ELEAGUE Clash for Cash: Jason ‘Moses’ O’Toole previews the epic rematch

Friday’s ELEAGUE Clash for Cash rematches one of the greatest CSGO rivalries, and Jason ‘Moses’ O’Toole previewed the battle with FanSided.

The ELEAGUE Clash for Cash is running back one of the most phenomenal matches in the history of competitive Counter-Strike, so it makes sense that Jason “Moses” O’Toole would be involved.

Moses was at the analyst desk the day that Virtus.pro and Astralis slugged it out in the ELEAGUE Major Grand Final, and he’ll be at the casting desk with the call of tonight’s rematch, in which the winning team snags a quarter-million dollars.

FanSided spoke to Moses on Thursday about the prospects of each team going into the Clash for Cash, getting to cast the event alongside his Room on Fire colleague Anders Blume and whether or not Virtus.pro should consider a roster change.

FanSided: When you heard about the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash, what was your initial reaction? Why go back to this particular match and do it again?

Jason “Moses” O’Toole: It’s a rematch of probably the best Grand Final we’ve ever had in any of the Majors, any of I think we’re up to 13 or 14 Majors at this point. So throughout all those it’s the best Grand Final that we’ve ever seen. [It has] some of the biggest names in the scene as well. And then just the idea that it’s one best-of-three for $250,000, that puts a lot of pressure on one match. Just a lot of excitement on how important that single game will be.

FS: The two teams have very different stories going into tonight’s rematch. Virtus.pro would seem to have much more at stake — they just got relegated from ESL Pro League again, people are saying they’re in another slump. Do they need to win the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash?

Moses: If they’re any other team, I’d say they really need a win to get some momentum back in their corner. But the one thing we’ve seen with Virtus.pro over the years is, no matter what kind of slump, no matter how long it lasts, at some point they bounce out of it. Now obviously, at some point, that’s going to stop … But these are just guys who are so used to going through the ups and downs, they’ve been playing for so long. And I think this is kind of where they just start climbing back up again.

So I don’t think they need to win. It would obviously be very nice to have, but these are guys who just seem to be able to flip a switch when the match is important, when it really, really, really, really means something. When it’s a big event like this, they just seem to know how to come out of their own bad form and just perform at a high level.

FS: We’ve just seen another longtime lineup, Ninjas in Pyjamas, make a roster change with the removal of Friberg. People had been calling for them to break up their core four because of the slumping that team has done. So what’s the difference between NIP’s situation and the issues of Virtus.Pro?

Moses: I think there’s two things with Virtus.pro that change their situation to NIP. One is being in Poland, they have a smaller group of people to pick from. Just because not everyone that they pick up can speak English per se, right? And the team wants to communicate in Polish. You have to pick a Polish player who is good enough, who you like well enough to travel and practice with, spend all this time together.

The other thing as well is Virtus.pro’s a team that’s broken every rule that’s really been established in terms of how long you can go without a roster change. In terms of, no matter how bad you look online, you can still perform at tournaments. No matter how bad you look over the stretch of three tournaments, you’ll always perform for the Major. They’ve always broken those types of rules, where it just seems like some of the tendencies that other teams have, that they fall into, just don’t apply to Virtus.pro. They get a pass in a sense that way.

Maybe it’s not fair but the way we just look at it is, with that reduced pool in Poland, it is a little bit more difficult for them to just reach out and find someone. The NiP guys, they can all speak English fine, if they wanted to switch to English and bring in someone new. I’m no expert on this, but I know there’s three or four Scandinavian countries over there [that] all can kind of understand other portions of each others’ language to a degree. So the assimilation isn’t as hard, if they bring in a Finnish player for a while who can understand some Swedish. Things like that.

FS: Conversely, Astralis shed their reputation for choking at the ELEAGUE Major. They’ve gone on to win IEM Katowice and just placed in the semifinals at IEM Sydney. What’s on the line for them this time other than money and pride?

Moses: The funny thing about Astralis is this is a team that was the hands-down number one for the first quarter of the year or so and they’ve been in a little bit inactive in traveling to tournaments. They’ve been kind of staying home at some of the events and everything like that. So just by virtue of not traveling to all the events that we’ve had going on, they’ve kind of lost that number one spot.

