Spunj is slowly turning into Thorin in both personality and appearance. It's like some twisted Dark reality where we are going to learn Thorin was actually future Chad all along.
Chad. I'm sorry. The idea that you need to please others in the space you are in is setting you up for failure. With admiration for you, I suggest you consider speaking with a therapist about how to reframe your perception of how you fit into your world so that you can be happier. Sucks to see you unhappy, and even with supportive friends, sometimes it takes more than friends who let you vent to find the path to your own happiness. I really enjoy what you offer to the world :)
I was going to post my first comment just to try and say I feel you venting more and more on here and feel you could use some professional help and not just give it all to ynk and Jason, gl brother
People only get over things on there own. Therapy is a snake oil scam. The original books were written by scientists we captured in World War II who were you know gassing people. The guy has feelings and thoughts and it's fine if he expresses them and you don't agree coming out and saying this guy needs therapy is such an odd projection if you ask me. I think a lot of people now are just getting incredibly soft. Back in css and go beta people were never this soft snd inept. Dude is a legend he has every right to be upset. This pod cast is his space and cs is too. People heal in there own ways.
I actually can’t believe you read the hltv comment section Spunj. It’s an absolute shit show of people who are just trying to get a rise out of other people. Distance yourself from that stuff and you’ll feel better. Love the podcast always look forward to this and hltv confirmed.
(apologies for huge wall of text) I think there's only two real main directions left with Liquid: life with Cadian leading the charge, or one where Twistzz/NAF are the main core and you rebuild around something else. Just for practicality's sake, getting a good replacement IGL who also has the leadership that you need isn't really there unless you dip heavily into the war chest (which Liquid may or may not have). So here's my left-of-field plan: you bet on Cadian to rebuild the team, because he's done it countless times, and it's also a lot easier to find replacement pieces economically. Rebuilding around Cadian means you probably have to say goodbye to Twistzz and NAF. My solution? Offer them as a package deal to Complexity, starting with something like a $1.7-1.8 million offer (with a realistic view that you'd probably end up getting somewhere closer to $1.2-1.5 million). It's not something coL would probably be pushing for, but if the offer's put on the table, eventually there will be a low enough number that Jason Lake would have to bite the bullet on it. Twistzz/Elige/NAF/JT/Hallzerk is too tempting a combo to pass up, and it's also a combo of pieces that can functionally work within the system they have now. So that gets TL some money in the bank. Your next problem: what to do with the aggressive riflers. I think you probably sell skullz back to paiN or another South American team that would take him at the drop of a hat; that's a better option for skullz, who is getting absolutely awful spots with zero influence. One potential option here could be to do a player + cash swap with MIBR: send skullz back their way in exchange for insani for a slight discount on the buy-out fee. If they did bite, however, then you've got Cadian/insani/YEKINDAR. That's not a bad starting point. But let's say MIBR don't bite at that (they're basically even in the HLTV rankings right now), and let's also say that insani is off the table due to communication issues (or maybe TL has run into more problems than expected and they don't want to roll the dice again). What they could then look at might be: - Make an offer to M80 to buy out malbs, make an offer to grab jBA, and keep YEKINDAR. That fulfils the NA RMR requirements, but it also adds an extra aggressive rifling element into the mix to either make space for YEKINDAR, or follow up on his aggression. - Another side offer is doing a double-buy out from M80 to pick up malbs and Swisher. You probably don't look at jBA in that scenario, but then I think if TL isn't prepared to consider players like malbs, they're not going to look at Swisher/jBA/anyone else in NA that's not from coL. - What to do with skullz here? If you're building around Cadian, you can maybe move him into NAF's roles to see what the improvement is -- but you can also probably find alternatives that you have more confidence in. I'm not against the idea of a short-term contract (ie. 3 months, maybe 6 months) for someone like jks. Liquid would still have the advantage in the negotiations, and having the short term element is also a benefit for jks if TL still can't get it together. The NA RMR issues will be fine with the previous pickups above, and qualifying shouldn't be an issue just because of the concertina effect. - THE OTHER PROBLEM: I still think you keep Cadian, but the