During ESL One Katowice, Vox Eminor will fight against the world’s best in this years first major tournament.
Even though it’s hard for Australian teams to keep the same competitive edge as their North American and European opponents, Luke ”Havoc” Paton hopes to cement their position as the best team outside of the mentioned continents.
– I think we have the confidence we need to beat teams however we want now, with brute force or strategies, Havoc tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Vox Eminor first showed up on the international CS:GO stage at Dreamhack Winter 2013 where they tried to reach the main tournament via the BYOC qualifier. The following year, they attended both the ESL major events in Katowice and Cologne. Since then Vox Eminor has become the face of Australian CS:GO and soon they will compete in their fourth major tournament at ESL Katowice 2015.
– We’re obviously stoked, we are also thankful we got the opportunity to prove we deserve to be at major tournaments by qualifying offline. Winning in Europe for an Aussie team is unheard of, so we are proud and motivated, Luke ”Havoc” Paton tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Tough conditions in Australia

Vox Eminor are challengers in Katowice and according to Paton a big factor is the tough conditions for Australian teams. Becuase of time differences and the internet connection there are no practial ways to practice against teams outside of Australia and even within the borders there are challenges.
– We can only play against ourselves and New Zealand, a combined population of about 28 million.
The majority of our country has terrible internet, I only download at 400kb per second, Paton explains.

But within the team there’s a lot of passion. While growing up, they all sat through late nights to not miss the big CS-finals. Since they can’t practice against the top-teams, they instead watch a lot of live streams and demos to study their opponents. Even though there are geographical challenges the team tries to stay on top.
– We just try to grasp every opportunity like its our last, because realistically it could be, Paton says.

With brute force or strategies

In Katowice Havoc wants to cement the teams position as the best team outside of America and Europe. Acording to him that means they have to beat the brazilian team Keyd Stars who qualified to ESL Katowice the same way Vox Eminor did. They are considered underdogs, but Havoc says that only makes them fight harder.
– I think most people are surprised by the potential of our individual talent, players like JKS and AZR are crazy. Previously we’ve been scared to play our own way. I think we have the confidence we need to beat teams however we want now, with brute force or strategies.

Watch the team’s ”Road to Katowice” here: