|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jun 16, 2008 at 03:50 AM CDT
View Comments: 30
wez: Old Skool
Posted by: r2k
Elliot 'wez' Welsh is one of the new players for the Birmingham Salvo but is no stranger to the world of Counter Strike. wez has been playing CS for quite a while and has been one of the UK premier players. I caught up with him to get his views on this season.
Name: Elliot Welsh
Age: 19
Alias: wez
Location: Manchester, England
Favourites
Music: Punk, Pop Punk, Metal, Alternative, Screamo
Song(s): We Are The Ocean - Ready for the Fall, Emarosa - Heads or Tails, Real or Not
Player(s): wilzOOO, zet
Sport(s): Football, Boxing
Game(s): CS:S, CS 1.6
Food(s): Pizza, Cheesecake
Drink(s): Irn Bru, Corona
You've had a couple of weeks now to settle into being a professional gamer. How has it been and what have you been doing since then?
wez: It's been absolutely awesome as you could expect! I’ve just been making the most out of it really and trying to balance my life outside of gaming with my commitments to the team. As a team we've just been trying to practice as much as we can and ironing out any problems that come out. I’m also trying to find as much time as possible to get on deathmatch or aim map servers to trying and improve my own game in preparation for LA!
What were your thoughts at the time when you saw your present teammates and manager at the CGS World Finals?
wez: I was really really jealous haha! It was also a bit annoying thinking that I could have been in that team if I didn’t quit playing CS in dignitas for my exams, but they were the most important thing to me at the time so I don’t regret anything. I was also really impressed and proud of how well they did, especially against Rio and Chicago who both had players that were considered the best in the world at 1.6. I managed to catch their games on Sky One against Singapore and Chicago before I really knew much at all about CGS, and I couldn’t believe how much they made gaming look like a sport and how professionally it was all done and it made me really want to be a part of it.
How long have you been playing CS for as a whole and what teams have you been in?
wez: I’ve been playing CS since version 1.5 which was about 5/6 years ago now! The start of my CS career was spent in 1.5 just playing fun maps like playground_x on public haha, and I only started joining clans and playing pcws at the start of 1.6.
My first serious team was when I joined Alliance.cs with cRueL, and it was with this team that I started to attend various LANs. Eventually the team died and me and a few others went on to form a team called -=CHEERS=-! The name was really made as a joke and we had no intention of being a serious team, but we attended quite a few events and pulled off some really good results against teams like 2s2p, Forsaken, 4Kings and c4u so decided to take it a bit more seriously! It was after this team that I realised I had the potential to be one of the best in the UK and I went up a notch commitment wise.
After possibly a year of different teams I ended up being part of the newly formed team virtuoso (now 4Kings), and then went on to join alltherage, XSTARS and c4u. After a period of being messed around by our manager in c4u, pt, wilzOOO and I all joined dignitas with RattlesnK and a few others.
Dignitas was a completely different experience to anything I’d ever had before as we had full backing and a manager who really knew what he was doing and helped us out all the time. I went to several minor events with dignitas, although I eventually had to leave dignitas to focus on school.
Although I’ve been in loads of different clans with awesome players, I’d definitely say that this current team is the best lineup I’ve been part of. Everyone in the team can hold their own no matter what situation they are in and I have complete faith that they could win pretty much any 1vX situation!
How has the transition from CS 1.6 to CS Source been for you?
wez: At first it was extremely frustrating for me as I tried to play it like 1.6 which you just can’t do, and the fact I was on an absolutely awful pc at the time getting around 20fps in some situations just made matters worse! Now that I’ve been playing it for about 6 months and I’ve had the opportunity to learn how to play the game from CSS veterans I feel pretty much as comfortable as possible, although there’s always new tricks and grenades to learn so we have to keep demo watching etc! It wasn’t just the difference between the two games that we had to adapt to, we also had to adapt to the CGS rule set, starting with full money and the shorter rounds have huge implications on your play style individually and the tactics you should use as a team.
Last year quite a few good 1.6 players competed to get into one of the two CGS teams, why wasn't you there in that bunch at the time?
wez: It was right around my exam period, and 2 months prior to the draft I had to quit the dignitas 1.6 team to concentrate on revision and exam preparation. It was my final year of A-levels and it was really important for me to do well in these exams so I could go to the university I wanted to, so I had to prioritise my exams in front of everything else. It actually really annoyed me when I heard that they’d been drafted haha, I’d missed countless opportunities to go away with the dignitas team (Sweden, Denmark, France etc) because of school and now I’d missed another chance! School has hindered me quite a lot with regards to improving in CS as it meant that I couldn’t attend several huge events and I had to take 1-3 month breaks quite regularly, which meant taking another few weeks to get up to my previous standard before being able to really improve.
I heard you have travelled quite a bit lately, can you tell me where you have been and what it was like?
wez: I try to travel as much as I can and I’ve been to quite a few places like Peru, California, New York and about 14 different places throughout Europe.
Most recently was when I went travelling around Australia for 2 months with 2 close friends. It was absolutely incredible; we rented a campervan (which we slept in) in Cairns and drove all the way down the east coast back to Sydney (about 2,500km in a rusty old van!).
On the way down we did some pretty memorable stuff; swimming with dolphins and turtles, skydiving from 15,000 feet, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef etc! The whole trip was incredible and I’d definitely recommend it to ANYONE! The best thing about Australia is how amazing it is no matter what things you’re into. If you like getting drunk every day then its perfect as it’s FULL of young people and there are bars everywhere, but it’s also perfect if you want to travel around and see all the sights.