problem in this scenario is the lack of a strong second voice or second caller. So what do you do? Sdy is available and an interesting second piece. I'd still argue for YEKI staying in this situation, because you need that aggressive piece to make space for sdy and Cadian to work. YEKI would probably still want to contribute as a second voice anyway, but for everyone's sanity, let's say YEKI gets told to just focus on his crosshair and the W key. In that world you still need that passive element covered, but whether that's skullz or jks or someone else, I'm not sure. - Unrelated, there's a few other pieces on the market that might be appealing for different reasons: Heavygod from OG, who needs to be saved from that endless shitshow. Smooya as a serviceable AWP could be an interesting element that might actually work against the more passive personalities of Twistzz and NAF, but that's in a world where TL move on from Cadian (and I don't think they should). Raiding the Australian scene is also a cost-effective option here. I'd hate to see him get ripped out, but INS is probably one of the most consistent English native speakers sitting outside the top 15. He's also one of the few players who plays better against harder opposition, especially over the last few months. So if you take INS as your second voice and one of your aggressive riflers, that gets you: Cadian, YEKINDAR, INS, skullz, and then you can incorporate another NA/SA player to maintain the RMR status. I'd still argue that it makes sense to bet on Malbs now, and then you've got a mix of three super-to-relatively aggressive riflers, which works for Cadian and his playstyle, and it also opens the map further for skullz to try to have some influence. It's also a good cost-effective way to replace the pieces you have, and TL has a clear pathway for improvements during the player break if things continue to not work. tl;dr: don't be a lazy fuck, read the suggestions above
Chad, we love you! Ignore those who are ignorant of your important contributions to the scene. I admire the tenacity, keep up the good work all of you!
Chad, community loves you and you know that, all professionals around the world faces these kind of comments, best approach would be ignoring them. I have been using hltv for around 10 years I used to have an account, and it was banned last year until 2033 (troll comment). Hltv is the only site that I have been using for years every single day. I do not use social media, just browsing through topics on hltv, and I am only checking about the topics I like, and I do not check cs related topics (stupid topics like -player +player). I love your commentary on, and off the server. You are my favorite, and one of the best casters/commentators not only for me but also cs community as you are being around for more than a decade as you are consistently working for the community. The interview you guys made with maj3r is the 4th most watched video on the channel. It was so good, and hyped me on the major that I have watched it twice. The team, and maj3r is on the Turkish community for a decade, but there hasn't been any interview/podcast/chit chatting with EF players even though it is the only team for a Turkey. Overall, thanks for that video, and making CS's professional community better. Much love from Turkey ^^
Haters are like crickets. Crickets make a lot of noise, you hear it, but you can't see them. But when you walk right by them, they're quiet." - Unknown
in anything in life you'll never be able to please everyone, there's just always going to be people that don't like you for whatever reason even if you've never talked to that person before or know who they are, it can be hard to but its really best to just ignore people on hltv forms all together, most of the people who use the platform only talk shit on it cos its anonymous and mostly private, there's no way of people finding out who they are so they just talk shit to make themselves feel better
1:04:36 this is such a flawed mindset it’s insane. Respectfully I will pull up three examples of why this argument falls apart. Faze 2018: is in nearly every final and is by far the best team in the world by consistency. Heroic 2023: is the most consistent team in the world at varying points is the #1 ranked team because of it. Even Faze NOW has lost every final and we all agree they’re the best because they make every final. Spirit haven’t made another final, vitality have made one final since the back to back blast events, Navi hasn’t made another final, etc. Does that mean they were the best team in the world? NO because the results don’t bare it out. Mouz are the best because they have the best results.
Yeah I usually find myself agreeing with YnK but this was a weird take. They also went on to say they were unsure of the #1 team later on and kind of brushed off FaZe which seems really premature. It's surprising how much recency bias plays a part - faze gets zywoo'd out of EPL after being in every grand final in CS2 and all of a sudden it's like they're not the best.
