The newly established organisation 8Sins has quickly made a name for itself at EPIC43. Led by 26-year-old in-game leader Matthew “moz” Gelder and coached by John “Dutchy” Holland, the team, featuring the core of the ex-Raptors lineup, secured a strong 3rd-place finish in their LAN debut. Although 8Sins is a fresh organisation, the core trio of moz, Michael John “Prime” Fury, and William “wfn” Maskrey have remained together, moving through two previous organisations before joining 8Sins.
With a solid understanding of each other’s playstyles and roles, moz now steps up as the team’s in-game leader. UKCSGO sat down with him to discuss his EPIC.LAN experience and his vision for the future as he transitions into this new role.
You’ve had a good run here at that so far. Your only draw was the first game, the team of ex-1.6 pros and then your only loss being to Verdant? How are you feeling? What are your expectations for this event?
I think we’ve been playing quite good, the odd hiccup, the first game of LAN which wasn’t ideal, but again, they played quite well. I don’t think we played too badly, we kind of got into our own head a bit but other than that I think we played a really, really good game. Obviously, it showed right? Because we had a really good group stage. Apart from the hiccup – we lost to Verdant, a very unfortunate game, 13-11 and that last map again. It almost feels like we lose to ourselves rather than the enemy team most of the time. That last game against the Dripmen was a good win for us, because I felt like we were always in control, and we weren’t making the mistakes we usually make.
Was it a good confidence booster?
Yeah, of course! I think we have a lot of players who play around “confidence.” I think especially f0cus. When he is on it, and he’s feeling confident, and he’s walking through the smokes and headshots people. That’s when we’re kind of our best and we just need to assert ourselves in that way on the server.
Tomorrow you’re playing for a spot in the consolidation final against Verdant fe. A mix consisting of CYPHER, dobbo, Gizmy, cryths and yoshwa. You’ve not played them yet. Are you worried in any way?
Obviously, they contain a lot of individual talent, that does not need to be said. I mean, we’re feeling confident. I think the last time I came about to play against CYPHER mix, which was a bit different. A bit less good players, but we still beat him and if we’re playing how we want to play and we’re feeling confident as well then why not?
I see that 8Sins is quite a new organization, and I can see that for this LAN you’re playing with Menacee. You officially don’t have a fifth yet, are you still kind of trialing or what’s going on here?
We picked up a player, but it wasn’t possible for him to come to this LAN. Menacee is a good friend of mine and we played together for ages, he’s very talented. So, why not? [laughs]
You signed Dutchy as a coach. You could say he’s a Kettering veteran at this point. What’s it like playing under him?
[Chuckles] Yeah, it’s really good. Obviously for me, I’ve only been IGLing for about six months now so I’m very, kind of, new to the role so with him and wfn on the AWP it’s helpful in the rounds. For example, you kind of get openings with his ideas of how we’re gonna play the round and stuff. Dutchy is really, really good, obviously he’s very experienced. It helps a lot, not only with the in-server but also with stuff outside the server, like morale, you know? Helps with keeping people in check, making sure we’re not tilting, kind of stuff like that, he’s all around.
You said you just transitioned into that role. Is he kind of like helping you adjust to it and help with the move?
Yeah, I mean, he depends a lot on me. I obviously don’t always have the ideas but it’s really important and he stresses the fact that I’m always kind of on it, and coming up with ideas and listening for stuff. With me being a new IGL that’s really, really beneficial because obviously there’s a lot about the role that I don’t know, but I’m slowly getting there. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there.
What made you transition into that role?
Just a lack of IGLs really. We had the whole roster move with Rhys, so obviously Rhys left TLR [TheLastResort] to join us as an IGL, Prime and wfn left to join Reason Gaming, and then Rhys joined back to TLR, it then just crumbled back together after Reason expanded. wfn was previously IGLing in Reason, he didn’t wanna do it any more. He’s much more impactful when he calls when he wants to make a play for example, and kind of leaving the rest to me. So yeah, that’s kind of why. Obviously, I’m quite old, I kind of know what I’m doing. I know Prime, wfn and Menacee really well, so it kind of just works out. They make it very easy for me.
Talking about Reason actually, you’re teaming up with Prime and WFN again. They were confirmed for Reason, which didn’t last too long. They joined you back in 8Sins. What was it like to play with them again? Did it impact any team chemistry or anything like that?
No, we’ve been mates for about four years now. You know, we meet up outside of CS and stuff, even though we don’t live too close to each other. We’re really good friends. There wasn’t any ill will. When they left to join Reason, it was kind of like they didn’t do it in spite or did anything in a bad way, there was no ill will. Obviously, we know what we’re getting, right? It’s the same car. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are.
Was it easier to adjust then?
Yeah. I think, when they left I created a new team with a couple of EU players, I knew a lot about the game, I was IGLing for my first team, properly IGLing. I saw wfn, for Reason he was IGL, we came together with Dutchy and it’s kind of all blended into like this one nice thing. It’s been really good.
You left Coalesce to join Raptors, but you were then replaced by AdamJC. The team said that it was because they wanted to go full-time, but then they disbanded shortly after. Were you aware of the possible disbanding?
Yeah, I heard some stuff. I’m really good friends with wfn so I had the general logistics of the team and stuff, but again, I work full-time. I always have been. So, that was kind of the main reason for kicking me and that’s a perfectly reasonable thing. Like it’s kind of to get to this next level of, you know, we’re in advanced and kind of get into this “advanced playoffs” kind of team where you’re playing against full-time teams. You had to make that leap so there was no ill will about it. I heard what went down after… [laughs]
If you’re working full-time, what does the future hold for you and the team?
We’re all friends right, and we play every time we can. So, for example, like most teams they take the weekend off, we pracc [practice] the weekends, we do like all day praccs on weekends. We pracc in the evenings, we’re productive [chuckles]. We’ve got people on the team like Prime, like John who don’t work, right?
They help with the out of server stuff, we make up for the lack of time with the time they put in. Obviously, there is kind of the skill ceiling to get into that next level, but we made advanced last season by playing part time. So yeah, we can keep driving to get higher.
So, ahead of the games tomorrow, do you feel like you’ve met your expectations here at EPIC.LAN?
It’s a tough one really. With a stand-in it’s very kind of unknown, how are you gonna do, how you gonna get on with him? Play withed him [Menacee] for a long time, but not on a team So, yeah, I’m really happy to be where we’re at. We’ve got top three. I was kind of hoping for the stage. I’ve never played on the stage so it would be really good to go on it, but it’s an expectation to go. Yeah, I’m quite happy with how we’ve played, especially that last games versus Dripmen, they played really well. Just hoping for the stage now.
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