SOLIDFPS: Erangel needs to be remastered

We’ve talked with the player of Cloud9, Alexandru "SOLIDFPS" Cotiga, who is participating in StarSeries i-League PUBG with his team.

Cloud9 SOLIDFPS

The American player told us about the way he started playing PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, how he and Justin "Chappie" Andrews linked up with Cloud9 and what kind of changes the game needs right now.

— Tell about your first experience with PUBG. How did you meet this game and when did you start playing it?

My first experience with PUBG comes from formerly being an H1Z1: Battle Royale player. I heard about it going in Early Access, so I just started playing it, getting attention on Twitch and climbing in the leaderboard system. I was having fun and playing duos with Chappie.

— Which are other BR-games you have tried besides PUBG?

H1Z1 was first. I tried Fortnite a bit, and I didn’t like it. I tried The Culling, which is more like melee-combat based, and it was alright during the closed alpha. And Islands of Nine, which is in Early Access right now. It’s pretty cool. The Battle Royale genre has a lot of fun for me, I enjoy it.

— How many hours have you played in PUBG?

I should have over 1,000 hours for now.

— Are there any aspects of the game which you want to improve?

I think that PUBG needs [to create] separated casual and ranked modes. In the casual, people would have fun by killing each other and [doing whatever they want]. In the competitive, we should have the settings, which are used in tournaments, and skill-based matchmaking, so we can have quality matches out there.

I think something like ESEA client would be great because of the cheating problem. It would be great for upper tiers of the competition to play against good players, knowing that they are clear. [It might also] keep people away from using ESP.

Outside of that, new maps are always interesting. [Also, I would like] some balance changes around the rifles, reverting the hitboxes back to what it used to be before the 1.0 launch.

Cloud9 PUBG

— What about reworking the old maps, Erangel and Miramar?

Erangel has been overplayed, and I think that it needs to be remastered. It’s already not good enough comparing to Miramar. I think that Miramar is a far better map right now. It has more cover, vehicles to get anywhere. [In my opinion], we can see more good team-fights on this map. And so if Erangel had that kind of terrain, it would have more interesting meta.

— As of the game-mode, which do you like more: FPP or TPP?

FPP, all the time. Even if I’m playing solo. In PUBG, I think that the first-person view is better, guns are very lethal. And [it brings] aim-skill, because [in TPP people] can see you from the cover. Overall, [TPP] is just not that enjoyable, so FPP is better.

— As far as we know, your team was gathered from the players of two lineups. How did Cloud9 reach you and pick over the others?

Initially, both me and Chappie were streaming, and we were on the #1 or #2 spot of the NA duo-leaderboards. We were playing against a lot of other guys which are currently also signed. We saw a lot of good players in the matchmaking, usually finishing on top of them.

Around that time, Viss and SmaK got signed for TSM, so it was the moment when we realized that esports is coming to PUBG. We started looking around and it turned out that our friends from H1Z1, Sweaterr and Crunch, weren’t in the team at that time and wanted to switch over to PUBG. C9 [had an intention] to expand to PUBG, so we linked up with them.

After GamesCom, our roster changed. That’s where Chappie scouted out Frexs and Moody. With me working full-time, I couldn’t be there for every event, so we picked up a fifth player, Frolicer, who is Moody’s duo-partner. And it just worked out in the end. We selected duo-players, because it’s a good mix of individual skill and teamwork, so putting them in the squad was the idea.

— What about roles in your team? How did you separate it?

Basically, to start out the team, everyone should be capable of fragging. Everyone has to be good with rifles, that’s the most important thing. It’s the staple of the competitive PUBG. After that, it’s the matter of who will talk about strategies. [Usually], 1-2 people discussing tactics in the games, like an IGL, but it’s still open for everyone in the team. It depends on the confidence of players.

Speaking about my role, I try to keep my equipment, so I don’t peek and commit too hard. My playstyle is about being aware of everyone, what my team is doing, trying to fill the gaps, supporting with smoke grenades and getting the revives. So it’s the identity of my role. When I do the least, I just have to take care of everyone else.

StarSeries i-League PUBG

— Can you say that you are the leader of the team?

No. In terms of usual rotations which we do, it’s open to discuss between me, Moody and Frolicer. Moody and Frolicer usually talk about such stuff, but I also give my input when I think that there is something else we have to consider.

The calls are generally distributed in the team. When it comes to the late-game, we follow the way which is proposed by one of us who sees the opportunity, so we just commit to that.

I don’t think that PUBG is the game where you can only have one IGL. Unless you built the team around that idea. [As of us], we are basically two duo-teams. We have all been on the IGL spot at some point. There is no way any of us alone could reach that level of skill or knowledge that we have, so I think that we have to capitalize on each other.

— Is this your first PUBG LAN-tournament or played some before?

No, I’ve been at plenty of LANs. We were at IEM Oakland, GamesCom, which was before that, IEM Katowice, and now we are here.

— Do you like StarSeries i-League PUBG, its stage, or the city itself, Kiev?

The city is actually awesome. I’ve never been in Ukraine before. Kiev seems to be very cool. The snow is kind of annoying, but I haven’t lived here when it’s warmer.

The city overall seems pretty cool, and the arena is one of the best we’ve seen so far. The stage for 16 teams, 2 levels, it makes me excited about what we will have at future events.

— Speaking about the first day. You played five matches and saw all the competitors here. What went wrong back then? Do you feel like you can recover to the top-1?

I think that our team is capable of hitting the top-3 at this tournament. It’s a matter of not making the small mistakes that we did yesterday. The circle was being same multiple times, we tried to adapt to it, like how we should be rotating, and we still made those mistakes. We got naded like two or three times at the same spot, which is pretty bad.

I think that we made a lot of mistakes in terms who exposes himself a lot, got run into wrong people, grouping up too much and exposing ourselves for the nades. Other than that, our rotations in the circle were good. It’s just small misplays which cost us the games.

Cloud9 PUBG