Hi Chad, don't know if you'll read this but I'll have a go anyway. I wanted to add to the sentiment of @RosinFlyFishing when he talked about speaking with a therapist maybe being a good idea for you. Moses said in this podcast that it's important to have a couple of friends you cant vent to, the caster support crew as he called it, and he's definitely right. You're surrounded by a lot of very level-headed people (from a very very very outside perspective) who I'm sure will hear you out when you feel like you need to be heard. Especially thinking of Maniac when I type this since he's a psychology graduate (not quite clinical psychology but his head is undoubtedly in the right place) and I hope you resort to them when you need to. Like Yanko said, it's important to sometimes just complain about things that annoy you, annoyance builds up bit by bit until you feel the frustration boiling up inside you, often times not even knowing why you feel frustrated in the first place, since there's no "real" cause you can point your finger to. Fuck a stoic mentality, a passionate guy like you is great at expressing his emotions, it's a massive strength, it'd be a massive waste to shut that down. You're a real entertainer, a good one at that, you're a public figure, a good role model at that, and dumb comments, blatant hate and negativity will get to you at one point. It's unavoidable. I read people saying you should just avoid the forums and while I can see the point behind it, I personally don't fully agree. Hear me out. Just for clarity, my perspective comes from the things I've learnt in psychology (i have a MSc in clinical psychology). I don't mean to insinuate that this means that my perspective is better than other people's perspective. You're 34 now, you've been playing counterstrike for 20 years. You talk about not wanting to create roots in Europe or settle here permanently because you like the idea of returning back to Australia at some point, you talk about your family seemingly growing up, growing older and perhaps growing further in life than you think you are growing yourself. Your sister is having multiple kids and you have barely seen them, your parents are getting older and you feel like you want to spend time with them while all of you are still lively. You're travelling the world so much, sometimes returning to a place that doesn't feel like home, at least you don't want to call it home, only to go back to the next event and do it all over again. You'd feel as lost as you might subconsciously feel like you are with much less the amount of bouncing around that you have to do. People will give you shit for complaining about living a seemingly amazing life, grass is indeed greener on the other side. It gets harder and harder to believe it's the case for you though, when you constantly get criticism from anonymous people on the forums. Your job is not easy, you know it's not easy, and you shouldn't feel bad for feeling bad. You should always allow yourself to feel bad. Definitely easier said than done when you have to show a certain version of yourself for a big part of your life, I know. @RosinFlyFishing put it really nicely when he said you're setting yourself up for failure when you focus on making other people happy and not yourself. I know you know all of this too, however knowing and feeling it on one hand, and understanding the implications of your own actions and where they come from on the other hand is a whole different story. If I may suggest to you, just from a total stranger in the comment section of the podcast you run with two other counterstrike nerds, to try and search for some options in the form of psychological support, I think you would do yourself a great favour. Some of my clients had the image in their head that their struggles or problems needed to have a certain severity in order to be "worthy" of getting psychological aid, but any struggle is worth looking into with a professional. I can imagine very strongly that you sometimes may feel like life is going on autopilot, that you're just following the flow of events that come in your inbox, hltv podcast here, talking counter there, 18 hour flight here, behind the scenes work there, event here, back to back event there ... If you wouldn't enjoy the game and the professional scene as much as you do, you would've (or should've) quit long ago. However, it's not because you enjoy the work you're doing, that you're not allowed to be fed up with everything once in a while, that you're sometimes doubting whether or not you should settle in Europe for your job or return another month or two to Perth and socialise over there with the people that mean a whole lot to you. You're in the unfortunate situation that you can't combine both seemlessly, you'll have to make sacrifices. However, it might be in your best interest to find a balance that is more indicative to what you want in life at this moment in time. This way, you'll find the meaning again in what you're putting your time into in the first place without feeling like maybe you should've skipped this event or maybe you should've done that or maybe I'm not in a position to complain about this at all. You are very much in a position to complain about all of this. The Counter-Strike community is very lucky to have you around. Your addition doesn't go unnoticed - not in the slightest - while I understand it sometimes might seem that way. People often have a bad day, people often are assholes, people - especially counter-strike players - don't know how to deal with their negative emotions so they redirect it to people who don't deserve it. People like you are often the victim in this. To return to my earlier point while I don't agree with avoiding the forums: I'm implying things here that might not be true, so correct me if I'm wrong. You don't want to give insensitive trolls on hltv the power over your browsing habits. Even when you ignore the forums, somewhere in your mind you'll still be having thoughts like "I bet the people on hltv are talking shit about me now", since the opinion of the masses influences your public image. It's normal to want to know what people say about you, what the discourse is like. That's why it would be way healthier for you to still be able to do that while also being able to not letting the negativity get to you as much as it sometimes might. This is most certainly something you can talk about with a professional, in-depth, and practice step by step to deal with the negative attention in a more healthy way, in a way that doesn't make you as unhappy as it does. As a viewer, you seem like a good guy, Chad. You deserve to be happy. It's okay to be unhappy. I think finding a better understanding of what you want in your life currently and in the near future can help you tremendously. All the best and if you're ever interested in talking about this with a stranger, I'm w4lt3r3g0, a peon in the TC discord.
