CLASIA: "I knew with Wildcard, they'd have to get pieces that are competent and fun to play around"

Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore had the chance to speak with Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney of the new-look Wildcard team during FRAG Miami 2.

CLASIA commented on his side's run at FRAG to that point, meshing with his new teammates, and his reputation in the Counter-Strike scene.

Find the video interview below, with a transcription in text format underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

So to start, obviously a pretty easy game against the Advanced team. What I really want to ask you about is the Sharks games. You beat them on day 1, lost to them on day 2. What do you think was different on day 2?

They just had good counters for our normal start rounds on Train or Nuke, for example. They had good counters for it, and we just lost all the anti-ecos due to misplays by us.

It's LAN, you can't hear as well. And they're abusing that by dropping top mini. They're just playing LAN how it's meant to be played, and we're misplaying and not doing enough coordination within ourselves.

So overall, though, close win on day one, and then close loss on day two. So that's four competitive maps against a VRS-ranked team in the top 100. Is that a good confidence builder for you guys to demonstrate that this roster works on some level?

To a certain degree, I mean, we all know that what we're capable of and when we've been playing, scrims in NA, we've played well against similar competition and even shit on other people in our region in a scrim.

Obviously, a scrim is different than a match, but we're all experienced in our own ways. Even the least experienced people are still experienced to a certain degree, like myself. And even though we're playing them and I feel like they're not bad, but I feel like we're just making mistakes rather than they're being good at the game.

You're going to be playing them again for in about an hour for the third time this event. How do you think that's going to go this time? Is there something you're going to pull out as a surprise?

There might be some surprises but it's mostly just going to be us looking to convert these second rounds, force buys later in the half because that's what really lost us the game today, and even previously when we played them on Nuke and then on Mirage when it went to triple overtime or whatever overtime that was.

So we just need to convert the rounds that you know we practice, we need to take control of the game because if we let them control the game and let them run a strat in a hat every round which is what they want to do, they'll just win. So we need to play your own game rather than let them control anything.

Now let's talk about your return to activity with Wildcard. Previously, you were of course with SkinRave. How did you find your way on the Wildcard roster after they benched their previous roster? Who recruited you, and what did they tell you? Did they tell you kind of what they were looking for you to be on this team?

Peeping messaged me on Steam. I didn't really think I was going to play again because I didn't really feel like it, not going to lie; unless I got to play with good players. And when Peeping messaged me, I always enjoyed playing with him when we were on Nouns together.

And I knew if it's Wildcard, they have to get pieces that are actually competent and fun to play around and that what we all agreed on the game and so they just messaged me, not specific to any roles because everyone is good at certain things but I'm good at most things. But, no, there was never a specific role they wanted me to play.

It was more to try to field the best roster possible with the roles that were given. This is what we got so far, and I think it's doing well.

Something I'm curious about is when we talked to Peeping earlier, he said the IGL situation is a bit up in the air, people are trying different things. I did notice for today's matches you've been sitting in the center in the center, does that imply that you've been taking more of an active role in calling? Is that something you'd want to do is to take over as IGL of this team?

I don't think my taking over IGL at any time in the future would be good because I can't put my mind into my words correctly and consistently. But I am a strong voice on every team that I have been a part of and throughout my entire career.

So I will always be a strong voice, and if that brings me to become a stronger voice, which would be IGL in the future, that would be fine for me. But I'm not ready for that now and I think us doing being more democratic as you said is a lot better for us because we all have our own ways of playing. Whether it's mhL wanting to go for a pick, Peeping wanting to do a certain play for himself, or sSen wanting to have a certain play at his part of the map.

That strong voice has unfortunately backfired for you in your career at times. There have been times in your career where you've been ousted from rosters, where you've stepped down, where you've left teams due to relationships breaking down with other members of the team.

Most recently, that's happened on SkinRave. What can you tell us about what happened on SkinRave to lead you to be benched from what was a very successful team during your short stint with them?

I just feel like things weren't adapting as well as I thought they would at the time that I left. And I felt like the way I thought about how we should play in certain roles wasn't how certain players and coaches agreed.

I just felt like I could have been used better, rather than the way it was used in certain spots on certain maps. However, I still like all of them, but some of them just disagreed with the way I thought about the game at that time.

I mean, it was made worse at the time by other people and people writing about it and stuff. But I didn't think it was as bad as it was where I got cut or whatever, but that's the way certain people perceived it and it was showed by other people by certain people on my team. I don't think it was that big of a deal. I just didn't like to play with them.

