پاگل: "میرے خیال میں عظیم کہانیوں کے لیے پسندیدہ ترین کاؤنٹر اسٹرائیک کھیلنے کی ضرورت ہوتی ہے"

پاگل کاؤنٹر اسٹرائیک میں سب سے نمایاں آن اسکرین ٹیلنٹ میں سے ایک ہے، جو کیلنڈر پر ہونے والے زیادہ تر بڑے ایونٹس کے لیے ہماری اسکرینوں کو رونق بخشتا ہے۔ وہ ہمارے کھیل کے ابتدائی دنوں میں ایک کامیاب کھلاڑی بھی تھا، جس نے 2014 سے کئی بڑے ایونٹ جیت کر ای ایس ایل ون: کولون 2014 میجر میں ٹاپ فور میں جگہ حاصل کی۔

2022 سوئس تجزیہ کار کے لیے ہمیشہ کی طرح مصروف تھا جیسا کہ اس نے سال کے چار بڑے ایونٹس، میجرز اور آئی ای ایم کیٹوویس اور کولون دونوں میں کام کیا، اس لیے بہتر کون ہے کہ وہ براڈکاسٹ پر زندگی کے بارے میں بصیرت کے ساتھ ساتھ ریاست کی حالت پر خیالات کے لیے پوچھے۔ پرو منظر ابھی.

BLAST پریمیئر فال فائنلز کے دوران پاگل 2022 کے سال کے لیے مذکورہ بالا موضوعات، اپنی ٹیم اور کھلاڑی کے بارے میں بات کرنے کے لیے کیمرے سے کچھ وقت نکالا، اور یہاں تک کہ 2023 میں CS کے لیے ایک جرات مندانہ پیشین گوئی بھی کی۔

So I’ll get the drama out of the way first. You were overlooked for the Esports Awards initially, does something like that bother you?

Genuinely I wish it didn’t matter to me, but I try to be honest with myself and the emotions within and I was a little bit bothered at the time. Not that I believe I need this validation to be happy in my life, but I thought I had a really great year and I performed well, I was very strict with myself in how I wanted to improve in my career, and I thought that I could see my name in there, at least I was hoping to see it. That’s the genuine truth.

Once it wasn’t the case, of course life goes on (smiles). You cannot give it too much weight, you can just accept that you were disappointed, live with it for a few days, then move on and keep working, which is what I did. I think I processed it the way it was supposed to be.

کیا اس کے بعد اس طرح کی حمایت حاصل کرنا اچھا لگا، کیونکہ بہت سے لوگوں نے زبانی طور پر کہا کہ آپ کو نظر انداز کیا گیا ہے اور اس فہرست میں شامل ہونا چاہیے تھا؟

Yeah definitely. Not only from the fans, because I always appreciate any show of support and I like to think that maybe humbly for a few people I make a difference and they appreciate the broadcast when I’m on and the energy I put in, that matters to me, but also when I have some of the key actors of the scene coming in and speaking on my behalf. It is obviously a great boost of motivation and validation, but I am far from thinking that I am perfect at what I do, I still have a boat-load to learn and improve on, and I think it’s an evergreen job…

Ongoing always, isn’t it?

بالکل، لہذا توثیق ہمیشہ اچھی ہوتی ہے۔

It’s almost better to get it from your peers in a way, the people who know what they’re talking about.

Yeah absolutely, again you cannot lie to yourself and say that fans’ opinions don’t matter because that’s just not true, right? I think as human beings we like to be appreciated and we like to be celebrated, there’s no way around it, but there are just a few voices out there that mean a lot, especially from the professionals of the broadcast, people who I know who have been around in the industry a long time. When I get praise from these people, for example when Richard Lewis goes and says he appreciates what I do, that means something to me.

اس وقت منظر میں ہمارے پاس موجود تجزیہ کاروں کو دیکھتے ہوئے ہمارے پاس آپ جیسے لوگ ہیں، دلال، کساد، وائی این کے۔ کیا آپ کو لگتا ہے کہ آپ کو براڈکاسٹ پر چیزوں کے تجزیہ کی طرف جانے کے لیے ایک پرو کھلاڑی ہونا چاہیے؟

No I don’t think so, if you have a genuine true passion for the game and you find the vein that you want to be in and own it, you can make it without having that etiquette. I do believe that being a former professional gets the foot in the door way easier, which is what happened to me. When I stopped in 2018 I had a level of credibility on the desk that was extremely high because I was fresh off the professional scene, so people wanted to know what I had to say about the game. This is just a foot in the door, I think once you realise how much this is a unique job, you’re not just a former professional talking about the game you are a broadcast talent, an entertainer, you have to educate but also entertain people. You either except that challenge and turn a new page in the book of your life, and you try something new, or you don’t. I think you can do it without being a professional player, it just helps you get there.

کیا آپ نے پیشہ ورانہ منظر پر واپس آنے کے بارے میں کوئی سوچا ہے، خاص طور پر بطور کوچ، یا شاید آپ کو کوئی پیشکش ہوئی ہے؟

I think I might have had a few people asking me if I would consider it. I never had a real concrete offer, that didn’t come my way, but I also don’t believe that I would because I am aware of how much time it takes when you have to follow a team 24/7, I think it’s an incredible investment. I am very happy with the balance I have in my life, not that the talent life isn’t also at times exhausting (smiles), at the moment we are in a rush, fresh from Rio and then to Abu Dhabi. It can be exhausting and can be tiring, but I am very happy with where I am and I always want to improve in what I do and I take this as if I was a pro player, just in a different game, my game is entertainment. There are days when I am good on the server and days when I am not, there are things that I have to improve and things that I have to change, so it’s very rewarding. It’s very challenging but very rewarding, and I don’t really want to leave this space right now.