Spunj, you're so close to what I've been thinking for fucking ages, twistzz AND NAF to G2, replacing hunter and hunter. Ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkk man that would be sickkkkkkkk
I think any team; in this case mouze can be the highest ranked team or the team with the highest rank, without being the #1 team in the world that seems clear to me and I would guess most people.
caring about what those around you (meaning close ones, friends and loved ones) think about you is natural, but caring about what anonymous people on the internet thinks about you is setting yourself up to be hurt and frustrated due to the inherently lackadaisical and blunt form of communication people use there. basically people on the internet are gonna be much more aggressive and hyper critical than they would be in real life, so you shouldn't worry as much about it, it's bad mental hygiene. these people don't give a shit about you after all, so why should you care about their opinion?
It's terrible to hear that the negative r**rds on HLTV etc are getting to you, Spunj, I don't think I'm alone in thinking you're amazingly valuable to our space and scene as a whole. I think the negative people will always be louder because the people who think you're great, like myself, don't feel the need to spew it out at every chance. Maybe we can do better at that as a community. You and the rest of the talent have given me an absolutely unreal amount of content and distractions from the outside world, you're invaluable.
Chad just let it go people are cunts, you can’t win if you weren’t in the scene, they want you in the scene. If you’re in the scene, they can’t stand for no reason keep doing your thing 💪🏻
This guy is unbearably self centered always making it about himself and whining just talk about cs its literally called talking counter... I understand some venting which can be entertaining in doses but 30 mins solipcistically whining chad grow up your in a controversial public space its gunna happen.
Spunj has a nice personality and seems pretty likeable early on in his career when he used to work as an analyst on the desk, however over the years, I think the biggest problem with casters nowadays is how careless they've become on broadcast, as someone who's been muting cs casters for a while now, the casting seems to have lost its sense of professionalism over the years, every time I try and unmute the broadcast its one of them cracking a sex joke or go on long spurts of meaningless convos on something totally relevant to the game, this may seem a bit pedantic, but it does have an effect on how dialed in an average viewer is while watching the game. I'm sure some amount of out of topic discussions is required while casting games for multiple hours by two individuals, again I didn't set the rules for this, maybe there's a workaround to figure out a solution to the heavy workload that the casters have to undergo, I don't really know, but coming to the topic at hand I don't really think I'll be unmuting the casters anytime soon, but the hate seems to be justified for now until some meaningful change is considered by the TOs. Peace
42:03 - Why? crowd will instantly be on their side. stewie has as much chance popping off as anybody else viable. niko can call one tournament and everybody just shoots hard af or hear me out...stewie is perfectly capable of calling and G2 gets unpredictability buff. Go big or go home.
Spunj is slowly turning into Thorin in both personality and appearance.
It's like some twisted Dark reality where we are going to learn Thorin was actually future Chad all along.
chad been hanging with thorin too much 🤣
You're saying this like it's too late for him to change. Hopefully he can get into a better headspace soon.
Chad. I'm sorry. The idea that you need to please others in the space you are in is setting you up for failure. With admiration for you, I suggest you consider speaking with a therapist about how to reframe your perception of how you fit into your world so that you can be happier. Sucks to see you unhappy, and even with supportive friends, sometimes it takes more than friends who let you vent to find the path to your own happiness. I really enjoy what you offer to the world :)
I was going to post my first comment just to try and say I feel you venting more and more on here and feel you could use some professional help and not just give it all to ynk and Jason, gl brother
Oh yeah so thanks for putting it so eloquently rosinflyfishin
We just want a happy spunj
People only get over things on there own. Therapy is a snake oil scam. The original books were written by scientists we captured in World War II who were you know gassing people. The guy has feelings and thoughts and it's fine if he expresses them and you don't agree coming out and saying this guy needs therapy is such an odd projection if you ask me. I think a lot of people now are just getting incredibly soft. Back in css and go beta people were never this soft snd inept. Dude is a legend he has every right to be upset. This pod cast is his space and cs is too. People heal in there own ways.
