasn't doing very well. Stocks were dropping to record low levels so it was a bit difficult for me spend a lot of time and money on CyberRev. I did go a bit inactive for a while to focus more efforts on my investments. The team didn't get a whole lot from me this past season. It was only this past month that things started to get a little better and I am again able to invest more time and effort into the team but they found another offer and went for it. Many people think that I'd be upset but I'm not. I love those guys and they worked very hard to get to where they are and if a good offer is presented to them it's foolish to not take it. To my credit though, i offered to send them to a couple LAN event's including ETS this past spring and one in Virgina in July but they decided that they wouldn't do it.

What in your eyes led up to the new merger, and xperiences departure from Cyber-Rev?

From what I understand, xperience had a bit of an argument that escalated to the point where he had enough and left the team. When the rest were looking for a 5th, they found Shaffer who offered them a spot with another organization and the team decided that it was a good offer and took it

With Vitriolic picking up your css team, do you plan on picking up another css squad anytime soon, and if so what can we expect to see from Cyber Rev in the near future?

Our last team set a very high standard that will be difficult to match, but we will try. CyberRev will be transformed into a large e-sports organization and we will be funding a new CSS team. We've also picked up a solid Quake Live player and are negotiating with a Canadian StarCraft player who competed in some of the big Korea tournaments.

Are you in talks with any css teams at this point in time?

Yes, I've been talking to a couple during the past days but nothing has been confirmed yet. I won't be rushing into it. I only want to pickup a team who are able to attend the bigger events in North America.

Well again I would like to say thank you for participating in this interview, any shoutouts, or anything you would like to say before we conclude this interview?

I just want to thanks to the old team, they did an amazing job and wish them luck in whatever they do.


XPERIENCE
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I would like to start this interview out by saying thank you for sitting down with GotFrag.com to discuss what has been going on behind the scenes at Cyber-Revolution in the past few weeks. I'm going to jump right in and ask, what happened that caused you to leave
Cyber Rev, it was mentioned that there was an argument of sorts?

Well, to be quite honest, I was disappointed in the direction we were headed. Sure we were probably one of the best, if not the best, teams at the time but I didn't see us improving at all. There was a lot of arguing during practice between a couple people and it just made gaming not enjoyable.

What had the biggest impact on your decision, especially after winning CEVO-P the previous season and being undefeated until your departure?

Away from the internal problems, I was tired of having no time for myself. I was working (still am) a full-time web development job (which required a lot of overtime) and I was unable to get anything personal life wise done.

Was the decision to add Shaffer and Tck to the Cyber Rev roster discussed before you left, or a decision made after your departure?

It was a decision made after my departure, I had no involvement with this.

What do you think about Cyber Rev's new roster, there have been many posts on the forums about the subject, do you think there new roster will be able to perform at the same level Cyber Rev has in the past?

I don't believe we will see them ever accomplish what the original team did. I do not believe any version of CR will be better than zDk, frozt, chewbacca, dazed, and myself. The teamwork and friendship on that team was what made us so good. We were able to beat out many of the CGS teams at the time and are quite proud of our accomplishments during that roster. The only reason they did pick up tck and shaffer was the ability to possibly go to Europe. I, unfortunately, doubt that we will even see that happen and they are in for a surprise when they make there first LAN a European one.

How do you think there first LAN event will turn out especially against the European competition who have the time and money to play and attend events on a more consistent basis?

I unfortunately want to say we wont see them even place top 5. None of them really have an amazing LAN experience and without them actually properly preparing, which I assume they will not do based on our past, it will be an unfortunate placement.

You made a post on the forums about Dazed and Chewbacca constantly screaming at each other, do you think this will play a large roll in slowing down there progression as a team?

Yes, there constant screaming and bickering does not help progression at all. We would spend more time arguing about something then figuring out a solution to get it done. Many a practice would get ruined due to these arguments, which usually were very stupid.

What are your plans, where can we expect to see xperience in the next few months?

I've been approached by a couple teams in both Source and 1.6. I have been thinking about going back to 1.6, but unfortunately I played politics way to late in 1.6. I think I will mostly getting back to life, hopefully getting back to school and continuing my job as a web developer. I plan on using all this spare time to improve myself programmer wise and self wise.