Now, that number one spot in the rankings doesn’t actually get you anything. It’s just kind of nice to have. But probably in a lot of people’s minds, [and] in my mind, I would still probably have them up there at number one despite some of their inactivity.

The big thing to remember about this match is these two have one of the biggest rivalries of the first portion of the year. These two teams after the Major and at DreamHack Las Vegas were on social media going at each other. They were talking in interviews like their entire goal of the tournament was just to destroy the other team, was just to beat them as bad as humanly possible. And VP won that last set between those two. This is just a lot of pride, and those [rivalries] always produce the best games.

FS: The original match was so close because there weren’t any glaring flaws in either team’s game. Everyone showed up, everyone played hard. So what do you look for in the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash? Are there maybe small details that could make the difference this time?

Moses: I think all eyes in this match are on Virtus.pro’s recent form. The second Major of the year is coming up in about two months, so everyone is kind of looking at VP and saying is this where we see them get back into shape? … Virtus.pro is just a team that you get a sense of when they are building up momentum and they’re going to be at their peak performance, so everyone’s kind of looking to get that feeling, that spark back from them.

For me personally, I always watch with Virtus.pro someone like Pasha, who has had a pretty up and down career in terms of when he produces and when he doesn’t. He was in great form in the beginning of the year. Also Taz just had a kid earlier in the year [and] Pasha just had a second kid. So I’m looking to see how much time they’ve been putting into practice, because those real-life obligations can take things away from you a little bit.

Then obviously with Astralis the question becomes, because they’ve been so inactive, this is one of the better teams that we have tactically and innovatively. So looking to see if they are going to be introducing some new concepts, new ideas. If they’re going to change things up from what we saw them doing a month or two ago, or if they are even going to reveal them for now. Because with the Major coming up, they want to hide some of the things they’ve been working on.

Just kind of interested to see how these teams have worked on changing themselves and how they’ve done with practice over the past two months or so.

FS: On the production side, the Clash for Cash is a milestone for you because it’s the first time you will cast a match for ELEAGUE. Fans may not know that you cast for ESL quite a bit, so what will it be like to be on the call for an ELEAGUE event?

Moses: It’s fun. I love casting and it’s almost like a mini-vacation for me to go and do something new. So yeah, it will be really, really cool. Obviously Anders [Blume] and I go way back. We’ve had a lot of broadcasts together over the years, a lot of high profile games that we’ve done together. That will be fun, to get up in that chair and see the other side of things.

FS: You’ve also served as a desk host, most recently for ESL Pro League. Richard Lewis called you someone who is “exceptionally versatile.” Is there a role in Counter-Strike that you haven’t done?

Moses: I did the desk [hosting] in Dallas [at the ESL Pro League finals]. I did the analyst. I did the casting. The only thing I would like to stay away from for as long as humanly possible is the stage hosting. That’s a bit much for me, I think. I would like to avoid having to walk out on stage and get an entire crowd excited and then do all that stuff. I’m not that good as the center of attention on the big stage, so I’m happy with the so many things that I’ve been doing lately.

FS: Speaking of Dallas, your friend Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill is taking your place at the ELEAGUE desk in the Clash for Cash. He did just beat you in the Dallas showmatch. Are you expecting any trash talk on Friday?

Moses: (laughs) It sucks when you lose one of those show matches on the stage and everything. You pretty much don’t hear the end of it until the next one happens. But they are all in good fun. The guys don’t take it too far. Chad and I have pretty much been traveling together to every event for the past three, four months, so there’s no bad blood between us.

I’m actually very, very excited to have him here. He’s a very easy to like guy, very smart guy, very energetic on the desk. He’s a benefit to whatever broadcast he’s a part of.

FS: Tonight’s match is also going to be different for Chad, working with Richard and Scott Smith as opposed to you. How do you think he’ll fit into the well-oiled machine that is ELEAGUE?

Moses: He’s going to do great. He’s a natural and we all kind of knew it the first time. The first time he was ever on a desk to begin with was when he was a player, in 2014 or 2015, I think it was. He was brought on after his team was eliminated for a segment. Everyone saw it back then, it was just like this guy, one day, whenever he decided to stop playing, is going to transition into a desk perfectly. He’s very, very good in a conversation. He’s very good at talking, very good at getting his point across.

