Gratisfaction on his one-off stand-in with FlyQuest: 'The call was good timing'

Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai was the go-to man for FlyQuest ahead of the HyperX Intel Nationals. With limited time before kickoff, FQ called upon the Kiwi to step in and help deliver the squad it's first OCE title in it's debut in the region.

And boy, did he deliver. Gratisfaction was the second-highest rated player at the event, recording a +62 kill diff. and a 1.42 rating in the team's perfect run in Brisbane.

Many will remember Grat for his time as the Renegades magician, playing a pivotal role in the team's 2019 campaign that featured a top-four finish at a major and eventually a runner-up medal at IEM Beijing.

But it was a rocky road after the squad moved on from 100 Thieves, eventually dissolving at EXTREMUM. He's bounced around looking for the right chance to dive back in ever since.

Grat played with plenty of freedom and certainly made the most of his opportunity with FQ in Brisbane, but as he explains to DFRAG, he saw it as a chance to help out a few mates in a time of need.

First off, an important question from the fans. The moustache. It's gone, mate.

(Gratisfaction laughs) "It's too much maintenance, hey? It makes me look goofy as fuck. If I don't style it as well then I look like Confucius or something. Now I just avoid it."

Let's talk this weekend. Congratulations, a win for you and the FlyQuest boys, and a pretty comfortable win at that, as expected I'm sure. Talk me through the experience and the somewhat unexpected reunion.

"Bit of a blowout, but it was pretty chill, fun stuff. Good to be LAN'ing again, and it's a lot different playing with an Australian team versus the international rosters I've been in for the past two teams.

"Unfortunately we couldn't get Aaron [AZR] out here but it was great to see jks again, Mog [manager GoMeZ], Josh [INS] from the old days.

"[The stand-in call] was just good timing. After story left they just needed an AWP for this event, and they just reached out to me. I think every other AWPer in Australia is probably taken at the moment."

What have you been up to after the Alter Ego departure? Last few months in particular you've been carving up in FACEIT and keeping warm...

"Not so much actually. In the last few weeks I've been a few pugs here and there. Maybe every three or four days I'll jump on and have couple of pugs when I've got some time."

Take me back to the dissolution of the Renegades/100 Thieves/EXTREMUM core back in 2022. Where was your mind at in terms of competing after such an intense three years, which included setting records for most subsequent LAN maps for a team?

"Going from 100 Thieves to EXTREMUM, we had a lot of spots at ESL and BLAST events, and one of the owners of EXTREMUM said when we were moving over told us not to worry about missing any of the spots and that he'd handle it.

"He ended up kind of messing around and losing us these spots for us, as the owner of EXTREMUM also owned a betting sponsor, and figured that because that sponsor was sponsoring everything we'd get spots. That's not at all how it worked, what with stuff like the Louvre Agreement.

"He just fucked it around. So then we ended up just playing like tier-two, tier-three online stuff, and it was hard to play those after going so long on LAN. Then the RMRs were online, they didn't go well either, and that was the end of that.

"The vibes in the team were off at this point. Mentally, I was destroyed [after the RMR], and that's why I took a break. AZR hit me up for the Encore gig, and I figured I'd give that another try but I still wasn't mentally there, so I took a longer break."

Then the move to NKT, with erkaSt and BnTeT happened. It would have been quite a change of scenery?

"erkaSt reached out to me, they needed a new AWPer. He just knew that I was free and I decided to do it, I didn't have anything else going on in life.

"To me, the roster seemed really good, and so I decided to take a really low pay for it, like it was a pure passion project. But by the time I got there the vibes were off again, the players already hated each other in the team.

"There was just no way to make it work. I couldn't council them through the things they hated each other for. The organisation was also messing me around with visas; I kept telling them if they didn't sort it I'd just leave.

"I was on tourist visas for half a year, but eventually I was held at the airport until a flight was booked home to New Zealand, so I took that flight home. It was a throwaway team, another shitshow."

I imagine that looked a lot different from this return for you with Alter Ego. It seemed like the roster was beginning to piece together something as far as VRS was coming along, and there was an outside chance at an upset appearance at a major.

"The team was really good in practice. I think nerves got the best of everyone though. We obviously needed to play a couple LANs, just a few and it would have been enough to make a major in Asia.

"The organisation and the coach just didn't see the point, but at the one LAN we finally played after eight months or something, everyone just choked. We had a bad showing, and the org doesn't want to pay for people to go to LAN if they're just going to choke.

"But the only way to get more LAN experience is to play more LAN, so it became a conundrum, a catch-22."

What's next going forward? It was clear enough that this wasn't going to be something permanent, so was this an opportunity to show that you're still around and eager?

"Not particularly, it was just to help the lads out and have a bit of fun, catch up with the boys. That was pretty much it. If any teams want to pick me up, I'll probably accept!"

Seems pretty clear: Gratisfaction is back in action and a free agent. Given how he played on LAN this past weekend, he may not be free for long. Orgs, get in touch now.

For more OCE CS news stay tuned to DFRAG.