Crazy_Gamer: "We came to play for fun and we took down Gods Reign today"

In a thrilling three map series, Carnival Gaming thumped Gods Reign in the semi-final of the AMD GameOn 2024, advancing to the grand-final where they face either True Rippers or VICTORES SUMUS. After the game, Carnival Gaming's new IGL Crazy_Gamer spoke to Dust2 India about the game and what the team looks forward to tomorrow.

Talking about taking down Gods Reign on Ancient, Crazy_Gamer shared the thought process behind the pick and what eventually made it work for Carnival Gaming.

Crazy, you guys went up against the favourites straight out the gate and took them down on their strong map, how did you approach the game?

We played them a week or two back on Dust2 India Masters and our pick of Dust2 did not really work out for us and we weren't really comfortable so we ended up picking something on which individuals on both teams are really comfortable. I don't care that they are better than us, I just knew that once we hit our shots on LAN, we can easily win.

When asked about their mental reset coming back into the final map, Crazy_Gamer mentioned that team was pumped to have just taken a map away from Gods Reign given how inconsistent Carnival Gaming's roster and practice have been lately.

You looked a little uncomfortable on Anubis but came back really strong on Dust2, what was the talk in between maps?

What went wrong on Anubis according to me was there were rounds where f1redup played really well because of which we lost momentum and as an IGL also lacked a bit on Anubis and it was the low point for us in the series. In between maps I told the team that winning one map against them (Gods Reign) was by itself an achievement and to play freely and have fun on Dust2, not caring if it would become a 0-13. The team also backed me up and played freely and everything fell into place.

The veteran Indian IGL also revealed how he ended up stepping up into a leadership role with SpawN as his co-pilot at Carnival Gaming, while talking highly of SpawN's own capabilities in the same role. Crazy_Gamer took over the IGL role mid-way into the tournament after the team's 0-2 loss to True Rippers.

Lets talk about the double IGL setup, who did most of the calling?

The thing is, after our 0-2 loss to True Rippers in the online stage, I realised that the players couldn't comprehend SpawN's calls perfectly, despite the fact that SpawN in a brilliant caller and was calling well at the time so we decided that I would take on the IGL role with SpawN being the secondary caller?

How does the future look for Carnival Gaming after this grand-final? Will a title win add to its future?

I don't care about tomorrow's grand-final, we have zero expectations. We came to play for fun and we took down Gods Reign today, I'm sure that we'll put up a really strong fight tomorrow as well regardless of who makes it to the final. We just want to play good Counter-Strike and there's nothing above that. Winning or losing doesn't matter as we haven't practiced for a single day.

Concluding the brief conversation, Crazy_Gamer praised his teammate hattygOD for his fluency with the AWP. He also shared a bit of background about Carnival Gaming's AWPer, stating how he had to tend to family commitments while working a 9-5 job and put in what limited time he would have to spare towards Counter-Strike.

If you had to pick out a promising prospect from your team, who would that be?

Definitely hatty (hattygOD), I think he's a really good talent and its just that he has a few family issues and commitments to tend to right now because of which he doesn't get to play much. He also does a 9-5 job and still performs so good with the very limited time he gets to put into the game.