We all know each other. Scott, Richard, Chad, myself, Anders, we’ve all done so many events together and worked together so many different times that it’s a little reunion with old friends. Everything falls into place pretty easy.

FS: The Clash for Cash has kind of a double function because it’s also building hype for the next ELEAGUE CSGO tournament in September. That’s less than three months away, so is there any storyline or team you’d like to see in the Premier?

Moses: There’s two teams that I would like to see competing, or at least in the qualifiers and everything to see if they can get in to it. I’m not exactly sure how the format’s going to work.

One of them from North America is CLG [Counter Logic Gaming]. They’re a team that was dead in the water two or three months ago and they’ve been able to turn themselves around. It didn’t look like that team was going to go anywhere. For a time they only had three players on the roster and then they make a pretty big blockbuster move in getting an Australian player from Chad’s old team Renegades, his name’s Rickeh. He’s looked excellent.

They’ve brought in FNS, the in-game leader that they’ve had cut about a year and a half ago. He came back in and he’s been playing very well. They have a guy named Koosta who has a lot of potential, who’s looking very good. They just seem in general to be on the rise. They’ve had some very good games against the best teams in North America. I want to keep seeing them improve, I want to see how high the ceiling can get. I would like to see them at a venue like this, in an environment like this.

Then from Europe there’s a team called Gambit who I think are excellent. They have Zeus, who was formerly Na’Vi’s in-game leader, and Na’Vi’s really dropped off since he left. They have a lot of young talent. They have a guy named Mou and they have a guy named Hobbit who are coming up. And they’re another team who’s online results don’t match up with how good they can be in tournament setting. They’re a very exciting team to watch as well. I think in some ways they don’t get as much love as they deserve, in terms of their invites to some of the top tier events around the world.

FS: Then the million-dollar question — who do you think wins the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash?

Moses: This is why it’s so tough with Virtus.pro. We have this thought process — I think it was YNk who first introduced this thought process and I love it. When you have Virtus.pro, you have a top 10 list and you rank all the teams in the top 10, but then you just leave Virtus.Pro out of it. You put them off to the side, because any day they can be the best team in the world and any day they can be the worst team in the world.

I think at this point all of us analysts have been so tired of doing Virtus.pro matches, because you can’t really say anything, because you just don’t know which Virtus.pro is going to show up. They can come in tomorrow and they could win every match 16-4, and they can come in tomorrow and lose each match 16-0. Obviously you don’t want either of those. You want the close games.

I would personally love to see Virtus.pro take it, just because I want some kind of indication that these guys are going to come back and be a top form for this run of huge events that we have coming up. Just in general, I think they are one of the most exciting teams and personalities and players that I think we have, especially when they’re playing well.

A guy like Taz, lifting trophies and then talking some s–t, we need more of that kind of attitude, more of that showmanship in that scene, so I want to see the people who can do it and are capable and good at it. I want them to have the chance to be able to back it up.

FS: How important do you think the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash is for the Counter-Strike scene in general?

Moses: I think as strong as this Astralis team is, it’s just attracted so many rivalries. When they were coming up at the end of last year, they had a rivalry with OpTic from the ELEAGUE [Season 2] finals and then the ECS [Esports Championship Series] finals. Back-to-back weekends, they lose one, they win one. Then coming into this year they had Virtus.pro at the grand final in the Major, and then Virtus.pro in the semifinals in Vegas. They lost one and they had all that smack talk going on between them. Now they have a rivalry with FaZe.

This Astralis team just seems to be like the rock. These guys are going to be good all year long. They’re going to be one of the top three teams in the world for the entire year, most likely, and they’re going to promote this kind of attitude with them.

Keep an eye on this rivalry between Astralis and Virtus.pro, because this could really kick off and reignite tomorrow if Virtus.pro comes out and wins this one. That’s going to be a really, really cool sequence to watch, and if this rivalry builds over the course of the year, it’s just going to be something incredible for the Counter-Strike scene.

Next: Blizzard announces new Overwatch map

The ELEAGUE Clash for Cash takes place tonight, June 16 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on TBS, Twitch, YouTube and ELEAGUE Game Command. You can also follow Moses on Twitter (@OnFireMoses) and check out more content from Room on Fire here.