کچھ کاؤنٹر اسٹرائیک سوالات کی طرف بڑھتے ہوئے، آپ کے نقطہ نظر سے میجر کیسا تھا؟ پردے کے پیچھے براڈکاسٹر ہونے کے ناطے آپ کا ایک انوکھا نقطہ نظر ہے۔

میرے خیال میں چیلنجرز اسٹیج اور لیجنڈز اسٹیج بہت منفرد تھا، یہ ہر ایک کے لیے سیکھنے کا تجربہ تھا۔ ان میں سے کچھ گیمز کے لیے ٹرن آؤٹ اور ماحول کو دیکھ کر دلچسپ، میرے خیال میں کھلاڑیوں کو شاید یہ احساس نہیں کہ یہ کتنا عجیب ہے، میں اس وقت سے آیا ہوں جب ہم ٹورنامنٹ کے اس مرحلے کے لیے جمنازیم میں کھیلا کرتے تھے، اس لیے میں نے اس کی تعریف کی۔ کہ اس نے میرے لیے ایک ٹرک ٹن توانائی بھی جلا دی، اس ماحول میں دو ہفتوں تک کام کرنا اور آپ کے پیچھے موجود توانائی سے مماثل ہونا انتہائی تھکا دینے والا تھا، ظاہر ہے کہ میں میجر کے لیے اس قسم کی کوششیں کرنے پر خوش ہوں۔ ایسا کرنے کا وقت.

I think the playoffs didn’t deliver what we were hoping to see, but there is a reality in that you don’t control the teams that make it through, you don’t control the stories that come out of a tournament, so we had to work with what we had. In the end I still believe we managed to tell the stories of some of these heroes, seeing Jame for example lift a trophy at the Major, someone who had been criticised a lot for his playstyle, it was a sweet story of vindication. So yeah, it burned out a lot of energy for me, I was happy I was there and gave my everything. What happened in the playoffs is not something I could control, unfortunately.

آپ کو کیسا لگتا ہے کہ اس وقت منظر کہاں ہے، پوسٹ میجر؟ ہمارے پاس کوئی واضح نمبر ون ٹیم نہیں ہے اور مجھے لگتا ہے کہ بہت سے لوگ ابھی پاور رینکنگ کرنے کے لیے جدوجہد کریں گے، کیا غیر یقینی کا دور ہونا مثبت بات ہے؟

There are pluses and minuses, I think. When your favourites are a little bit fragile, you are missing out on some of these key matches in moments that should matter, right? Technically if you could ask someone “hey would you like to see FaZe vs NAVI in the final of a Major?” then everybody would say “oh yeah, that would be incredible, the closing of 2022, oh my god what would happen?” obviously you don’t control that. I do think that it’s great to see, for all of the teams out there in the top say 10 or 12, there is a way to trophies. It was not always the case in Counter-Strike, there were periods of time where if your name isn’t FaZe, Astralis or NAVI, you’re not putting your hands on a trophy, that’s it. So I appreciate that openness and that we can be surprised by players, but I do think that great stories require favourites playing their best Counter-Strike. If there is an upset, good, then I am absolutely happy to see it, I just want whoever upset a team to have that sense of having earned it.

ہمارے پاس ابھی تھوڑا سا کاؤنٹر اسٹرائیک کھیلنا باقی ہے، لیکن اگر میں آپ کو ابھی موقع پر رکھ دوں تو آپ کی ٹیم آف دی ایئر اور سال کا بہترین کھلاڑی کون ہوگا؟

میرے خیال میں FaZ نے یہ اعزاز حاصل کرنے کے لیے کافی کام کیا ہے…

اس سال بڑے چار واقعات میں سے تین!

Absolutely, I know that there have been a few tournaments where they missed the mark, Dallas is a good example, the Major is very obviously on that list, but you cannot take anything away from what they’ve been able to do in 2022. Truth be told they still have two tournaments to play, as we speak now they could lift a trophy in Copenhagen and one in Abu Dhabi and that would close out the greatest year in the history of CS:GO. I don’t think anyone can push them away from that seat, they will be my team of the year.

When it comes to player, I also believe that s1mple has done enough. It is true that he has slowed down significantly in the last few weeks, and there is nothing against that, but his dominance over the Counter-Strike world in the beginning of 2022 was so marked that I don’t really know who could challenge him honestly. I even cannot come up with an argument for ZywOo, so that must mean I’m honest (laughs).

اگر آپ کو 2023 کے لیے کوئی جرات مندانہ پیشین گوئی کرنی پڑی تو ایسی ٹیم یا کھلاڑی جو مثبت یا منفی طور پر حیران کر دے گا، کون یا کیا ہوگا؟

لات، ایک جرات مندانہ پیشین گوئی… (ہنستا ہے)۔

میں جانتا ہوں کہ میں آپ کو یہاں پر رکھ رہا ہوں (ہنستا ہے)۔

Yeah, I’m just trying not to come up with some BS answer and give you something I actually believe in…

ٹھیک ہے، مجھے یقین ہے کہ NAVI اور Vitality دونوں روسٹر کو تبدیل کر دیں گے، اور یہ کہ دونوں ایک مختلف روسٹر کے ساتھ بہتر نظر آئیں گے۔

That’s a bold prediction, I’ll take it!