SCARZ Absolute: "We didn't expect to win [against Renegades], it was a surprise"

We had a chat with the Japanese squad SCARZ Absolute, who finished fourth at the Asia Minor, to find out a bit more about the team and how they managed to take teams such as Renegades by surprise, as well as about the Japanese Counter-Strike scene.

The Japanese team took the Asia Minor by surprise, as they topped Group A in London after defeating VG.Flash and Renegades, before they eventually fell to Tainted Minds and lost the rematch with Renegades, still taking another map off the latter on the way to fourth place at the tournament.

After SCARZ Absolute exited the tournament, with the help of a translator, we managed to grab the team to ask them about their experience in London and to find out how developed the Japanese scene is.

Even if unsuccessful, this was somewhat of a breakout tournament for SCARZ Absolute, so tell me what the experience has been like and what it means to you.

We were stoked to play the European teams and Renegades, specifically, because we haven't played them before. It was a great experience for us to learn their tactics and see how they work as a team to try and progress from there.

What about the practice that you got here, how different was that for you?

We felt like all the teamwork over here was really great and even each individual player seemed slightly higher level than what we are used to, we found that really great. I think it's quite a comparable difference to certain areas of Asia, so we were excited to go up against it.

Then how do you think you managed to beat Renegades and then take them to three maps the second time around?

In today's match, we felt like it was a lot of stuff we weren't as comfortable with. Previously, when we won, we studied their favorite maps and figured out how they play on their territory. Honestly, we didn't expect to win. So it was kind of a surprise, we just went in with the idea of doing what we normally do and doing our best. So it was a bit of a surprise that we actually won.

You talked about studying Renegades - who does that for you, do you have any sort of structure behind you, a coach or an analyst, or is it the players?

We studied them individually and we also had someone else studying the general playstyle of our opponents, so we utilized both as much as possible.

Could you tell us a little bit about the Japanese scene - how much competition there is in terms of other teams that can challenge you, the financial side, and whether there are enough local tournaments and opportunities to qualify for international tournaments such as this?

There are very few teams who actually get backing, any sort of salary out of it. Right now, we are kind of all-time winners, but there is one other team, Ignis, who are not quite pro yet, but they're getting better as time goes, so we're keeping an eye out for them.

The opportunities are quite small in Japan, it's rare, maybe one local tournament a year. Qualifiers for tournaments like this in Japan, is minimal, for international tournaments, mainly Eastern Asia, it's once or twice a year, so we try to enter every time such an opportunity comes along.

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