OG Esports talks overcoming Copenhagen heartbreak and London Major goals

It seems like only yesterday that the first ball of the season was crashed into, but already we're at the business end of the season as London plays host to the RLCS Major 2, as the famed Copperbox Arena looks to continue its legacy in Rocket League esports.

For OG Esports, it took a nailbiting finish to get over the line of qualification to London and subsequently the World Championships in September, but that doesn't mean a spot amongst the greats isn't merited. Having individually all enjoyed success at Majors since the new open format came in with RLCS (and Riyadh Masters), the roster now believes that this is their time to prove that the hard work in the lab has paid off.

GGRecon sat down with the OG Esports trio of Red Bull star Joseph "noly" Kidd, Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman, and Robert "comm" Kyser, to talk all things London and the 2023 season.

Click to enlarge

OG Esports on London return & more

Last time out London was quite indifferent for all of you. Comm that was the start of your "villain arc", noly your time on Karmine Corp was one you often say that you look back on fondly, and JKnaps, admittedly, that wasn’t the best title defence that we’ve ever witnessed.

How do you all feel to back in London and gearing up for what seems to be a similarly competitive Major?

Robert "Comm" Kyser: I'm happy to be back. For me, it's a cool feeling being back on a different team. Considering I was with Version1 for the entirety of my pro career, albeit with a number of different players, it's cool to have been able to prove to myself that I can make it with other players - that I wasn't getting carried as hard as many people thought by Beastmode. I'm back and I'm ready to show that I've got what it takes.

Joseph "noly" Kidd: For me, it hasn't settled in. I think when I get to the venue then I'll be like, "Oh shit, I'm back. I'm back at my first LAN." But, for now, I'm just in the moment and focusing on the bootcamp beforehand.

Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman: I'm just happy that we're here and not at home sitting for a four-month off-season - that is if we had even made Worlds, it would have been much longer if we didn't, we would have been just sitting at home for eight months. I'm just happy we're here.

On that note, how did preparations go?

JKnaps: We had one week of scrims before we left for here, and it wasn't like a full week against the best teams either.

Comm: Also, the only scrims that were available were NA teams who were scrimming for the Major, because nobody else wanted to play the game.

Do you think that there should be something for other teams to grind in this period, such as a tie-two event, so that they will still be willing to fit scrims in there as well?

Comm: I know ShiftRLE announced their off-season tournament, but I do think this is something that should be officially considered by Epic.

JKnaps: Teams might have imploded already, even if there was a small off-season tournament, but at least there would have been a selection of teams trying to play with new teams and we can practice against new teams.

Aside from some slow scrim days, how confident are we feeling going into the major this year?

noly: A lot more confident than going into the last one, since this time, we're going into this with a clear way of playing in mind. We're all working towards the same goal. It gives me confidence knowing that we're not going in as indecisive.

JKnaps: The playstyle we have made this split is going to match up - and give us a lot more confidence - against the better teams. Because, in Copenhagen, it did feel like we were underneath some of the top teams style-wise. It never felt like we had it all together. But I'm a lot more confident now that we can like take it to these big teams.

Click to enlarge

Without giving away your strats, what has changed in your playstyle that makes you more confident?

Comm: A lot of things. We've been working on things that we talked about before Copenhagen or in those Regionals. Like hell, even in the Regional we came last in, there were plans that we were working on then that we have finally implemented into our game.

We've worked on anything that you can think of; our positioning off the ball, our positioning on the ball, our decision-making on-ball and off-ball.

A lot of things that we've talked about have finally started to come together. We probably said that last split too, especially in that last regional against G2 we said that like everything felt like it was coming together. I think we were the clear second-best team in that tournament behind G2, we could have also beaten them.

It's been like a culmination of a lot of things coming together. but the amount of time we've had as a team is starting to pay off.

Given that this is a short season, and historically Rocket League teams like to blow it up after the year if they've not won a recent Major or been the region's best at Worlds, is this actually a project for the long term and hopefully for a full season next year?

noly: At the start of the season, I knew I didn't want a team where it was just going to implode as soon as the season was over, then the team was over before it had started.

I wanted a project where, even if it doesn't work out straight away, I trust the players enough to work it out.

Comm: The fact that the season is so short is definitely hurting us because I feel like we're getting so much better and all the development we've made, if it was a third Major - a third split -  we would be even better by Worlds.

For that reason, I one hundred per cent wanted this to be a long-term project.

What has North America been like for you this year? Because you're all very experienced and have played in the region for some time. Has the pipeline and the talent pool increased and got better after this roster overhaul or is it the same as previously where it is very top-heavy?

At the start of the season, there really were roughly ten teams that challenged - you knew G2 and Gen.G were going to be the best but other than that there were so many individually talented players on these top teams like Shopify and M80. Who knows what would have happened if M80 or Shopify had finished ahead of LG or us in the first split?

But, right now it does feel like G2 just runs everything. Gen.G's fell off a little bit, but I feel now it's only four teams that are good enough, compared to the start of the season where it felt like there would have been ten top sides that are competing against each other.

Comm: But I think it was ten teams that were competing against each other in the sense that every team was new so nobody had enough time to become established and a strong, international-ready team. Everybody was still trying to figure everything out.

Now we have, at this event, clearly the four best North American teams, no doubt.

