SmithZz: We don't need big authorities [in CS]

After his team ended the ECS Season 3 Finals in 5-6th place due to defeats to SK and FaZe, we managed to sit down with Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux to learn more about his experiences of coaching G2.

One of the more experienced French Counter-Strike players Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux retired at the beginning of the year, making the switch from a playing to a coaching position in G2.

SmithZz had an offer to play, but decided to take on coaching

After his team was eliminated from the tournament, we had a chat with SmithZz to learn about his thoughts on coaching, how G2 developed over time and how the ECS Season 3 went for them.

In the last portion of your playing career and then when you decided to retire, was coaching the only thing you had in mind? Were there any other options you were open to maybe, like playing for another team, going to a management position or anything like that? Was coaching the first thing you wanted?

It was something I was thinking about during the last six months of my career as a player. It was something we needed in France, we didn't have coaches, proper coaches, and I was the oldest and most experienced player in the French scene still playing, so it was basically logical that I had this choice in mind. Yeah, I thought about it, I was joking about it during the down part of my career, I was like "Fuck, I should become a coach". And the end it was like that, I had a proposition to play in another French team and I had this proposition and I chose to coach. I think it was the best choice for me and for the French scene.

Talking about the transition, the first month or two, how did that go for you? Going from a playing position to a coaching position? The first impressions?

It was a feeling of relief, I don't know how to say it. I was pretty upset while playing, because of all of the community bullshit and stuff. And even myself, I wasn't enjoying it anymore because I didn't have the confidence to play, I needed a break or whatever. So when I started coaching I was really happy, and I'm still happy of course, but I thought it would be harder - it was not.

I didn't miss playing, like since February I didn't play a PUG or whatever, I don't touch CS at all. I just warm up with the guys or do aim map or whatever. I'm fine with it. So yeah, it was really great, the first two months, I had a lot of work to do with the guys because it was not the level that was expected when we formed the team. But yeah, it was pretty good.

Tell me about your normal practice day, what is it made of? What do you do, how do you go through stuff, what do you focus on?

I won't say all my tricks but basically, I can talk with players more individually, like with kennyS or with bodyy or with apEX or whatever, if they are doing mistakes, and I try to fix more general things. And in-game, I watch practice of course and I'm just trying to find the mistakes and when we do mistakes. Why it goes wrong and why we win rounds and why we lose rounds, what are our strengths and what are our weaknesses. 

I talked with shoxie, mostly at the beginning of the team, to make him confident as an in-game leader and that is pretty much it. Except that, it's all the backside about mentality and stuff, which is the main point for me. What is outside of the game is really important and I'm trying to make them feel confident.

At the beginning of the team SmithZz focused on helping shox

Maybe for you, it is different than for a lot of other coaches because you played with a lot of these players before, but are there any problems in getting them to trust you and believe what you say? Were there any situations where you tell a player to do something in a match and he doesn't do it, or something like that?

Like I said, the choice to become a coach wasn't my own, they all proposed it to me. So I think the relation of trust was there from day one. They all trust me, they all played with me, even apEX always wanted to play with me because he knows what kind of player I am. I'm not saying I'm smarter or whatever but I'm here and I understand how CS works. And the coach sees everything and he understands more because he doesn't play, he isn't focused on his crosshair.

It was something we said at the beginning, I will be the voice to trust. When I say something, I'm right, you have to understand me and listen to me, and they do, of course. I'm not feeling my role perfectly right now I think, I could say much more and I could take more space. I'm not doing that now since it's still the beginning for me and I don't want to be a dictator or whatever, you know. Every time I talk, even though I don't talk much, they listen to me and they trust me 100%.

Do you think that going forward, in CS in general or for you, do you see coaches having more authority, having more control of the team? Is that the right step for CS, or should it be like it was before, five players and then the coach as the sixth person that's helping out?

I don't know, in football or in any sports the coach is making the game. But in CS, there are still in-game leaders, and with the coaching rule, in any case, you can't be the in-game leader as a coach.

I played with shoxie a lot in my career, we have played under the same leaders and we got the same experience, kind of. So we have approximately the same vision. So everything I will say I know that he will approve me and the other way around. So it's easy to work with that. 

