dupreeh picks his favorite teams to win the Major; shares his opinion on zonic

Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, the only five-time Major champion in Counter-Strike, has given an exclusive interview to Dust2.us in cooperation with British news outlet Esports News UK.

In this interview, we had the chance to ask dupreeh his favorites for the StarLadder Budapest Major and what he makes of his former coach, Danny "zonic" Sørensen, who's been criticized a lot for his tenure in Falcons. You can read the interview in full below.

I want to get your opinion on the StarLadder Budapest Major that is just around the corner. It seems that, unlike the Austin Major, we don't really have a clear favorite. It seems quite open. Who do you think has the best chance to win the Budapest Major right now?

That's a really good question. I think there's probably like three teams that I would consider favorites, that being Vitality, Spirit, and also Falcons. We did for a brief moment see that The MongolZ went to the number one ranking, but I still think that they have still some issues that they need to work on to be more consistent.

And I think that MOUZ is a little bit underwhelming right now, so I don't see them as an actual contender. They could be maybe a dark horse if they get things going, but if I had to pick one, I don't know, I feel like this could be Falcons time to shine, actually. I think they're going in the right direction. They're working towards a goal, so if they can overcome their issues with the playoffs as they have right now, then I think they could be the favorite. Other than that, sure, Vitality and Spirit as well.

Editor's note: The interview was conducted on October 16th, thus before The MongolZ benched Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold and brought Unudelger "controlez" Baasanjargal as a stand-in.

You've worked with zonic on Astralis, Vitality, and Falcons, and even though he won more Majors than any other CS coach, he's been catching a lot of heat over the past year, mostly because of Falcons' results, like you mentioned as well. What do you make of the community's current perception of zonic? Do you think it's unfair?

Not as of lately, maybe in the beginning. Back when I was there and the previous rosters and everything. The way that he got to this roster has obviously been very rough for Falcons. He's been changing a lot of players and buying new players. A lot of people are literally like hate watching Falcons because of the economy and everything, and like what kind of support they can have from the organization compared to other teams, and then they still don't actually win trophies.

So obviously it's also when someone like zonic has achieved so much as he has like won so many titles it's very easy to pick on him because everyone expects him to just go in and create magic and just win and win and win but that's not really the case and I think that's the issue with them right now like the expectations for all of them, like the expectations for Falcons is just so high and when they don't meet the expectations then people will laugh at them and then that's where the pressure keeps building for them.

And I think that's the same case with zonic, you know, he's been praised as the greatest coach of all time, which he also is in my books, but if he can't get Falcons to work, then everyone's gonna mock him, and you know, that's just how it is.

Stay tuned to Dust2.us, because we also had the opportunity to ask dupreeh about Skyward Masters, the new game he's working on.