Goga: “It was important to stop, I was pretty burned from the game“.

Daniel “Goga” Romero, a 27-year-old from Spain is a Siege legend. Goga started his career in gBots and in less than a year, the Spanish player went to bigger flights and joined the international roster of Penta alongside legends like Niclas “Pengu” Mouritzen and Fabian “Fabian” Hällsten.

In Penta, Goga collected international achievements like Season 1 and 2 of Pro League and a Six Invitational. Then, the team moved to G2 and the wave of titles was not over. It was followed by the Six Major Paris, Pro League Season 8 Finals, Dreamhack Winter and Six Invitational 2019 titles.

The end of an era: leaving G2

“After the Invitational we weren’t doing that good in Pro League anymore, we went to Raleigh Major. We did well until the final, we lost and after Raleigh, we were not good in Pro League still and we went to DreamHack in Montreal and we lost in the group stage. After that, basically, there was a need for changes so they put me on trial and in the end decided to put me on the bench and find a new player instead of keeping me”.

Joining Vitality: high expectations, changes and more changes

“After G2, Vitality contacted me, and I joined them. Everything was fine in terms of my teammates, they were nice and my friends, the organization was also very good but unfortunately, the roster that we had wasn’t working very well so made changes for the next season and that’s when Fabian came in.”

“We still didn’t have the ideal roster because in the next season we didn’t do pretty good either, so it came to the conclusion that after that season there were two teams: Fabian, me and three players that we were trialing and the French roster with risze, BiBoo and they were also trialing players. In the end, Vitality chose the French roster and that’s when Fabian and I went to the bench.”

“I don’t think we met the expectations, everyone, including ourselves, expected more from that roster that we had but as I said, the team didn’t work. We didn’t have enough synergy, we were making a lot of mistakes that cost us a lot of rounds and games.”

A return to his origins

“After Vitality, I got benched and I took a break for myself because I was burned from the game from playing a lot. After some months, in August; it was just a normal day and Movistar, they were missing one player for practice. I told them ‘I can practice with you if you want so you don’t miss it’.”

“They wanted to do that, they liked the way we played and basically, they tried to convince me to get back to the game and play with them. I was having a lot of free time and asked myself, why not? It would be a new experience, I never played in the Spanish league.”

The importance of taking a break

“It was important to stop, I was pretty burned from the game. When you’re playing professionally in Rainbow Six, especially in Pro League at the max level you don’t have free time at all. I remember we had one free day a week and the other days were constantly practicing during the afternoon from 3 pm to 10 pm. Having that break was very good for me because I could enjoy the free time and do the things I wanted to do.”

Spanish roster compared to the others

“In Movistar we won the Iberia Masters, we beat every team and we didn’t lose any map. We had a very strong team in nationals and when it comes to internationally, I can say that we practice a lot of times against EUL teams like BD, G2, LFO, etc, and we are doing decent.”

“The objective right now is to win the Spain Nationals and qualify for the Challenger League and let’s see how we do there. I think we have a decent level for the Challenger League but obviously, we need to see how it goes in the official matches.

Rafael: Confident?

“Yes we are like I said we have a strong team and if we keep this mentality once we’re at the Challenger League (if we get there, obviously) I think we can do a good paper.”

Organizations differences

“I would say for example like in G2 and Vitality, obviously because when you are in a bigger league you have more economic compensation and the economic support is way better and you can Bootcamp more often. That’s one side but when I was in G2 and Vitality we didn’t have for example a psychologist and that kind of support which we do in Movistar and Rebels.”

“I think this is also, back then the scene wasn’t as developed as it is today. But in general, they are pretty much the same. Obviously, the economic compensation depends on the League that you’re playing in. Personally, I can say that I received a lot of support from G2, Vitality, Movistar and Rebels, they’re all very good organizations in my opinion.”

Spanish R6’s state, leaving Riders and joining Rebels

“The Spanish league numbers, viewers, prize pool, etc are less than before. We’re losing viewers, etc, so the organizations are losing money. In this case for Movistar Riders, it wasn’t working for them because they couldn’t give decent conditions to us to stay in the league.”

“Once we were told that, we needed to find a new organization. This is when we got in touch with Rebels after the Six Masters Iberia. They were interested in us and we came to an agreement to join them. David De Gea, I can tell you that he is a good fan of the game, he likes R6 a lot, he congratulated us on the Six Masters Iberia winning and he’s supporting us watching the Spanish League games, he’s a good guy.”

Rebels ready to dominate the Iberia

Rafael: Do you consider yourselves favourites to win the Spain Nationals?

“Honestly? Yeah, that’s the objective. We are confident and as I told you, we’re practising against EUL teams and that helps us a lot to have good results in the Spanish League. I think we will win the Spain Nationals and we should win it because we have the level and the confidence to do that!”

“There are some good teams like eMonkeyz, even though their start was a bit rough, and also Principality has some good players and I think those are the teams that we need to be careful of. Apart from them, I think the level is a bit low, especially compared to previous seasons. I think the previous seasons we had a higher level and some talents in other teams. I think the level is a bit lower compared to before.”

Coaching role

Speaking about his work giving lessons and tips about Rainbow Six on an external platform: “This is not about being a coach, I was offered to do that and I said why not? I thought it would be something fun to do so I decided to give it a try. I can do it at the same time I play professionally, it doesn’t interfere with the timings so I can still perform as a player.”

Rafael: Will you consider being a coach in the future?

“I will consider it but it really depends on the situation that I am in. I like being a player and let’s say for example after winning the Spain Nationals I decide that I don’t really want to be a player I would give it a try. Personally, I think my strength in Rainbow Six is not skill like aiming, movement, etc, but more the thinking part, telling people what to do, I can see people’s mistakes very easily. I think I would be fine as a coach.”

Immediate focus

“Right now the focus is to win the Spain Nationals because I never won this tournament and if we qualify for the Challenger League the best objective that we can go for is to win the Challenger League and qualify for the EUL, just like neLo did. It would be nice to do something like that.”

Other games, other adventures?

“I do play Apex a lot. Once I’m out of R6 maybe I’ll give it a try, why not? I really like the game and I enjoy it a lot, which is something very difficult to do with Rainbow Six for me right now because of the cheaters, metagame, etc. Rainbow Six is a game that I’m not enjoying it a lot, right now to be honest. VALORANT is also a game that I really like and maybe I’ll give it a try in the future, I don’t know…”