Very well said. I had a shitty childhood too and therapy helps me big time. I really reccomend it.
Spunj you an undisputed goat, youve done so much for this scene. Big love from your homeland
I actually can’t believe you read the hltv comment section Spunj. It’s an absolute shit show of people who are just trying to get a rise out of other people. Distance yourself from that stuff and you’ll feel better. Love the podcast always look forward to this and hltv confirmed.
(apologies for huge wall of text) I think there's only two real main directions left with Liquid: life with Cadian leading the charge, or one where Twistzz/NAF are the main core and you rebuild around something else. Just for practicality's sake, getting a good replacement IGL who also has the leadership that you need isn't really there unless you dip heavily into the war chest (which Liquid may or may not have).
So here's my left-of-field plan: you bet on Cadian to rebuild the team, because he's done it countless times, and it's also a lot easier to find replacement pieces economically.
Rebuilding around Cadian means you probably have to say goodbye to Twistzz and NAF. My solution? Offer them as a package deal to Complexity, starting with something like a $1.7-1.8 million offer (with a realistic view that you'd probably end up getting somewhere closer to $1.2-1.5 million). It's not something coL would probably be pushing for, but if the offer's put on the table, eventually there will be a low enough number that Jason Lake would have to bite the bullet on it. Twistzz/Elige/NAF/JT/Hallzerk is too tempting a combo to pass up, and it's also a combo of pieces that can functionally work within the system they have now. So that gets TL some money in the bank.
Your next problem: what to do with the aggressive riflers. I think you probably sell skullz back to paiN or another South American team that would take him at the drop of a hat; that's a better option for skullz, who is getting absolutely awful spots with zero influence. One potential option here could be to do a player + cash swap with MIBR: send skullz back their way in exchange for insani for a slight discount on the buy-out fee. If they did bite, however, then you've got Cadian/insani/YEKINDAR. That's not a bad starting point.
But let's say MIBR don't bite at that (they're basically even in the HLTV rankings right now), and let's also say that insani is off the table due to communication issues (or maybe TL has run into more problems than expected and they don't want to roll the dice again). What they could then look at might be:
- Make an offer to M80 to buy out malbs, make an offer to grab jBA, and keep YEKINDAR. That fulfils the NA RMR requirements, but it also adds an extra aggressive rifling element into the mix to either make space for YEKINDAR, or follow up on his aggression.
- Another side offer is doing a double-buy out from M80 to pick up malbs and Swisher. You probably don't look at jBA in that scenario, but then I think if TL isn't prepared to consider players like malbs, they're not going to look at Swisher/jBA/anyone else in NA that's not from coL.
- What to do with skullz here? If you're building around Cadian, you can maybe move him into NAF's roles to see what the improvement is -- but you can also probably find alternatives that you have more confidence in. I'm not against the idea of a short-term contract (ie. 3 months, maybe 6 months) for someone like jks. Liquid would still have the advantage in the negotiations, and having the short term element is also a benefit for jks if TL still can't get it together. The NA RMR issues will be fine with the previous pickups above, and qualifying shouldn't be an issue just because of the concertina effect.
- THE OTHER PROBLEM: I still think you keep Cadian, but the problem in this scenario is the lack of a strong second voice or second caller. So what do you do? Sdy is available and an interesting second piece. I'd still argue for YEKI staying in this situation, because you need that aggressive piece to make space for sdy and Cadian to work. YEKI would probably still want to contribute as a second voice anyway, but for everyone's sanity, let's say YEKI gets told to just focus on his crosshair and the W key. In that world you still need that passive element covered, but whether that's skullz or jks or someone else, I'm not sure.
- Unrelated, there's a few other pieces on the market that might be appealing for different reasons: Heavygod from OG, who needs to be saved from that endless shitshow. Smooya as a serviceable AWP could be an interesting element that might actually work against the more passive personalities of Twistzz and NAF, but that's in a world where TL move on from Cadian (and I don't think they should).
