Interview with DIG CS:GO player GeT_RiGhT

Dignitas player Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund admitted that after a bad start of the season the team had to change its approach to training and official games. In an interview with the official website of the organization, the 30-year-old Swede told about these changes, as well as responded to criticism of the community.

Hi Christopher! How are feeling having now returned to practice after the player break?

GeT_RiGhT: It was quite interesting to get back into playing because I'm still not really fully recovered regarding my health, but it's getting better and better with each week that goes by, so it's a good sign. I was focusing a lot on that during the break, and it felt that the team and I really needed it and that's why we took it early, mostly because we got out early in the RMR event. It was a good call, the break itself was wonderful, it was one of the best vacations I've had in a long time. I was actually very surprised that I didn't need to travel to have an amazing vacation in general! Getting back to playing with the guys felt weird in the beginning, being completely honest because I took a month off the computer. I was a bit unsure because I always play on my vacations, but this time I really took it to the fullest and really enjoyed my time. It's all nice now, still a little bit angry about last week when we went out early in the qualifier we were playing. I saw big needed changes on me so it was a good wake-up call if you ask me.

Not only practicing but also competing. As the team stated, you’re now focusing more on smaller competitions instead of only practicing. Why is that?

GeT_RiGhT: Because we felt that we needed that. We want to be playing Tier 1 and sometimes Tier 2 tournaments, and also due to online situation right now, we wanted to change our mindset and play more officials instead of just practicing and then playing qualifiers for the Major, the BLAST events, or other events as well like DreamHack. We were feeling that if we can get invites to the smaller tournaments, it's needed and it will be good for us to play them and get more experience.

We felt that we've been doing a grind for 8 months now and hasn't gone the way that we wanted to, so we have to step up regarding the official games. We're trying out maps that we don't want to play, we want to put ourselves in the corners so that we feel safe doing the veto, we want to challenge ourselves. I think it was a good decision we made to force ourselves to play more officials.

Getting match experience with the team is important, but aren’t you worried that the less time actually practicing might have an impact on the team’s performance as a whole?

GeT_RiGhT: Yes and no, but at the same, we practice a lot and we didn't play that many tournaments beforehand, so we feel that we really need it as a team, to play more matches instead of just practicing, like smaller tournaments instead of only qualifications for the bigger ones. The results haven't been there and that's the honest truth, we're not going to hide about it, it's not going well. We feel the pressure, we're not happy about it, and we need to improve more and better and in a more stable way to get better than we are at the moment.

You’ve now participated in Malta Vibes #6, finishing up in 2nd place. Tell me about that tournament.

GeT_RiGhT: I think it went really well in the whole tournament except in the grand final. We had some hiccups here and there, but we learn so much with them and in general, it was just special to be in a final, even though it was a lesser tournament. But we had the chance to play against a great team, forZe, and sadly we understood that we have big issues on Inferno, we need to learn and play more of it. On the second map, Train, we also knew it isn't a map that we're going to win every time, but we know we are good in it and we are comfortable in it, but we need to play it more to get it back to the way that we want to, and sadly we couldn't get away with the win there, it was a 16-14 to forZe. But it was a good tournament in general, I think everyone was pretty satisfied with it even though we lost the finals, so hopefully, we can aim and take a win in one of those cups instead.

You’ve also played the European qualifier of FunSpark ULTI, where you lost both games against Giants and Secret. What went wrong?

GeT_RiGhT: We had just finished getting 2nd place at the Malta Vibes tournament, we felt good about the performance and going into the FunSpark qualifier. We played Dust2, which we haven't focused that much since we returned from the vacation break and things just fell flat in the first game against Giants. They played well, nothing against them, they've played much better than us and they deserved the win. It was a Bo1 and I don't think anyone of us is really comfortable with it. On the second game when we played against Secret, the honest truth is that we f***ed up big time, mostly me because of the frustration that came up and affected the whole team.

We felt that we were the better team, in the beginning at least, but then something just changed and we just didn't play how we've been practicing and how we've played the week before. It doesn't really help that one of their players had some internet issues, we had to wait a long time before getting back into playing, and it was just a long waiting game to the second map to start... things just escalated and we ended up losing the game. It wasn't supposed to happen and everyone is really mad about it, so it was a complete disaster in my opinion.

Do you still feel there’s a lot to work to do on or are you getting to the spot you want to be?

GeT_RiGhT: There's a lot of work that needs to be done, we know that when we came back from the vacation and we were improving, and it really showed during the first week when we played Malta Vibes. But then, somehow, we took like 2-3-4 steps back again and we became the team we were before. We didn't have the confidence, we were showing way too much respect in the game, we weren't doing like we were doing in practice and honestly, things haven't been going that good in practice, so it was some sort of a clusterfuck in general. With this week that comes up, we're not going to play any officials, so we're going to focus more on the team and on a lot of things that need to be done to make it better for the next officials week. We're aiming to achieve better results without a doubt.

People are still referring to you as the team that got together to have a comfortable way of retiring. How does that make you feel?

GeT_RiGhT: I mean, I don't feel offended when people are saying it, I think it's fine. The worst thing is that I still get death threats, I get people calling my mother out and other stupid shit that I should die... and that's a bigger issue than the small thing you said. It's fine, people can have their own opinion but if you ask me, it's taking a toll on me and everyone gets a little bit angry when we hear that, because that's not the focus, that's not what we want.

When we agreed to do this, we knew it was going to be a struggle, it was going to be a long and tough run... we're not here to just take a paycheck, we want to improve, we want to become better and we also want to have an opportunity to play in a big tournament, perform well and win it - that's the goal for us. It's annoying that people are riding that kind of saying, but at the same time, people can say whatever they want because, in the end, they're not sitting and watching us practice and understand what's happening. They can say whatever they want, but please, it's not really helping out those kinds of messages that I've been getting.

Any final words to close the interview?

GeT_RiGhT: Thanks for always sticking with me, I know that you're doing it and there's also a lot of positive messages - and I really, really like that! In the end, we're not here to just have fun and play our game. We're here to perform and play at the level we want to and that we deserve, at least according to us. Sure, it can sound delusional, but at the same time, we're not here to just have fun. We are here to compete and show the fans that we still got it!