That comes with having that time to figure things out. These are the four best teams from North America that can play against every other team in the world. 

Click to enlarge

How does that put you with the rest of the world, though? Because you are at an international event, and if North America has been playing catch up, does that still put you in contention to be, arguably, the best region up there with Europe?

Comm: A hundred per cent. It's gotten a lot more competitive between these four teams. I mean, if we go back to Split One, we lost to Gen G three times, and some of those were us getting blown out of the water, because we were still testing new stuff out and trying new things.

Now, in this last split, we were 2-1 against them, we had a winning record against them this last split. So yeah, we're at the same level as any other region is.

JKnaps: The Middle East is the only other region that I can say could contend, but I think our third and fourth teams are stronger than their third and fourth teams.

What's the goal then for the major? Whenever we've spoken individually in the past on your old rosters, it was always "the championship." Is that the same now, where nothing but first is good enough?

All, in agreement: Yes.

Comm: At the end of the day, that's a goal. But for me personally, I can't go another LAN without playing in front of the crowd.

Making it to Copenhagen and then not getting a chance to play in front of the crowd is such a s**tty feeling.

That's fair enough, the format can be brutal. This leads me to the format which got you here. The Major qualification slots have been cut down for NA this year and that led to the tiebreaker.

What was that experience like for you? And is there any sympathy towards Shopify and the Justin arc which would have been a cool storyline, considering that if this was last year they'd probably be on the plane?

All, in agreement: Nope.

noly: If they'd beat us out, there wouldn't have been sympathy from them.

All of us were actually excited going into it because we felt like that day we were feeling it, we were really on it, despite the loss to G2. Some things didn't go in our favour, but eventually, it worked out to where we had the tiebreaker, and we weren't going to let that opportunity slip.

Even though it went to Game 7, for the majority of the game, even watching back, we were in control. If we stuck to what we knew we were clearly better. Some people didn't appreciate what I said afterwards on Twitter about that, but if I believe in something, I'm going to stand on it. I still think that.

Comm: That tiebreaker was a result of some things not going our way in the bracket too, and then we showed that we were the better team anyway. Because if they play G2 in the semis and we play Moist in the semis, there's no way in hell that we're going to a tiebreaker. We were clearly the second-best team there despite getting third-fourth in that regional.

We just met G2 and they didn't. If they were seeded against G2 that tiebreaker is never necessary, they were lucky to be there.

Click to enlarge

That's Worlds locked in now too for OG. Given that you're both in Texas (noly and Comm), and that's your side of the globe as well JKnaps - that counts as home turf - How will that experience be for you?

JKnaps: I love playing in NA, it just feels natural and I love not travelling too far as well, feeling like I'm only two hours away. All of my best experiences - I've had a few finals in European LANs - most of them have been in NA. Probably because the whole team's like feeling comfortable and good.

You say that you like playing close to home in NA. You've had a couple of finals in Europe, but not necessarily in London. Is there a bad omen or a mental block when it comes to London?

JKnaps: I don't think it's a bad omen. Every time I've come here it's been a double-elim bracket and I've lost both times in Game 5 - I think the first time at Worlds we lost both Game 5s as well. So I've lost four Game 5s in four series.

But this is a Swiss bracket here, so it changes that, hopefully.

Finally, looking past this season and towards next year: If you had one wish that you could have granted across all of Rocket League, whether it be something RLCS-related or even an in-game feature, what would you wish for?

Comm: Having the 2021-2022 season [format] back, with at least five LAN slots for North America.

noly: More LAN spots for sure. Not just for the security but more for the excitement, when there are more teams people can get really amped up and it's more exciting to see different matchups and what brackets are made. But with a limited amount of teams, it's hard to get that across.

Comm: I mean this season is, in most regards a failure. In the sense that the prize money has dropped significantly, the number of events has dropped - there's one entire split less - and there are fewer qualification spots. I think a lot of these things can be considered a failure.

But, at Copenhagen, there were a lot of things going wrong behind the scenes, and BLAST was generally pretty good at getting on top of it. They seemed like they were very receptive to feedback, and I trust them to actually perform next season with that.

noly: Even though it was a failure, because last season and the season before were so much better, for a rebuilding season they are trying their best.

It's obviously not what we want, but they're making it work. Even practice rooms at the hotel here, and in Copenhagen, are incredible - this one is even better. That's something that players have wanted for a long time, and they've done a good job there.

JKnaps: Mine would be auto-qualifying top 8s in the Regionals. Even if it's the very first Regional of the season. Get the top eight teams from last season who are still together, and if they're not, then do the two-thirds rule. 

I don't think the top-eight teams should have a chance of not qualifying for the Regionals, as Karmine Corp did.

Comm: Having a weekend off during it [would help] - we started taking Mondays off because we had to otherwise it's playing every day for six weeks.

JKnaps: We have to wait until nighttime to play the qualifier too. So we play all day just to play literal Diamond Threes for ten minutes.

It's so much anticipation for these five minutes. We're not even comming in Discord [during Qualifiers]. We're talking about what we're eating for dinner basically.

OG Esports went into London as the number four seed in North America, but it's clear to see that they feel the roster is confident of being number two, and that's good enough to take on the rest of the world. With a slice of luck, which they are warranted after the tiebreaker circumstances, who knows whether their road to the Major trophy might be a fruitful one?