Raiding the Australian scene is also a cost-effective option here. I'd hate to see him get ripped out, but INS is probably one of the most consistent English native speakers sitting outside the top 15. He's also one of the few players who plays better against harder opposition, especially over the last few months. So if you take INS as your second voice and one of your aggressive riflers, that gets you: Cadian, YEKINDAR, INS, skullz, and then you can incorporate another NA/SA player to maintain the RMR status. I'd still argue that it makes sense to bet on Malbs now, and then you've got a mix of three super-to-relatively aggressive riflers, which works for Cadian and his playstyle, and it also opens the map further for skullz to try to have some influence. It's also a good cost-effective way to replace the pieces you have, and TL has a clear pathway for improvements during the player break if things continue to not work.
tl;dr: don't be a lazy fuck, read the suggestions above
Bro is actually cooking wtf
Chad, we love you! Ignore those who are ignorant of your important contributions to the scene. I admire the tenacity, keep up the good work all of you!
Chad, community loves you and you know that, all professionals around the world faces these kind of comments, best approach would be ignoring them. I have been using hltv for around 10 years I used to have an account, and it was banned last year until 2033 (troll comment). Hltv is the only site that I have been using for years every single day. I do not use social media, just browsing through topics on hltv, and I am only checking about the topics I like, and I do not check cs related topics (stupid topics like -player +player). I love your commentary on, and off the server. You are my favorite, and one of the best casters/commentators not only for me but also cs community as you are being around for more than a decade as you are consistently working for the community. The interview you guys made with maj3r is the 4th most watched video on the channel. It was so good, and hyped me on the major that I have watched it twice. The team, and maj3r is on the Turkish community for a decade, but there hasn't been any interview/podcast/chit chatting with EF players even though it is the only team for a Turkey. Overall, thanks for that video, and making CS's professional community better. Much love from Turkey ^^
I love this podcast. Best counter strike podcast by far.
Haters are like crickets. Crickets make a lot of noise, you hear it, but you can't see them. But when you walk right by them, they're quiet." - Unknown
So happy this came out now, perfect timing 🎉 Thanks
I thought the obvious reason for G2 playing with Stew would be because there won't be any visa issues with signing him
Please never stop this podcast guys! It keeps me motivated to play cs!
I was just thinking I needed another Talking Counter podcast!
spunj+machine goat casting duo
Heart and soul - PTR
Thanks for the content fellas ❤
nertz is in israel which counts as asia so liquid could still play in Americas right?
in anything in life you'll never be able to please everyone, there's just always going to be people that don't like you for whatever reason even if you've never talked to that person before or know who they are, it can be hard to but its really best to just ignore people on hltv forms all together, most of the people who use the platform only talk shit on it cos its anonymous and mostly private, there's no way of people finding out who they are so they just talk shit to make themselves feel better
1:04:36 this is such a flawed mindset it’s insane.
Respectfully I will pull up three examples of why this argument falls apart.
Faze 2018: is in nearly every final and is by far the best team in the world by consistency.
Heroic 2023: is the most consistent team in the world at varying points is the #1 ranked team because of it.
Even Faze NOW has lost every final and we all agree they’re the best because they make every final.
Spirit haven’t made another final, vitality have made one final since the back to back blast events, Navi hasn’t made another final, etc.
Does that mean they were the best team in the world? NO because the results don’t bare it out.
Mouz are the best because they have the best results.
Yeah I usually find myself agreeing with YnK but this was a weird take. They also went on to say they were unsure of the #1 team later on and kind of brushed off FaZe which seems really premature. It's surprising how much recency bias plays a part - faze gets zywoo'd out of EPL after being in every grand final in CS2 and all of a sudden it's like they're not the best.
@@C0pernicus and Faze was tired af so I'm glad they had time to relax and refresh now
Hi Chad, don't know if you'll read this but I'll have a go anyway.
