The loss of an IGL, star player, and handy support rifler in the space of a few weeks would push most CS2 projects into dissolution, but Chris "dexter" Nong and Off Chops are carrying on with their chins up in Brisbane this week.
They're fighting in the group of death at DFRAG Invitational; while they palmed off Ground Zero with relative ease on day one, Off Chops fell to international squad Alter Ego in the upper-bracket qualifier, and now, they fight for their lives against a rested NEXVOID squad that dispatched of Off Chops at Logitech G Pro Series last week.
Prior to the Brisbane LAN circuit, Off Chops opted out of playing Asia qualifiers this season, citing ping differential for the east coast-based team.
But dexter sees a change in the wind for Asia's approach to VRS next season, and as he said to DFRAG, if OCE wants to send a team to the major, they may need to play as many events in "Asia" as possible — something that's only really possible from Perth right now.
Day one at DFRAG Invitational for Off Chops was a bit mixed; we saw a win over Ground Zero but the loss to Alter Ego in the upper bracket. One pistol round in the eight maps played didn't help, but was the extra time played a confidence booster at least?
“It wasn’t really a confidence booster, I expect us to win that opener every time. [Ground Zero] haven't been playing well and they're also down a main player in HaZR.
“For Ancient [against Alter Ego], we actually probably expected better for that map. We weren't playing well there, we lost an eco round and… that was pretty bad. It was my bad, really. They just shot us in the back.
“We lost a lot of silly situations on Inferno. We came in with poor comms and it hurt us. We played really bad, and I didn’t think they played very well. We should have just ran with it.”
You’re back in the IGL seat for the first time in a while, and you’ve got the former coach in Eddie “viridian” Azzi next to you. How have you felt settling back into the role, and what is the dynamic like given the chopping and changing of the roster?
“It’s been pretty chill, it's kind of fun to do it again. Everyone’s been pretty easy to play with and whatnot.
“I think in Australia it's really easy to IGL. Today we lacked a lot of things to make it easy to IGL, but still overall, it’s been pretty good.
“Regarding developing our game, there hasn’t been so much of that. We definitely did our best with the time we had, but it's good to use my experience with IGL’ing because I know how to have a lot of things that actually matter in terms of the game rather than just a strat-heavy robotic play style. That's what I kind of focus on.
“Usually with that style, you can play well and everything will flow well, but if you lose eco rounds like we did today it’s going to be a lot tougher — comms are missing and the flow is a bit off.”
Prior to the Brisbane LANs this month, the squad (then THUNDER dOWNUNDER) made the call to skip out on several Asia-hosted qualifiers and stick to only local online events. In retrospect, do you believe this approach was correct? Do you think it’s viable for OCE squads to only stick to OCE events, even online ones?
“I think it's very viable. I think it's pretty close to us getting at least two spots [at the major] as well. However, it's all relying on other teams, who have caught on to the tactics that we've used, like playing at all the LANs in Australia. We have to just basically have our own thing… in a word, abuse it, but not really?
“But yeah, coming into next year, I don't think that's going to be possible, because there’s going to be so many more events [in Asia] and you have to be consistent. Everyone basically needs to play in Western Australia now, because there’s no way you can even try to play from Sydney or Melbourne to Singapore with the ping.”
I want to touch on the mood in the camp following the last month or so, in which you’ve lost your original IGL aliStair to FlyQuest, your star rifler asap to BC.Game, and long-time member TjP to Sashi (Rooster for this event), not to mention the branding change to Off Chops. What was the feeling in the team camp throughout this time, especially in the lead-up to LAN given it all broke down days before ANZC Locals.
“The vibe… I think it was fine, but really sad. We can hatewatch everyone else as much as possible, but really we’re used to that kind of shit happening for being an Australian team.
“You have to accept it and just keep pushing on, because you’re always going to be down in the dumps. We’ve come into this event with a week, maybe a week-and-a-half’s practice — it’s not great to be honest, but we’re still trying to be positive. There’s not much you can do.”
The TjP move in particular came so late, to the point where you guys were forced into forfeiting the first LAN of this Brisbane run. Was there a sense of betrayal when you found out from him that he was going?
“[TjP] messaged Eddie [viridian] to tell us, we didn’t hear it from him, but yeah look, it’s fine. I don’t blame the guy for going, but also I did warn him not to go, it’s very sus. My experience with the owner of Sashi… when someone calls you and they tell you how rich they are, they’re not actually that rich and they’re not doing that well.
“Things happened. It’s unfortunate for them; it’s fine to go as players and chase that opportunity, but I don’t have much respect for the org and their owners.”
But an opportunity from a storied org pops up, you’re all for OCE players taking it?
“For sure, anyone should take it, everyone should take it, but you could just smell the shit coming from [Sashi].”
Looking forward into next season now, with the race to the Buenos Aires Major basically underway for Off Chops. Have you begun preparing for that and looking that far ahead? What is the team looking like by then, what can you share?
“Definitely, we’re looking ahead to next season. [Viridian] will still be our coach, he’s been pretty clear on it. For now we’re just playing the last couple of events together to get as many VRS points as we can and get experience as a team.
“After [DFRAG Invitational] we’ll probably take a little bit of a break, but we have a fifth that we’ve been talking to for the last two weeks that’s keen to join, then we’ll wait and see.”
More on Off Chops' new fifth coming up after DFRAG Invitational wraps, but it's not over yet for dexter's crew — Off Chops takes on NEXVOID in their group-stage decider today at 1pm AEST.
For more OCE and Asia CS2 esports news, stick with us at DFRAG.gg.