Again I would like to say thank you for sitting down with GotFrag for this interview and wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors.


Frozt/Dazed
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I would like to start this off by thanking both of you for participating in this interview with GotFrag. After winning CEVO-P last season and going 14-0 this season, why were there decisions made to change a winning roster?

Dazed: Xperience quit the team, so we were left with me chewy p0s and frozt. then shaffer/tck wanted to merge and we accepted. I feel bad for trevor because he is a really good player and I liked him a lot, he is after all most powerful.

Frozt: Thanks. We had been contemplating switching up our rosters for some time, as you know the Source scene is weaker in North America than in Europe. We wanted to put together a team that was as dedicated as us 3 (Chewbacca, Dazed, and myself). Lloyd and Trey (shaffer and tck) seemed to be the perfect fit, and once we were approached by them and talked over our goals for the future we made the decision. We felt with our old team we had hit the limit for how good our team could be.

To my understanding there was an argument that led up to xperience quitting the team, what happend?

Dazed: There was no argument, he left the team after a bad scrim we had and that was that. We never talked shit about him, never said anything bad about him, he just left. that was what lead to us changing rosters. We were searching for a replacement for next season though, we had no plans to make any changes during the season.

Frozt: Originally xperience led us to believe he was quitting over the summer after this season, so weeks before we had began searching for a replacement. After a bad scrim one night Adam left the server and decided to just quit. After our pick up of shaffer and TCK, Adam decided to come back and change his excuse for quitting. Adam now claims his reason being that we had been "arguing" too much for his likings and couldn't handle it anymore and decided to leave. We had not planned to change the roster until at least next season depending on whether xperience decided to stay or not. Him quitting just put us in a situation were we need to make a change. Had he not quit, our roster might have ended up completely different. Though we now believe this roster change was the better choice, preventing any issues down the road :D

How do you feel about the new roster, can we expect the new Vitriolic to perform at the same level Cyber Rev has in the past?

Dazed: Well, with any new roster we are still in a feeling out process and just trying to get everyone on the same page. I feel like once we work out the kinks and get in a groove together, we will be better then we were in the past.

Frozt: The new roster is a completely different style then that we have played with in the past. With xperience we had a more aggressive primarily rifle, with Lloyd taking his spot we have a better AWPer. With Trey taking on p0s' role as a hybrid aggressive / passive rifler. This changes our approach to maps and benefits us sometimes being able to run 3 AWPs. But with any team the most important factor is time, we feel this team has more dedication and is more eager to put in the time to be a top team not only in the US but world wide. You have to remember we've only been playing together for two weeks. Where as we had essentially the same 4 on the old Cyber Revolution for close to a year. Once we get a feel for our new teammates play styles and approach to the game we can better adjust our strats to fit the teams new play style :D

That brings me to my next question, i38. Xperience made the statement "None of them really have any amazing LAN experience and without them actually properly preparing which I assume they will not do based on our past it will be an unfortunate placement." Does How are you feeling about i38, do you think you will be ready for the event as a team when the time comes to travel, and what is Vitriolic doing to prepare for the event?

Dazed: To prepare for the event we have just been practicing a lot, and have been fixing any mistakes that we make whenever we make them. We have also been playing against euros to help prepare. I think when the event comes we will be very prepared as we are getting the basics down on all our maps and will go into more detail as we go along.

Frozt: I don't quite understand where xperience is coming from. I'd say the only person on the team that has little to no LAN experience is myself. DaZeD has attended a number of West Coast LAN's here in SoCal including Howies, Gigafrag's and Showdown and done extremlely well. TCK has attended almost ALL LAN's in the North East. Shaffer is just shaffer no one should think he doesn't have LAN experience by now. Also Chewbacca has attended the CGS combine. Not many people can really say they've competed at events as big as the i-series in Europe sporting over 100+ teams. We've been playing against the European play style with 100 ping which isn't quite the same. But the Euro's have been really helpful playing us and getting used to our play style. We're planning to place high and either way enjoying our trip overseas :D