I wanted to add to the sentiment of @RosinFlyFishing when he talked about speaking with a therapist maybe being a good idea for you. Moses said in this podcast that it's important to have a couple of friends you cant vent to, the caster support crew as he called it, and he's definitely right. You're surrounded by a lot of very level-headed people (from a very very very outside perspective) who I'm sure will hear you out when you feel like you need to be heard. Especially thinking of Maniac when I type this since he's a psychology graduate (not quite clinical psychology but his head is undoubtedly in the right place) and I hope you resort to them when you need to. Like Yanko said, it's important to sometimes just complain about things that annoy you, annoyance builds up bit by bit until you feel the frustration boiling up inside you, often times not even knowing why you feel frustrated in the first place, since there's no "real" cause you can point your finger to. Fuck a stoic mentality, a passionate guy like you is great at expressing his emotions, it's a massive strength, it'd be a massive waste to shut that down. You're a real entertainer, a good one at that, you're a public figure, a good role model at that, and dumb comments, blatant hate and negativity will get to you at one point. It's unavoidable. I read people saying you should just avoid the forums and while I can see the point behind it, I personally don't fully agree. Hear me out.
Just for clarity, my perspective comes from the things I've learnt in psychology (i have a MSc in clinical psychology). I don't mean to insinuate that this means that my perspective is better than other people's perspective.
You're 34 now, you've been playing counterstrike for 20 years. You talk about not wanting to create roots in Europe or settle here permanently because you like the idea of returning back to Australia at some point, you talk about your family seemingly growing up, growing older and perhaps growing further in life than you think you are growing yourself. Your sister is having multiple kids and you have barely seen them, your parents are getting older and you feel like you want to spend time with them while all of you are still lively. You're travelling the world so much, sometimes returning to a place that doesn't feel like home, at least you don't want to call it home, only to go back to the next event and do it all over again. You'd feel as lost as you might subconsciously feel like you are with much less the amount of bouncing around that you have to do. People will give you shit for complaining about living a seemingly amazing life, grass is indeed greener on the other side. It gets harder and harder to believe it's the case for you though, when you constantly get criticism from anonymous people on the forums. Your job is not easy, you know it's not easy, and you shouldn't feel bad for feeling bad. You should always allow yourself to feel bad. Definitely easier said than done when you have to show a certain version of yourself for a big part of your life, I know. @RosinFlyFishing put it really nicely when he said you're setting yourself up for failure when you focus on making other people happy and not yourself. I know you know all of this too, however knowing and feeling it on one hand, and understanding the implications of your own actions and where they come from on the other hand is a whole different story. If I may suggest to you, just from a total stranger in the comment section of the podcast you run with two other counterstrike nerds, to try and search for some options in the form of psychological support, I think you would do yourself a great favour. Some of my clients had the image in their head that their struggles or problems needed to have a certain severity in order to be "worthy" of getting psychological aid, but any struggle is worth looking into with a professional. I can imagine very strongly that you sometimes may feel like life is going on autopilot, that you're just following the flow of events that come in your inbox, hltv podcast here, talking counter there, 18 hour flight here, behind the scenes work there, event here, back to back event there ... If you wouldn't enjoy the game and the professional scene as much as you do, you would've (or should've) quit long ago. However, it's not because you enjoy the work you're doing, that you're not allowed to be fed up with everything once in a while, that you're sometimes doubting whether or not you should settle in Europe for your job or return another month or two to Perth and socialise over there with the people that mean a whole lot to you. You're in the unfortunate situation that you can't combine both seemlessly, you'll have to make sacrifices. However, it might be in your best interest to find a balance that is more indicative to what you want in life at this moment in time. This way, you'll find the meaning again in what you're putting your time into in the first place without feeling like maybe you should've skipped this event or maybe you should've done that or maybe I'm not in a position to complain about this at all. You are very much in a position to complain about all of this.
The Counter-Strike community is very lucky to have you around. Your addition doesn't go unnoticed - not in the slightest - while I understand it sometimes might seem that way. People often have a bad day, people often are assholes, people - especially counter-strike players - don't know how to deal with their negative emotions so they redirect it to people who don't deserve it. People like you are often the victim in this. To return to my earlier point while I don't agree with avoiding the forums: I'm implying things here that might not be true, so correct me if I'm wrong. You don't want to give insensitive trolls on hltv the power over your browsing habits. Even when you ignore the forums, somewhere in your mind you'll still be having thoughts like "I bet the people on hltv are talking shit about me now", since the opinion of the masses influences your public image. It's normal to want to know what people say about you, what the discourse is like. That's why it would be way healthier for you to still be able to do that while also being able to not letting the negativity get to you as much as it sometimes might. This is most certainly something you can talk about with a professional, in-depth, and practice step by step to deal with the negative attention in a more healthy way, in a way that doesn't make you as unhappy as it does.
