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ELEAGUE Major Boston: Jason ‘Moses’ O’Toole previews opening stage

By Brittany Frederick

WEEK FIVE THURSDAY SEASON TWOQUARTERFINALS
WEEK FIVE THURSDAY SEASON TWOQUARTERFINALS /
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The ELEAGUE Major Boston opens Friday with The New Challengers, and ELEAGUE analyst/caster Jason ‘Moses’ O’Toole previews the first stage with FanSided.

The ELEAGUE Major Boston kicks off today with The New Challengers (formerly known as the Major Qualifier), where 16 teams will battle it out to advance in the first big Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament of 2018.

FanSided joined ELEAGUE analyst, caster and general jack of all trades, Jason “Moses” O’Toole, to preview The New Challengers and give us his response to the concern about whether there’s a big enough talent lineup for the Major.

Find out what Jason had to say about the first stage below and then tune in exclusively to Twitch to watch live starting at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT from Jan. 12 to Jan. 15.

Limited tickets for the ELEAGUE Major Boston’s live competition phase at Agganis Arena are still available here.

FanSided: The New Challengers is the Major qualifier, so there will be Counter-Strike teams in this group that ELEAGUE fans haven’t seen a lot of, if at all. Are there any of these teams that you particularly think fans should keep an eye on?

Jason O’Toole (JOT): Renegades they saw in season 1, but it’s pretty much a brand new lineup. SPUNJ is no longer there. He’s been out for some time. They’ve got Nifty, who’s been a really cool player to watch. They have NAF coming in from OpTic, who were the season 2 champions. He’s been playing like a badass for them. There’s that. I think Misfits is a pretty cool team that’s [got] a core of North American players.

Then you have teams like Space Soldiers. You have teams like Vega Squadron, who’ve been around. They’ve been to a couple qualifiers. They’re the team that upset Ninjas in Pyjamas at the major qualifier for Atlanta last year. They also scared a couple teams at the PGL qualifier. So you have some of these teams that the casual fan might not know, but for the last few majors some of these teams have caused quite a battle.

I know for a number of years now, people have been talking about Space Soldiers as being the next team to be able to make the jump up and actually challenge the established professional circuit, coming out of Turkey. They’re always fun to watch as they get new experiences and more experiences competing with the best.

FanSided: ELEAGUE Premier winners FaZe Clan are in this qualifier due to their placement at PGL Krakow. Do you concur with the general belief that they’ll have an easy time getting out of this opening round?

JOT: It depends on who they are going to draw, but I think it should overall be pretty much just a walk in the park. They have a dominant record. I don’t think Liquid would ever beat them, which is their first round matchup. Liquid’s even using a stand-in.

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Outside of that, I think the only teams who could really trip up FaZe is someone like G2, perhaps Cloud9 if they have a really good game. Then maybe Mousesports if they get some of the right pieces going off. Na’vi has a chance as well with some of the skill they have.

The big thing to note is they might get tripped up, but it’s [the] Swiss system, so you have three chances to qualify. You have to lose three times to get eliminated. You have to win three times to qualify. I don’t see three teams tripping them up.

FanSided: Both of the best-known North American teams are also in The New Challengers. How important is it to see Team Liquid and/or Cloud9 qualify for ELEAGUE Major Boston?

JOT: It’s super-important, and it’s not just because it’s a North American major. If you look at Cloud9, if you look at Team Liquid, those are the two teams that have raised the bar for North American teams.

It’s no longer enough for these guys to just qualify for the Major … We’re looking at our teams now in North America and saying you should be able to get Top 8, and you should with a good run be able to make it to the semifinals, and you should be able, with a great run, to make it to the grand final.

Those two teams, I think at a certain point you have to look at them and say qualifying for the Major, or getting through this main qualifier circuit, is kind of like a must do thing for a lineup that has this much skill, this many of the best players in our scene, this much money invested into them.

FanSided: There are also several interesting things happening at ELEAGUE Major Boston when it comes to the talent. You casted with Anders Blume at last fall’s ELEAGUE Premier; what has it been like for you to develop that duo a bit more?

JOT: It’s going well. We have worked together so many times in the past, whether it’s on a desk, whether it’s in a tri-cast, whether it’s just one-off here and there. We’re very good friends, so we have that kind of natural chemistry.

I think the strangest part of it is, if you look at how all of the duos came up and how it operates, Matt [Trivett] and Henry [Greer] worked the PGL season together for months on end and then they do ESL Pro League together now. Dan [“DDK” Kapadia] and James [Bardolph] have the Faceit and ECS leagues.