I think the coach needs to work before the tournaments and before the officials and stuff. And the work you made before that it is enough, at least at this moment in CS, then the player recreates the coaches thoughts, orders, whatever. And the in-game leader is here to say his way, his own style, because he is playing and he needs to be confident with his own style.

If I was leading I think shox wouldn't feel confident, even if we have the same vision, because now when I tell him something he takes what he wants and combines it with his thoughts. I think, in CS at the moment, we don't need big authorities telling players what to do, but as the coach you need to give direction like training, practicing, what to practice etc. But the pure in-game, I think the players can direct themselves.

How does your analyst enkay J work with the team and you as the coach?

He is doing amazing work. We all have a lot of respect for him, he is working really hard, putting a lot of hours to prepare for tournaments. He is basically analyzing all of the opponents and even our game.

Can you give me an example of what he did coming here, for this tournament?

For example watching demos for the players, like players ask him questions how for example a certain player plays a position or if they have a strategy on A and what they are doing. And he is looking at all of this and for more specific things, for stats and stuff, he is doing stats and I'm translating those stats for the players, what I think is useful and stuff like this.

But yeah, I think he is really important, I think in other teams a lot of coaches do that, I couldn't do that though, it's way too much work and I think it's really good to separate two things, to have a coach and an analyst.

The Frenchmen praised enkay J's contribution

You just mentioned that players were asking for specific information, are your players that involved in preparing for other teams coming into tournaments, let's say, asking how TACO plays a specific spot?

Yeah, it depends on the player, they are players asking anything, for example, an in-game leader like shox likes to know what he will face. Mostly it's a bonus to have that because shox doesn't have to spend so much time, like before, on demos. Someone can do it for him and he has the answers straight. But I think it's common, everybody looks at demos but it just takes a lot of time, so if you have someone to do it for you and find exactly what you want to find it's a lot faster.

Let's talk about the period starting with you establishing the team. It was hard at the beginning, you played a lot of online stuff because you lost your ranking, you couldn't qualify for some tournaments and then you slowly started advancing and then came the period that was now, two victories at two tournaments. Can you talk me a bit through the whole phase, how it went on inside of the team, from your perspective?

I knew myself that there would be a lot of work to do, the players knew deep in them, but they really thought it would be easier. Everybody thought it would be easier. And the result was pretty bad at the beginning and it showed that even if you put the five best players in their own role it won't work like this. That's not CS.

So we worked even more than any team before and it paid off after I would say two months, but two months is... We were losing a lot. And it's pretty hard when you build a new team to lose that much. Because normally when you build a new team there is the hype, there is everything and you start really strong - and after it goes away. It was totally the opposite there. But the players and the staff handled it really good, we never gave up and we are here today. So it's pretty good.

As I said, you won two tournaments in a row, coming here, what were you expecting? Were you expecting a big result here as well?

I think it's not a shame what we did here, not at all, losing to FaZe and SK, they are one of the best teams in the world so it's OK. We are not so happy with the form, we didn't show a good face, there was a lot of problems, I won't spend the time to tell them all here, but we have a lot to fix.

We expected semi-final or final if we get out of group stage. We didn't, it's not a big deal, we have two more weeks now, the qualification for the Major and Cologne which are even more important. It is going to be very tough at the Qualifier I guess because there is a lot of "supposed" lower teams there and we still struggle and haven't found a solution to perform really good against lower teams. We are really good against good teams but against a supposedly lower team, we struggle sometimes. But we will see.

Since leaving his playing career behind, SmithZz rarely plays the game

Lastly, what is your plan, what are you going to do for the next two-three weeks?

We are going to fly to Bucharest right now, try to qualify for the Major. Hopefully, we are going to qualify. Then after we fly to Cologne straight, we will see how it goes. And after we are four days home, or five, we are going to practice because we don't have time to practice so much during these three weeks. And after it's the Major and the holidays.

So yeah, it will be pretty rough, I can answer if it is good to do this or not after this month, but we did it last year and it went OK I guess, it was pretty hard mentally to go for over a month without family, girlfriends, and stuff. We will see. It's the midseason right now and we will give everything to bring more trophies.

Anything you want to say to finish it off?

Thanks to everyone who cheers for us and thanks to you for the interview.

G2 #4 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux Age: 28 Team: G2C

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