CSGO player reveals struggles of coming from OCE as IEM Sydney looks to spotlight region Joao Ferreira for ESLWe spoke with Grayhound superstar Alistair \u2018aliStair\u2019 Johnston about the struggles endured as CSGO pros look to climb from OCE as IEM Sydney 2023 seeks to spotlight the region for the first time in years. 2019 was the year OCE as a region undoubtedly saw its greatest hope to win some of the biggest trophies in CSGO. This was the year local fans cheered on Renegades, a squad led by Australia\u2019s brightest stars at the time, JKS, Liazz, and AZR. A team that made an unlikely appearance in not one but two Major playoffs. Now four years on from this high point during the 2019 Majors, no OCE team has come close to replicating the successes of the Renegades just yet. But that\u2019s not to say none are vying for history in their own right, looking to eclipse even our region\u2019s top performances. One such lineup pushing OCE back to the top is Grayhound Gaming. Led by veterans INS, Sico, aliStair, and Liazz, the powerhouse core is joined by a younger prodigy who carved his path through OCE in Vexite. Now with IEM finally returning to Sydney, with ESL billing it as \u201cThe Big Reunion\u201d, the spotlight is back on the region once again. To speak more on the significance of the event and what it means not just for local players, but OCE esports as a whole, Dexerto sat down with aliStair to get his thoughts on it all. Grayhound clear fan-favorites heading into IEM Sydney aliStair has been competing since 2016 and has played at every single IEM Sydney event to date. For the past two years, it\u2019s been him and Grayhound (the roster also played under the now-defunct ORDER) who have been holding the banner for OCE, and he knows the stark contrast between playing overseas and on home soil. \u201cOh, it\u2019s completely different,\u201d he said without hesitation. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna have probably 80% of the crowd actually going for you, compared to overseas, nobody really cares about you.\u201d To show just how little support OCE gets overseas, he gave an anecdote from the IEM Rio Major. \u201cI remember when we were in IEM Rio, we had the whole crowd cheering for ZywOo against us.\u201d That just so happened to be Grayhound\u2019s elimination match, going home at the hands of the eventual last Major winners of CSGO. In that tournament, Grayhound was picked the most of any team to bow out with a 0-3 record. However, that never came true. A Challengers match against Cloud9 resulted in their only win, and in an act of defiance to everyone\u2019s presumptions of the region, it was aliStair who proudly shouted the now famous words after their unlikely victory. \u201cF*** your pickems.\u201d Coming into IEM Sydney, aliStair admits Grayhound\u2019s goals are the same for pretty much any event, explaining how, \u201cWe\u2019re not just going to try and upset teams, as disappointing as our results may have been for the past year or two.\u201d As for how aliStair feels Grayhound will hold their own at IEM Sydney, he joked, \u201cHopefully we get some home timezone buff. We\u2019ve just got to catch everyone while they\u2019re sleeping in, jet-lagged. \u201cBut no, on a more serious note, I think the timeline leading into it, if we have some solid practice and really keep our heads down, I think we do have a good chance to make playoffs. Especially having a home event with the home crowd as what\u2019s on the line basically, it\u2019s gonna motivate us even more, which is really good.\u201d The struggles of a CSGO player coming up from OCE When the conversation drifted into OCE\u2019s historic performance on the international stage, aliStair\u2019s response to it all was simple, \u201cIt sucks,\u201d he said bluntly. \u201cLike, what\u2019s there to say?\u201d \u201cAustralia is literally this isolated island and we only get to play and practice against the same two, three, teams. So, practice is very grim here.\u201d Additionally, he was quite blunt about another glaring issue that OCE faces today, a severe lack of funding compared to more established regions. This is something aliStair also knows well as he was once part of the now-defunct ORDER. To make his point on how little funding there is for world-class talent on our island, he gave us his estimation of how many paid players there are in OCE right now. \u201cI could be mistaken, but I\u2019m fairly sure there\u2019s no more than three, maybe four teams, actually getting paid and it\u2019s not enough for people to step away from their jobs. \u201cPeople are playing [CSGO] as a hobby and for actual passion, and I\u2019m fairly sure the other team that\u2019s probably pushing for second or third isn\u2019t actually getting paid.\u201d He continued to explain that because of the lack of credible organizations willing to pay players, in turn, players can\u2019t dedicate their time to improving CSGO. \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult and hard for people to commit time and improve at the game, not only individually, but as a team, when they have to be working.\u201d And when Australia does shine on the global stage, OCE teams are often torn apart as key players are plucked by international orgs. Despite OCE\u2019s best leaving, aliStair feels there\u2019s no problem in sending Australia\u2019s best overseas. \u201cObviously we\u2019d like the best of our country to represent for OCE, but I would rather see players from this region succeed than just stand out in an Australian team. Nobody wants to hold anyone back.\u201d He continued to give an example of JKS, who is now the most decorated OCE player, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, either way, seeing JKS win Cologne, that\u2019s a big win for Australia and Australian players. It should motivate a lot of up-and-coming players, which is a huge thing.\u201d As for which teams we might see Grayhound\u2019s bumping into at IEM Sydney, invited teams have already been announced, and Aussie legends like JKS and Fnatic\u2019s Dexter will indeed be playing on home soil for the first time in a very long time. There couldn\u2019t be a more fitting tagline than \u201cThe Big Reunion.\u201d IEM Sydney kicks off from a sold-out Aware Super Theater on October 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CSGO player reveals struggles of coming from OCE as IEM Sydney looks to spotlight region Joao Ferreira for ESLWe spoke with Grayhound superstar Alistair \u2018aliStair\u2019 Johnston about the struggles endured as CSGO pros look to climb from OCE as IEM Sydney 2023 seeks to spotlight the region for the first time in years. 2019 was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}