corn: "There are people who disagree with us as a European core playing, but we earned the spot in Astana"

Dust2.us Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore caught up with Fisher College player Tommy "corn" Eckhart during the second day of FRAG 20.

corn talked about the first stage of the tournament, the team's qualification to PGL Astana, and his future in Counter-Strike.

Find the interview in video form below, with the full transcription underneath that. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How are you feeling about your performance on day one?

I'm pretty happy today. We played really well. It took a second to lock in. We were having some tech issues in our first game; on stage, we were having some tech issues as well versus Marsborne, but I'm very happy that we locked it back in, got over that hump, and played to the best of our capability.

You beat the new Marsborne squad 13-9 on Ancient. What were the most important factors in that win?

Everybody on stage was dealing with the same tech issues. So, the playing ground was pretty even with that. It was very even overall. They were playing super well, but the round that turned the tide was TH0R's really sick deagle round, and then ReFuZR won the 1v2. That really turned the tide; after that, the game was in our control.

How did you feel after topping the qualifier to PGL Astana over LAG?

It was super grueling, going through the open qualifier. There was a little bit of controversy surrounding that. People were like, "Why are they able to play?" I thought of this, and I made sure we got permission to play. I asked an admin because I don't want to run through this whole qualifier and spend all this time playing when we just might not even be able to qualify for the actual LAN.

I feel good about it, and I know I know there are people who disagree with us as a European core playing, but we earned it, right? We went through the open qualifier. We reverse swept in the grand final, and then we just played really well in that event; we earned it.

How did you guys come back against LAG after starting 0-2 down?

I don't know. We just lacked a lot of momentum and I don't think we were very confident going in. I don't remember the score on map one, but I remember map two. There was an hour tech pause, and we fell asleep a little bit. Then the third map we were, "Oh, fuck, we could lose, we want to win." We were just all like, "Alright, let's just do it." We just all locked in together, and we all came to that conclusion.

How have you felt about the reaction to your qualification? Do you feel the significance of this moment yet?

Totally. I've been playing collegiate CS for a long time. Fall 2021 was my first semester at Illinois State. Shout out to those guys. Then Davenport shortly after that. I went there and started playing in the actual collegiate leagues with them. So, I've been working on this for a really long time.

It's funny seeing all the jokes people are like, "corn's been in collegiate CS for eight years." It's not true. It's been five, but not even five full years. Anyway, I feel the significance. I really wanted this. I think we earned it, and I'm just super proud and super happy.

What about some of the wider community reaction? Some people have been quite excited about it, but then there's also been a couple of ignorant responses. What do you think about those two different poles of reaction?

We really appreciate the support. Most people are very supportive. I understand why people are upset that my team is able to play this qualifier and stuff. I understand that we don't want to set a bad precedent. I talked with Lucid about it, and we don't want to set a bad precedent for any old European team to go to a college in NA and start playing qualifiers to try and mess with the system.

So, that's not what we want to do, we're just five guys that want to play together. We were all recruited to come, but we think generally the reactions publicly are pretty funny. We'll send each other the hate tweets all the time, and it's just so interesting seeing people be super emotional about it. They're just like, "These guys are scumbags." We're just guys, I don't know.

Is it easy for a college to convince four guys to leave Europe, come here, and start playing collegiate at CS, or is it very unique that Fisher's been able to put it together?

Initially, with Davenport, we had a lot of people internationally interested in the program, and especially when we started getting success, we had more people interested. It's the same thing with Fisher. We've had these successes, especially after Astana. We get DMs of European players saying, "Hey, we want to come to Fisher". We get Brazilian players, players from around the world, so it's possible for other colleges to do. Actually doing it is another thing. A lot of the people who message us think we're getting full rides.

A lot of people online that hate us are like, "Fisher is just an esports organization, and they're just pretending to be a school." I'm in five figures of debt to go to school. I'm trying to get an education. That's my point of doing this. I'm very thankful for Fisher because they're making my education cheaper with the esports scholarship. A school convincing a lot of players to come to their university is going to be difficult.

Does the actual administration get what's going on here now with you guys heading to a million-dollar event in Kazakhstan?

We're trying our best to explain it to them. I've talked with the president of the school a little bit. We've actually had guests visit our school. My esports director wanted me to come and talk with the president and be a figurehead almost for the esports side of everything. So, they're starting to get it.

Especially with the Astana qualification, our directors are doing a very good job explaining the significance to them about being, "Hey, this is a real professional tournament. We can market this pretty well, right? They did this here." So, I think that they grasp it.

I know you're graduating this semester, and you're one of the players who isn't going to walk due to going to the CS tournament. How do you feel about that on a personal level?

I feel good. I started playing CS when I was 10 years old. I watched the first couple of majors, and I watched my brothers play. This is something I've wanted for 13 years. So, I'm happy making that sacrifice. I'm the only one graduating this semester, so I'm the only one making that sacrifice. But, I'm totally fine with it. I'm happy to do it.

Focusing on Astana itself, what are the expectations for going to a tier-one tournament?

We have been practicing for the last couple of weeks after the Astana qualification. We want to show our best, right? All of us want to do our best at the tournament. It's hard to go in with expectations. We're all rookies at pro tournaments. It's going to be nice and helpful having a veteran presence like neaLaN there, but we can't really go in with many expectations.

We want to try to scalp as many teams as we can. We want to do as well as we can. We want to beat these teams. So, we have as much help as we're able to get. We have people interested in coaching us. We have an analyst.

Speaking of neaLaN, how did you come to pick him up? What were the main considerations there?

I made a tweet saying, "We need a sub. Anybody can reach out to me or AlekS." I had a lot of people reach out to me. I had some people from Iceland who knew TH0R. I had some other European people. A lot of tier two NA players were reaching out. But neaLaN stood out to us because we thought he was one of the more experienced people who had actually reached out to us.

We think that veteran presence will be really helpful for an event that. So, we just decided he's going to be our best shot, he's the best person who reached out.

How do you feel heading into stage two tomorrow after wrapping up stage one with a perfect record?

I feel good. I was a little worried about Marsborne, they're a really good team. It was not an easy game, but I feel good that we're showing that we're able to actually keep beating these teams. BiBiAhn asked me today, "How did you guys get so good?" I was like, "We've been playing a lot of officials."

Even when we weren't practicing, we played a lot of officials. We were playing qualifiers. We were playing ESEA. Over time, all the mistakes we were making, we locked back in. So, we're confident going into tomorrow.

Is this the end of Counter-Strike for you after you graduate? Now that you've seen what you're able to accomplish, what comes next?

I guess maybe this is going to sound a little ignorant, because people don't think I'm very good. Especially when I'm playing with four Europeans, so they're like, "Oh, you're getting carried by Europeans." Whatever, I don't care. But, I know I'm able to play well and be a performing and productive member on a really good team. I would love to keep playing.

It's hard. I don't get a lot of interest. I started looking for a team for a little bit in December after our fall semester ended, but I just didn't really get a lot of interest. I'm not really gassing myself up or anything, but people really overlook me. I want to keep playing. I know now, I'm able to do something like go to Astana. I'm a productive member on these teams.

So, I might take a little bit of a break. I have summer plans, so I'm gonna be working a little bit, but we'll see after that. I would love to keep playing. I want to. I have other goals in my life besides CS, but I would like to take CS as far as I can.

Fisher College finished FRAG 20 in second place after an impressive run that saw the team make the finals before being bested 3-0 by Wildcard.