[US] Pre-EGL7 Interview with Optic Rambo

When apeX announced prior to EGL5 that they would be bringing over a team from North America, featuring 3 Americans and a Canadian, many people were dubious with how well they would perform. They silenced all their critics however in dominating fashion, dropping only 1 map throughout the tournament.

They're back once again for EGL7 but this time they'll be playing under Optic gaming. One of the key players in the team is their Canadian player Raymond 'Rambo' Lussier and he took five minutes out to speak with Decerto about their upcoming trip. Check it out below;

Decerto: Rambo, you don't need much of an introduction but for those who don't know who you are, can you introduce yourself?

My name is Raymond, but most people knows me by Rambo in this community. I originate from Montreal, Canada. I game full time for a living and play for OpTic Gaming.

Rambo at EGL5

Decerto: Not many people can call themselves professional in the gaming industry. What does your average working day consist of?

As far as working is concerned, it pretty much involves me playing Call of Duty (Lucky, I know haha). I pretty much wake up, exercise and do the things I have to do in the morning and stream/youtube stuff at night. The great part about my job is I dont have a schedule per say, I really love being able to do things when I want, which is probably my favorite perk of being a Pro gamer, besides having fun doing what I love for a living.

Decerto: The main reason we are interviewing you today is because your team Optic Gaming will be returning to Blackpool once again to defend your EGL title after winning at EGL5. What did you think about the first event and how it went?

I'm going to keep this conversation towards the gaming aspect of that event for obvious reasons haha. The event itself was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of all of it. It felt like a huge local lan, with a ton of people for Call of Duty, which was different for us since we were pretty much shadowed by other games at MLG events. Really hope they have those old school game stations to pass time on again as well, we had loads of fun gaming that weekend, weither it was competing in CoD, or playing old school games, all fun!

Decerto: You won EGL5 in pretty significant fashion, only dropping 1 map. What did you think of the competition that Europe brought?

I think they really under estimated the meaning of playing as a team. In my opinion, the main reason we won the event in such a fashion was because of our playstyle. The European playstyle at that time was really reliant on individual/clutch plays to get objectives moving instead of positional battles, which can work somewhat online, but on LAN people die so much faster, so getting a chain of kills at an opponents base isnt as likely. Hopefully some teams changed for the better!

BigT, Rambo, Merk and Scump at EGL5

Decerto: Rumours suggest your team has not been playing very often together lately, how has your practice schedule been for this upcoming event?

Some players on our team had summer vacation and other summer stuff going on, we didn't practice very much until this week when we started playing daily again. We`re pretty on par with our game, we still have a full 2 weeks and will take full advantage of it to fine tune our game to top tier again so were fully ready for EGL7.

Decerto: You didn't have long in the UK at EGL5, playing the day after you landed and then leaving the day after the event. Will you be spending more time in the UK at EGL7?

We will be doing the same thing, with school starting, some of the team can't really afford to spend to much time away from home at this point. I would of loved to go to London and experience a bit of Olympic fever after the event, but we're going to have to pass for this time!

Decerto: You've switched organisation having previously represented apeX and now rejoining Optic Gaming. Was attending this event one of the conditions of going back?

We wanted to go to this event, so yes.

Decerto: Going into this event you won't be the only North American team with at least FeaR and possibly apeX Collapse attending. What are your thoughts on these teams attending and do you see either team as a possible threat to defending your title?

I see every single team attending EGL7 as a threat in our road to defending our title. In my eyes, it doesn't matter who we play, we`re always going to show up at the highest level of our game and adapt to what ever our opponents put in front of us.

Rambo featuring in a NOS Energy Drink advert

Decerto: Are you pleased to see more NA teams attending the event?

Yes, very much so. The more competition the better in my eyes. Hopefully we have great events in NA coming up in the future for EU teams to come over as well once again.

Decerto: Do you have any inside information for those keen to travel across to the US to compete?

None what so ever. In my opinion, I doubt we`ll have anything worth traveling across seas for until Black Ops 2 drops.

Decerto: The European teams going into this event feel more confident that they can take you down this time. Have you played any European teams online and noticed any difference?

The only games we played againts EU teams since EGL5 were in the WGL tournament we played. I didn't see much difference in the playstyles in the games we played to be honest. SK seems to be the best team as far as team work is concerned. If theres anything I've learned from playing the EU teams in that tournament, and online scrims before EGL5, is you can see a completely different team on Lan. So I for one, am very excited to see which teams come out on top at EGL7.

Decerto: Are you confident of retaining the title?

I'm confident in our ability to compete at the highest level.

Decerto: What would you consider a disappointing finish?

I'll be disappointed if we dont play at our full potential. I'm not one to look at placings much. I believe that if we play at our best, we will win more than we will lose.

Decerto: Will you be attending any other events in 2012 in Europe?

As of right now I'm not sure yet, that will have to be decided in time if we feel there's more events that are worth traveling too! EGL8 is definitely a possibility though. Obviously have to count school and obligations for people in.

BigT, Rambo, Hecz, Jkap and Merk with an MLG title in Optic colours.

Decerto: What is your top 3 predicition for the event, excluding your own team?

FeaR, Proph, TCM in no order. I would have put SK, but I don't know how they will do without Mak.

Decerto: What are you most looking forward to at the event?

Competing again! I love it, wouldn't be doing what I do for a living if I didn't enjoy it at its fullest!

Decerto: Before we go to the shoutouts, do you have any advice to new players who are attending EGL7?

Enjoy the event and try to learn from it. You only get better when you gain experiences from events like these.

Decerto: Thanks for taking the time out Rambo, would you like to give a shoutout to anyone?

Shoutout to OpTic Gaming for supporting us, to everyone who supports me do what I do for a living, all my fans! And shoutout to all teams attending EGL7, good luck to all!

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I wonder who'll be my number 1 pick in the prediction thread

Good interview @Emotion