So I find that answer interesting because you said you weren't really looking for a team and that you weren't that eager to get back into action, but at the same time, you left SkinRave because you weren't happy with the way the team was playing.

So it sounds like on one hand you care a lot about how a team plays, but not necessarily being fully married to Counter-Strike. How do you reconcile these things and are you still interested in being a pro if Wildcard is successful?

Yes, of course. I always just play and give my 110% to every roster because what else would you give? I always want to put all my effort through, no matter if it's playing deathmatch, aimbotz, watching demos, or just playing together as a team.

But if I'm not enjoying the people I play with and I'm dreading to think like, 'man, I don't want to show up today,' why would I put myself in a position to play with people who either feel a similar way about me or I feel a similar way about them?

I will always love to play this game with people who are either as good as me or better than me. I hope they're better than me.

And if that opportunity is like, if I can't play, I'm realistic as well, and I knew after I left SkinRave it wasn't looking good, but there's no point for me to try to explain myself because there's this reputation around me, no matter if it's true or false. I mean, I think it's false, but whatever, I just wanted to play again here.

Can you expand on your perception of your reputation? Where do you think your reputation comes from? Do you think there's misconceptions and do you think you can battle back from that reputation and build a new reputation with Wildcard?

I don't think it's a misconception entirely because when I was younger, whether it was my fault or outside things that were influencing me. But, as people get older, they grow, and they learn to do things outside of the game that make them happier. And I've come to do that. I enjoy the people I play with right now, and I think a lot of [my reputation] has been because of me. It's not a misconception entirely.

Right now, I believe it is a misconception because people didn't know, obviously, I would still get a little angry and tilt a little bit. But I feel like for me, everyone tilts. It's just how you deal with it, and I feel like for me, that's how I deal with it will improve throughout my entire life and career, no matter how long that is. So I just try to enjoy the moment right now.

And it's fun to play and be around certain people. Specifically, I'll just say JamezIRL. He's really motivational, and every single time you talk to him, he's a super outgoing guy. He's genuine. I've never heard him say anything bad.

He's always trying to uplift me, say things to make everyone happier. Being around people that have that mindset, it's a lot easier for you as a player and a human to be how you want to be rather than upset and angry.

Do you think this fresh environment will work well for you, and are you excited to keep growing with this team heading into the start of the year?

Yeah, extremely, because all of our players are extremely strong and we've all been a vital part of our rosters in previous rosters that we all are part of. Playing with two Europeans isn't necessarily a different style, but they have their own things they like to do. Compared to AWPers that I've played with, mhL is a lot more aggro, he has a bigger voice, which isn't necessarily a bad thing compared to my other AWPers.

It's just different, and you have to respect what they're good at and what they like to do. And clearly, what he does is working because obviously, I've only played with him for a short time and we scrimmed with him for a short time, but I have enjoyed playing with him as a person and a player. I'd say he's one of the best AWPers I've played with, and I played with not a lot, but a few.

And then sSen is also an extremely good anchor. He's very young, and he also demands certain things, which isn't bad, but he wants to give his voice if we are in a demo review. He gives his opinion always. He tries to give criticism when it is warranted and good, which you don't see out of young players consistently.

The same thing with Peeping, he'll give the same criticism, and he'll also take good criticism, and so it's nice to play with all of them.

And then reck, everyone knows him. He's a solid. He'll kill everyone in front of him, and he also plays his life. He's very selfless, good vibes. So I think it's, you know, with all the vibes around, it's really easy to enjoy playing with a great set of people.

And then finally for you, now that you finally have some officials under your belt, now that you've had some time to play with your guys, what do you think the priorities are going to be for this team when you get home from Miami? What do you think the team needs the most work on so you can hit the ground running in the rest of the year?

I think we need to add more to the playbook and get used to how certain people say things, whether it's call outs or because I've never played with a European so it makes it harder for me with certain call outs and shit and the way you speak is different.

So I feel like we need to put our nose down and grind more. We can show that these NA teams aren't very good, and there are a lot of things that they're missing. Obviously, it's hard to do that at the beginning.

We know when you have had two or three weeks to practice, and especially with Christmas break, everyone wants to spend time with their family. So we couldn't play during that. I feel like just a good showing for us, no matter what. We just don't really have expectations because you can't really have expectations of a new roster.

Wildcard were knocked out 2-1 in the quarterfinals of FRAG Miami 2 by 9INE.