As a viewer, you seem like a good guy, Chad. You deserve to be happy. It's okay to be unhappy. I think finding a better understanding of what you want in your life currently and in the near future can help you tremendously. All the best and if you're ever interested in talking about this with a stranger, I'm w4lt3r3g0, a peon in the TC discord.
Much love :)
Spunj, you're so close to what I've been thinking for fucking ages, twistzz AND NAF to G2, replacing hunter and hunter. Ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkk man that would be sickkkkkkkk
55:36 Boy do I have some news from the future
Good job
P
Every one just is mad at a OG
Love you Chad!
I think any team; in this case mouze can be the highest ranked team or the team with the highest rank, without being the #1 team in the world that seems clear to me and I would guess most people.
We Love you Spunj
caring about what those around you (meaning close ones, friends and loved ones) think about you is natural, but caring about what anonymous people on the internet thinks about you is setting yourself up to be hurt and frustrated due to the inherently lackadaisical and blunt form of communication people use there. basically people on the internet are gonna be much more aggressive and hyper critical than they would be in real life, so you shouldn't worry as much about it, it's bad mental hygiene. these people don't give a shit about you after all, so why should you care about their opinion?
spunj
9:55 I think br0 is partly Macedonian. So that should explain it. He speaks their language.
It's terrible to hear that the negative r**rds on HLTV etc are getting to you, Spunj, I don't think I'm alone in thinking you're amazingly valuable to our space and scene as a whole. I think the negative people will always be louder because the people who think you're great, like myself, don't feel the need to spew it out at every chance. Maybe we can do better at that as a community. You and the rest of the talent have given me an absolutely unreal amount of content and distractions from the outside world, you're invaluable.
Seem Liquid's situation is worse than I thought
Seems like Chad and Jason know about somthing that is making this as good as done
"fallen" I was in tears
Thing is biguzera doesn't want skullz.
This 'idk why g2 is even going' didnt age well haha
Wait is this not on YT music anymore?
Should be there now/soon. Saving it to podcast playlist hasn't become a habit yet :D
The HLTV forums
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy - Obi Wan
New rule: Chad save yourself and ignore comments
Chad just let it go people are cunts, you can’t win if you weren’t in the scene, they want you in the scene. If you’re in the scene, they can’t stand for no reason keep doing your thing 💪🏻
Not everyone liked Nelson Mandela and look what he did 😂😂😂😂
So if you have to win Kato/Cologne/Major then Faze was never the best cs2 team? Ynk again hating on mouz for no reason
They literally get beat in big stage games every time, so they are unproven in that sense, so realistically he's right
!!
Day 1 of asking them to change their name to Counter Point
Throin has a podcats series with maniac called Counter Points, so I’m not so sure they will want to name it almost the same
This guy is unbearably self centered always making it about himself and whining just talk about cs its literally called talking counter... I understand some venting which can be entertaining in doses but 30 mins solipcistically whining chad grow up your in a controversial public space its gunna happen.
Spunj has a nice personality and seems pretty likeable early on in his career when he used to work as an analyst on the desk, however over the years, I think the biggest problem with casters nowadays is how careless they've become on broadcast, as someone who's been muting cs casters for a while now, the casting seems to have lost its sense of professionalism over the years, every time I try and unmute the broadcast its one of them cracking a sex joke or go on long spurts of meaningless convos on something totally relevant to the game, this may seem a bit pedantic, but it does have an effect on how dialed in an average viewer is while watching the game.
I'm sure some amount of out of topic discussions is required while casting games for multiple hours by two individuals, again I didn't set the rules for this, maybe there's a workaround to figure out a solution to the heavy workload that the casters have to undergo, I don't really know, but coming to the topic at hand I don't really think I'll be unmuting the casters anytime soon, but the hate seems to be justified for now until some meaningful change is considered by the TOs. Peace
42:03 - Why? crowd will instantly be on their side. stewie has as much chance popping off as anybody else viable. niko can call one tournament and everybody just shoots hard af or hear me out...stewie is perfectly capable of calling and G2 gets unpredictability buff. Go big or go home.
-skullz +HeavyGod
Spunj stop getting one guyed on the forums or just stop checking them