I also think I’m going away to Thailand some time in September for a few weeks with a group of friends as it sounds amazing, Australia is definitely the trip to beat so far though!
You actually did play as a merc for Birmingham Salvo a few months ago at the IG5 event where you stepped in for Harriman, how well did you think you did personally?
wez: This was my first CS:S LAN so I was pretty nervous going in to it, being honest I think them nerves showed on the first day and I didn’t perform my best. Luckily it was only the group stages and we managed to get through without much bother. On the second day we had to play against London MiNT twice and Reason who went on to win the event and I think I played pretty well in all 3 of those games, although my performance is irrelevant seeing as we lost!
I'm sure you have been currently watching the North American Season, what are your views about the CSS teams playing so far?
wez: Yea I’ve stayed up to watch as many of the games as I can and it’s been really interesting actually. Previously I had the idea that the American teams were a much higher standard than the European teams, but watching their season has made me realise it really isn’t true. Obviously they’re still good teams and we’d never be over confident going up against any of them, but I think on our day we could beat any of the US teams! My biggest worry is New York; they’ve got some amazing players and they’re performing really well so far. San Francisco and LA have both been quite disappointing CSS wise, I really expected them to be at least top 3 before the event, but neither of them are performing anywhere near my expectations, especially Optx.
There is only a couple of weeks left before you will be jetting off to LA to face London Mint for the Regional Finals and then the World Finals. How have you and the others been preparing?
wez: Well like I mentioned before, we’re practicing as much as possible as a team and reviewing each of our performances after the game to outline and eliminate and problems that we have. Then in between games and in my own time I’ve been practicing on deathmatch and aim maps to make sure my aim is on form and I’m playing the best I can. One of the problems we have is finding different teams to practice against, there are only a certain number of teams that play CGS rules in Europe and we try to avoid playing the other franchises wherever possible so we don’t give away any tactics. We’ve had to resort to playing against some American teams on 150 ping, but it’s definitely worth it as it gives us new teams to play against who haven’t seen any of our strats before!
Thanks Wez, any shout outs to give?
wez: Everyone at Salvo, London MiNT, Stockholm CS team despite their recent antics (!!), KritikaL, Frankie, highfive, 4kings 1.6 and everyone else!
Digg This
Stumble This
Post to Del.icio.us
r2k
Posts: 153
Location: Birmingham
Staff Member
RattlesnK
Posts: 250
Location: Brighton
Pro Gamer
wez is dahhh man 
www.birminghamsalvo.com
www.birminghamsalvo.com
xilef
Posts: 402
Location: Swansea
Staff Member
i love this guy so much
www.Cadred.org
www.Cadred.org
url
Posts: 331
Location: Spalding
Pro Gamer
nice read wezybabe
Do you think a lollypop man would know karate???
Do you think a lollypop man would know karate???
Mega^
Posts: 363
Location: Bristol
Nice read.
Show some Phantom love.
Show some Phantom love.
Savage2106
Posts: 31
Location:
Please tell me you still have that van lol
Bazza
Posts: 228
Location: Watford
Pro Gamer
nice read Wez, that gorillaz camper van looks awesome.
Last modified on 6/16/2008 at 4:48 pm EST
Last modified on 6/16/2008 at 4:48 pm EST
MESSY
Posts: 148
Location: London
Pro Gamer
Good read Wez, nice one
iPicaso
Posts: 65
Location: basildon
Pro Gamer
yay
Ignore my picture in this signiture! its not me!
AlbeL
Posts: 5972
Location: Ninjapedia
Staff Member
Nice interview, and lol at the campervan 
Loituma Champion
Loituma Champion
Hughsy
Posts: 152
Location: London
Pro Gamer
what an incredible read Elliot my boy xx
BraddT
Posts: 3
Location:
3 of you slept in that thing?
wEZlington
Posts: 71
Location: Manchester
Pro Gamer
yup
wilzOOO
Posts: 13
Location:
Pro Gamer
you da man
Mangiacapra^
Posts: 77
Location: York
Pro Gamer
Wez in his CAMPER van
Birmingham Salvo
-NOK su KAU-
Birmingham Salvo
-NOK su KAU-
pt-
Posts: 198
Location: Plymouth
Pro Gamer
yay!
r0ckst4r
Posts: 8
Location: Stourbridge
Awesome interview, We Are The Ocean are an awesome band, met them a few times.
Ricko0
Posts: 42
Location:
Yeah, I saw We are the ocean at middlesbrough music live, they are amazing.
da_bears
Posts: 220
Location:
Pro Gamer
classic van!
FrankstaH
Posts: 19
Location: London
he is one of the most handsome CGS playaz!!
-mJ-
Posts: 120
Location: Sunderland
Nice read haha wicked van, (Y)
"Loosing with Pride is almost as good as Winning"
haha wicked van, (Y)
"Loosing with Pride is almost as good as Winning"
Rambo
Posts: 63
Location: Dallas
Pro Gamer
best player in the uk!
JaX
Posts: 354
Location: Dallas
Team GM
without a doubt
DAFF_
Posts: 44
Location: Indianapolis
Pro Gamer
probably the best in europe actually
url
Posts: 331
Location: Spalding
Pro Gamer
This post had been removed by a moderator.
Do you think a lollypop man would know karate???
Do you think a lollypop man would know karate???
# Head of News for Birmingham Salvo
# Team Advisor of Team Dignitas