They’ve travelled to Stockholm for a one week of bootcamp ahead of the DreamHack Winter major, and for the first time the teams are getting their bootcamps paid for by Valve.
But the preparations have been lackluster for Katowice champions Virtus.Pro, and Wiktor ”TaZ” Wojtas is not happy with his teams’ performance during the past days.
– We’ve done a couple of good things, but we still have a lot to work on, he says.

The polish ESL One Katowice champions Virtus.Pro have just finished a practice game, a loss, against iBUYPOWER when he meets up with Aftonbladet Esport for a talk about the upcoming DreamHack Winter tournament. And the charismatic player admits that his team is still looking for their form as the major is right around the corner.
– To be honest, our preparations haven’t been good at all. We’ve been trying to add some new strategies to our game, but mostly we’ve been working on finding the weaknesses in our game. We’ve done some good stuff, but we still have a lot to work on, he says.

How has the setup worked for you, bootcamping here at Inferno Online in Stockholm?

– It’s been perfect, we’ve had computers and a lot of space. And it doesn’t feel like we are sitting in a dark cave.

And, as the CS:GO community as a whole, TaZ and his teammates were shocked when the news of KQLYs and Sf’s VAC bans reached them only days before the last major tournament of the year.
– I had two different reactions. First I thought that he’d always been a bit fishy. I never heard of him in 1.6 or in Source, and all of a sudden he’s one of the best in CS:GO.

What was your second reaction?

– I was scared on behalf of us old players. I couldn’t understand how he wasn’t banned earlier. Then the ban against Sf hit and I was scared that you could sit down at a computer where someone downloaded a cheat, or that you downloaded a map in the workshop that a hacker put a cheat in. What if someone planted a cheat somewhere? Now I know that can’t happen thanks to Steam Guard, but everytime I get home from a trip I check where I’ve logged into Steam just to make sure noone has been on my account. I’m really superstitious about it, and I hope all the cheaters will get caught.

Do you think there are more VAC bans incoming?

– I don’t think the legendary players have cheated. The ones we know are good, they’re good. But there are several suspicious clips circulating right now and I’m really scared that there will be more VAC bans.

TaZ wants Valve to take action and present a better solution to discover the cheating professionals. And he then jokes about how they should be handled after they’re exposed.
– If there’s a ”workshop cheat” I think the best solution would be if Valve makes a software that discovers the script on tournament computers but without the players knowing it exists. When the players think they can cheat freely they’re busted and Counter Terrorists emerge with guns drawn and arrest them. Jokes aside, I think there’s too little control when it comes to what the players are up to.

Looking forward towards the tournament, he lists a couple of teams he think will be favourites to win DreamHack Winter.
– I don’t really know how NiP will perform but I think Maikelele has great potential. But besides NiP, it’s probably Fnatic and LDLC who have the greatest chances of winning and Na’Vi could become an underdog.