After 100 Thieves won CWL Anaheim, they are the first team this season to claim back-to-back CWL Championships. Their first victory came at CWL London, at the start of May in front of a sold out crowd, with their second on home soil just over a month later. Call of Duty is a game that changes regularly, whether that be new titles such as Modern Warfare or new patch updates to the game, it can be tough to consistently stay on top.
CWL Anaheim's MVP was Austin "Slasher" Liddicoat of 100 Thieves, we had the chance to sit down and speak to him about his team's recent success and the future of Call of Duty.
Photo courtesy of Joe Brady
Nick: First off, congrats on going back to back with your victory at CWL Anaheim as well as taking home the tournament MVP award! Now that the dust has settled since the victory, how does it feel to once again be MVP as well as grab a second title?
Slasher: This is actually my first ever MVP trophy, but it feels amazing to finally be considered the MVP of a tournament. I feel like I've had moments in my career where I have been the best individually, but have never gotten the recognition for it. I'm also super proud of our team, not only for winning again, but for being even better than we were at CWL London.
Nick: You guys managed to go through CWL Anaheim without losing an entire series, why do you feel you were able to dominate this event?
Slasher: We were able to dominate CWL Anaheim mainly because of our improvement in S&D (Search & Destroy). Our teamwork, in general, is 2nd to none and we were finally able to apply that teamwork we showed in respawns at CWL London, to our S&D at CWL Anaheim. We are now a much more complete team with a very strong mapset making it hard to match up against us.
Photo courtesy of Eric Ananmalay
Nick: Opposed to CWL London, where we saw you guys drop the majority of your S&D’s, there was a drastic improvement at Anaheim in this game mode. What can you attest to this improvement?
Slasher: We just focused a lot more on S&D practice before Anaheim. We spent a couple hours in a private match, by ourselves, just talking through our different strategies and approaches to situations; to make sure we were all on the same page. After that, we then scrimmed multiple Amateur teams and applied our strategies, so we would feel more comfortable in the game mode at the event.
Nick: I wanna ask you, what are your general thoughts about the recent news of a franchising system being implemented for the next game? Do you think this can increase viewership and offer more long-term stability within the scene?
Slasher: I don't know much about the plans for franchising, but with what I do know I think it could be a good thing for Call of Duty. I definitely think that it will offer more long-term stability, as well as give us a chance to bring in new viewers. My only concern is that the amount of events each year will dwindle and the season will just be a league.
Read More: CWL 2019: Final Rostermania Updates Post Anaheim - UNITS, Midnight And Enigma6 Rosters Confirmed
Photo courtesy of Joe Brady
Nick: With next year’s title being confirmed as Modern Warfare, how do you feel about going back to more of a traditional Call of Duty and what areas do you want Infinity Ward to focus on to make it a good for competitive play?
Slasher: I'm excited for a more traditional Call of Duty. I just hope that Infinity Ward is focusing on making the game a good competitive game. The most important thing they need to focus on, in my opinion, is the maps. If they have 5-6 elite competitive map,s everything else should fall into place and give us a good year.
Nick: With rostermania in full swing, with teams such as E6, Heretics, and Envy making roster moves, do you think some of these teams are rushing into these moves? What are your general thoughts on some of these roster moves?
Slasher: The moves being made during this roster change period are rushed but the teams have no other choice. A lot of the teams making changes knew they couldn't win and they were only given 3 days before roster lock to figure it out. The changes I've seen so far are really weird to me and with only a few weeks of practice to figure it out, I think a lot of the newer teams are going to struggle.
Nick: I would like to say thank you for partaking in this interview and do you have anything to say to your fans out there?
Slasher: No problem and to the fans thank you so much for the support and hopefully, we can bring home two more championships this season for you!
Read More: CWL London 2019 OpTic Dashy Interview
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With Gamescom 2019 coming soon, we expect new information to be revealed about Modern Warfare. Read more about Gamescom here.
Written ByNick Farrell@NickFarrell91