huNter- chats with us about the new update at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups. Be sure to check out part one of our interview to here more from G2’s rifler.
Hugo ‘TheSwedishJoker’ Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: Last year CS came out with a new update from Valve. Nerfing the M4. Are you disappointed or do you feel like it was a good update from valve?
huNter- : I mean I was disappointed with the map changes that they were doing. Not because of the change but because they brought new maps again and not the old ones. So, we have a lot of new maps but about the M4 I am not disappointed because the silencer before was OP and that’s why the CT sides were always taking 10-11 rounds. And now it’s a bit different, I think. Even for us when we practice and when we play officials on T sides it is easier to play. Because really silencer was OP especially with 25 bullets before.
Now it’s 20. Now it’s more realistic. 2.9k is fine. And I’m still choosing and I’m not sure with which m4 I should play because the A4 is 3.4k and sometimes I dont have money to buy anything else except m4 and maybe smoke. But with silencer I always have some more money to buy extra utility, I can buy utility that can also win us a round as well. I am still in between but [will give it] a final try before the beginning of this event so we will see.
BLIX: Do you feel like it has had an effect on the way you played the game that you might have to have done some changes to accommodate for being less open?
huNter-: You have a lot of players who are good at shooting through the smoke. And the silencer putting you at 20 bullets makes it a bit tougher. because you cannot just spam through smokes because people can just cross. 20 bullets is not enough compared to 30 for example. 10 bullets extra is amazing because you can shoot through smoke 20 and then you have 10 more if somebody wants to cross. But if you shoot 20 you need to reload, and people can cross the smoke and kill you in the meantime.
That’s the main reason. I think silencer for me is still better when you have one on one duel against anyone, compared to M4. But I think this thing: shooting through smoke, shooting through the wall, that is the main deal.
BLIX: We’ve talked a little bit about Anubis. You mentioned that that was the most disappointing thing about the update. Do you think that Anubis is a decent map to have in the map pool but maybe that they shouldn’t have removed dust 2 because I know it was one of your favorite maps to play at least as a team?
huNter-: Yeah exactly that’s what I wanted because the last two or three times they brought a new map it was vertigo, it was ancient and now it’s Anubis. It feels weird, for example, if they remove Inferno, Nuke now and bring in two new maps it’s not CS anymore. You need to have a lot of legendary maps in the pool and sometimes from time to time bring in new maps. Because old maps are a bit hard because in 1.6 and source. Even for people who are watching it’s much more interesting to watch old maps. Of course, they can change something and they can do some updates like they were doing in the past, but bringing a fully new map over and over again, I don’t think it’s smart. I don’t have anything against Anubis.
I like the map overall. It’s a bit T-sided now. I think they will do some updates because it’s not easy to play on CT side. I mean, it’s still the beginning. People will maybe find some new things to be better on CT, but I still think it’s really tough to play on CT side. And yeah, in the future, I would like to see some old maps again, like switch to the new map or whatever. Because, for example, you remember vertigo, how many times they did updates, and everything. It was crazy. You practice for nothing for like three months. Then again three new months you practice for nothing. You need to change everything. Like now for instance, what they did with the update, it’s a different map, it’s not the same map, you know the angles, you know everything, but it’s a big difference. Big difference.
BLIX: Do you think that it has the potential to be a good map for riflers like you or do you think that they have to make changes for it to become a good map for you to play as a CT?
huNter-: I think it’s fine. It’s not that bad to play as a CT, but it is bad. For example, this mid area on T-side, it’s really easy to take because you can just take it with two mollies or smoke and a molly and of course, It’s not easy to play when you have a good aim. It’s not easy to play against utility. It’s always tough, you always want to have clear duels, clear shots but if people are spamming with utility, with flashes, it’s not easy of course, I think this mid-area is the main deal if they need to do something.
So, CT’s are much more comfortable on the map because NiKo is holding this area, not me. So I’m fine. But anyways, he’s tilting so much on practices, we are laughing, but we know it’s tough for him. But we are trying to find the answers to how to help him the most because NiKo is obviously a really important guy for our team, and we need to make him comfortable.
huNter : NiKo is obviously a very important guy for our team.
BLIX: Would you have seen any of the old maps come in instead of Anubis? We have Cache, for example, on the bench, Tuscan, Train, etc.
huNter- : Cache? For sure. Like Tuscan is fine as well. I was never a big fan of Train, but it is a legendary map and I never liked to play it because I was always playing Ivy and CT, it was tough. And Cache. I think I missed Cache a lot. I was really good on this map. I like this map. And everyone in our team liked Cache now, even m0nesy and NiKo and everybody. So, yeah, Cache is the main map that I want to see in the future, if possible.
BLIX: Valve also recently came out with a new sort of ranking system for the RMRs after the Rio Major where FaZe got knocked out really early and it was something that we’ve never really seen for with the seedings. Do you think that that is the right way to go for Valve? Or do you think that they should have maybe waited out a few more majors and see if we have that happen again and then make the change?
huNter-: I think it’s the right thing. I’m not saying it because we lost in the RMR. So, if it was the old system, we needed to start from zero, like from open qualifier, literally. So, for us, of course, it’s good and I was really happy when I saw that news because playing open qualifiers against random people who are just friends and making stacks and best of ones, I think it’s really tough. Then after you have a closed qualifier, then you have RMR and I think for the team and for the organization, like G2, it’s not how it should work.
So, I think they did the right move and yeah, I’m not talking because we lost, we deserve to go from open qualifier because it was like that, but I’m really happy that we are not doing that. And like, we have now the most points, I think, at the end of the season on RMR. So, we’ll have a first seed in European RMR. So, it’s crazy, but yeah, we got lucky. We got lucky.
