BRACE: "Smaller LANs like this are really really important"
With just a day to go for the much anticipated Skyesports Grand Slam 2024, the first event in Skyesports' 2024 CS2 calendar, we got a chance to have a chat with the BRACE, the IGL of Bad News Kangaroos. The Aussies secured their LAN spot by winning out the Oceania Qualifier.
When asked about the environment in the camp coming into the event with a stand-in, BRACE expressed his excitement towards playing their first overseas LAN and despite lacking their fifth player, he believes that the team can make it work.
We're looking forward to play an event, we haven't played a lot in front of a crowd and this is going to be our first time playing overseas in front of a crowd so we're looking forward it. Yeah we don't have our fifth but that's okay, we'll make it work.
He also spoke about their stand-in, yourwombat who has prior experience playing in the region and shared how he is the perfect candidate for a stand-in in a situation like this.
When you travel to a different country, somethings are different and he (yourwombat) brings a lot to the table. In-game, he has played with us, he has coached us and he lives with me. He has a good idea of how we play and as a stand-in that's perfect.
BRACE acknowledged the importance of tournaments like Skyesports Grand Slam when referring to the events of the recent past in Oceanic Counter-Strike including Grayhound's exit from the scene and stated that playing in and against different regions will contribute to their performances in the RMR cycles.
Smaller LANs like this are really really important, it's awesome how many opportunities we're getting compared to five years ago. Attending events gives us a lot of experience playing against European and Asian teams and that just helps us going into the next RMR cycle because for Australian teams, Grayhound made it every single cycle for however long. The Australian teams have been really strong at the RMRs and these events help us.
Bad News Kangaroos will start their Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 campaign tomorrow against Aurora who won the European Qualifier.
Bad News KangaroosAurora| Bad News Kangaroos |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Christian 'ADDICT' Pendleton |
36 - 30 | +6 | 93.7 | 68.3% | 1.23 |
 Toby 'BRACE' Barnes |
21 - 30 | -9 | 67.5 | 73.2% | 0.84 |
| Jared 'hazr' O'Bree |
24 - 32 | -8 | 62.8 | 56.1% | 0.81 |
| Will 'yourwombat' Allchin |
14 - 34 | -20 | 47.7 | 51.2% | 0.55 |
| Jordan 'pz' White |
12 - 32 | -20 | 35.5 | 56.1% | 0.47 |
| Aurora |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Denis 'deko' Zhukov |
48 - 19 | +29 | 105.5 | 85.4% | 1.75 |
| Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy |
34 - 21 | +13 | 87.8 | 85.4% | 1.43 |
| Aleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin |
29 - 25 | +4 | 86.3 | 82.9% | 1.36 |
| Evgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin |
23 - 20 | +3 | 65.1 | 80.5% | 1.05 |
 Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev |
21 - 23 | -2 | 59.1 | 73.2% | 0.98 |
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