Anders and I, since this switch happened, there’s no real league for us to be that face, that duo, that takes the mantle of it. So we haven’t had as many day to day, week to week, experiences of trying to build up this chemistry. It kind of happens in patches. You get that one event where you work it for a week with him, and you try and fix everything and talk about what’s going on and figure things out.

I think we’re just very lucky to have a natural chemistry from having worked together for so long. It’s just one more thing that’s going to be the next step, which is this Major where we’re going to be casting together. I’m sure we’ll also cast with some other people, but overall, I think we’re both enjoying where it’s gone so far.

FanSided: Let’s talk about that talent lineup. There’s been some criticism from the Counter-Strike community, and a few of your colleagues, about what’s perceived as not enough talent for the demands of the Major. What’s your take on the situation?

JOT: I came into this Major with the understanding that it would be similar to how they did the ELEAGUE Premier, where the casters would rotate onto the desk once in a while. There was some of that outrage in the community, saying there’s only two analysts with Janko [Paunovic] and I being there, but there’s going to be some rotation onto the desk.

I think Jordan [Gilbert] is coming in for the group stages. There’s going to be plenty of analysis going on, and we’ll get some of the casters in, who — maybe with not as much depth of knowledge and experience on the desk — are very entertaining personalities. That’ll be a fun change of pace, I think, to break up some of the staleness of doing so many events at the same desk.

That being said, we’d obviously love to have SPUNJ [Chad Burchill]. We’re going to miss him here. He’s been great. Alex [“Machine” Richardson], we’re going to miss him here. He’s been great all year as well.

It was one of the questions we had when negotiating, just because at the last ELEAGUE Major Duncan [“Thorin” Shields] and I were pretty much run ragged, between doing the Major qualifier — which was four days of Swiss, which are minimum 14-hour days — and then going right into the Major itself, and doing Swiss and the playoffs, and pretty much me, Richard [Lewis] and Duncan working every single game.

I think there was only one day off in between, so we were way overworked for that. And I think it kind of started to show as the event went on, that we were just getting exhausted and ran ragged. That was one of the things that I talked about, when they talked to me about doing the event, was you need to hire another analyst. You need to have some kind of rotation on the desk. We won’t be able to last.

I think that’s kind of their solution, where they can bring in some of the casters. They’re bringing in Jordan to give [us a] break. To get some kind of fresh energy [and] a little bit of personality onto it. A little bit of fun to be had on the desk.

And I think the schedule’s actually not as intensive as people might think. I understand the concerns and everything, but we have four days on and then three days off and then four days on and then three days off and then three days. That’s a pretty manageable schedule. Especially with some rotations.

I think the biggest criticism, and I think this is where most people come from, even if they don’t say it, is the Major as an event in itself is that celebration of Counter-Strike, all the Counter-Strike leading up to that point. It’s supposed to be the pinnacle of half the year. The best teams are going to be there and you want to have the people who have brought you good shows and done great content, and then great personalities for all the shows throughout the year.

I think also it’s not up to us as talents, so I guess there’s that, but that’s just the main thing. You just want to have the people who’ve been there all year. And that’s not a criticism of ELEAGUE. I don’t criticize ELEAGUE for that whatsoever. They get to choose their own talent lineup, it’s just I think that’s where the community perspective comes from more than anything.

FanSided: ELEAGUE Major Boston is expanding its talent footprint, though, by bringing back the likes of Janko, HenryG and Sadokist. So does it feel like most of the band is here, even though it isn’t everyone?

JOT: In one sense it’s like that, but in another sense the guys that I mentioned that aren’t here — the band is never truly together if we don’t have someone like SPUNJ here, if we don’t have someone like Alex here. So in that sense it’s a bummer, but we’re all excited to get back and put on a really good show to kick off the year. It’s one of those things, especially for Alex with Richard being a desk host, it would have been hard to make space for him.

Even with Semmler being gone to go to Overwatch, that’s kind of a weird switch. I’ve never done a major without Semmler in the green room or casting with him or something. So that’s going to be a new experience. Duncan as well. We’re missing a couple guys, but we’re such a tight-knit group that it’s all gonna work out.

Next: ELEAGUE Major Boston details and talent lineup

ELEAGUE Major Boston: The New Challengers is now streaming on Twitch. For complete coverage of the Major, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.