When I started typing this up, I was flooded with great memories of so many people (players) that I’ve had the pleasure of coaching, hanging out with, and experiencing something special with over the years. A lot of the CSGO subreddit and similar esports content conduits focus on all kinds of negative things, so I wanted to share some of my positive insights into some players that I found were incredibly coachable over the years.
This list is in no particular order, and I wrote it in a very stream of consciousness way.
Cutler
If I had to name one player that if I said “Jump”, they’d say “How high and for how long?”, it’d be Cutler. Every single thing he was asked to do, in game and out, he did, full speed, no questions asked.
When I first got to CLG and met with all the players 1 on 1, Cutler had very specific areas of his game that he felt like he was struggling with, and that he believed if he could fix, he’d elevate his game back to “the old Cutler” days. He said “I always 88 in 3 everyone and then just get 1shot and die.”
So from that first meeting onward, I outlined a few in-game mechanical practice routines to perform DAILY that would help him:
- Tighten his recoil pattern
- Get his crosshair to the head FIRST
- Combining 1 and 2 = headshot first, headshots after
- Document his progress and track it over time
The results were noticeable, and I even remember answering Hazed’s question on the desk at one of the Dreamhack events about “What did you do to bring Cutler back like this?”
Cutler also wanted to ensure he was doing everything he could outside of the game — working out, eating relatively clean, supplementing the right things at the right times, and was always willing to test out new things at the advice of his coaches (myself and my asst. coach Mike).
There were times he didn’t want to practice late or an extra day, sure. But he did it, and he didn’t gripe about it. When he was asked to do something, he did it to the best of his abilities, in game and out, every time.
He was a pleasure to coach, and I’ve always hoped to see him back competing at the pro level. A coachable, hard working, great teammate. Young NA players could learn A LOT from him.
Mainline
Lord, there’s something unbelievably entertaining about coaching and competing alongside Michael “Mainline” Jaber. I don’t think any player I’ve coached has been more willing to accept blame and take responsibility for mistakes, and do so in a way that both ended the potential in-fighting as well as uplifted the mood of the team.
Mikey wasn’t the best mechanical player. He’d tell you that much. But when we sat down to game plan against teams, we were like 1 mind. If you go back to watch our NME days when we won the first North American Minor, you’d find that we had lost to some of the teams in that tournament online just a few days prior.
A few adjustments and an altered game plan, and we slammed teams like Winterfox (WFX) with a level of detail that was probably unheard of in NA at the time. I distinctly remember explaining to Mike how I wanted a certain Mirage play to work, and he called it at the perfect time and it was perfectly executed. Literally predicted every kill, including the location they’d occur at, 1–2–3, like the Navy Seals executing simultaneous headshots on hostage takers at sea many years back.
Mainline always had the team laughing and upbeat, and while (ridiculously) many still doubt the value of mindset in competition, it made a world of difference. He had a mind for the game, was always willing to learn, was willing to cede control when required, and take it when needed.
He was also the only player I’ve ever had on a team that received a verbal warning for calling the other team “doodoo”, which he shouted at them during the NA Minor.
I have never laughed harder in the context of CS:GO than I did when Mike was on the team.
Koosta
What can I say about my man Kenny? Ending up against each other in CS:GO matchmaking was kismet.
When I saw the flashes of potential he showed… the challenge became showing HIM how good he could be more than anything else. And once he bought in, he trusted the systems, the calls, etc. and the results were a thing of beauty.
“Kenny, take that spawn and do X” was quickly followed by
When he realized how good he was, his confidence eventually made way to a fully autonomous Koosta, and for those who haven’t coached a player in this mode, it’s nearly the final destination.
A player with that level of confidence and skill, who knows what you’re going to call before you call it, suggests it himself, and makes players happen — well that’s the dream.
His quiet personality masks his intellect and overly-analytical mind, and getting him to open up on his thoughts, and even having him laugh/smile was an event that always elevated the team atmosphere. He was a very quick study, and understood things without having to hear them explained a second time (maybe ever).
Having Koosta alongside Mainline was one of the most fun environments I’ve coached, where Mike’s born-and-raised Brooklyn accent and commentary got Koosta laughing, which led to Koosta hitting shots and the team winning matches.
My only regret, albeit something out of my control, was encouraging him to “move on and move up” to Team Liquid. Nothing against the org itself, but “know-it-all” and perenial flapjack GBJames shattered his confidence upon arrival there and it dampened his trajectory during a time when his ascent was at full speed.
He had considered retiring many times along the journey, and I’m happy to have talked him out of it at least once or twice. Seeing him still compete at the top brings a smile to my face.
Nifty
Ah, good ole’ Noah Francis. “The CoD player.”
When I first interacted with Nifty, he was a hard-working gamer, learning the ropes in CS:GO. He hadn’t decided on an in-game path yet, and by that I mean he was still rifling most of the time, considering AWPing some of the time, and didn’t know what his role would be.
When Koosta went to Team Liquid following our overall success as a team with NME/Selfless, we needed to find an AWPer. At the time, witmer had been popping off, and according to the CSGO subreddit, he was the most likely candidate to join the team. But there was something in Nifty that made better sense to me.
His work ethic was easily outclassing the region, his motivations were purely competition based, and his progression as a player was FAST. He was also humble, accepted criticism, and truly kept his eye on improving daily.
I wasn’t the only person to notice it either — and I think the identification of a talent like his started building NME/Selfless the reputation that we had throughout our existence. We were known as the org that found and developed talent that would eventually get bought-out and go to a higher-level pro team.
Nifty, even more so than Koosta, was a player I literally watched “grow-up”. From being just slightly too young to compete in Pro League when we first started to evaluate him as a player, to now being the young man who has traveled the world, won some tournaments, and lost some others, it’s been a wild ride.
Throughout, he was always first-to-rise, last-to-leave, playful with his teammates, and his contagious laugh, especially at a hilarious death of a teammate, was an immediate mood-lifter. Now if he would just spend less time on kz maps… YOUR MOVEMENT IS BEYOND GOOD ENOUGH NOW, NOAH.
There’s certainly been some bumps in the road for Nifty, and I can’t speak to what’s been going on as of late, but I know that he is capable of being one of the region’s best players and has the internal motor that, when aligned to the prize, can climb the ladder.
