Lets Have A Talk With Stev0se

Interview: The Story Of Stev0se

I had the great honor of talking to Steven "Stev0se" Rombaut during the last days. The current 28-year-old Belgian is a routinier in the scene and has made the decision to switch to CS:GO full-time at the age of 25.

We had a fun and above all interesting conversation, which you can find in full length on our YouTube channel. In this article, I will tell you Steven's story and include several quotes from the interview! I hope you are as excited as I was to learn more about the IGL of EC Brugge!

  jAlex

Career Start

After years of grindin' in teams while working his full-time job as a truck driver, Steven decided to take the risk of going full-time at the age of 25. An admirable step, which should change his life completely one more time, but he never regretted it.

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"Until 25 I had a normal job and was just playing outside of my hours trying to become better. Three years ago I thought if I want to go pro I have to quit now, otherwise it will be to late and with that we started grinding."

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EC Brugge

Since the beginning of 2021, Steven has been under contract with EC Brugge, which belongs to the same named soccer club FC Brugge who decided to open an Esport Division. Steven plays an essential role in the lineup of the organization as the main AWP as well as IGL and plans to continue working for Brugge after his time retirement as an active player and especially wants to help young players in the Belgian scene. When asked where he sees himself in three years, he replied:

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"To be honest, probably back in a normal every-day job. I´m thinking about maybe staying one or two more years as a professional and hope to get into the Esport division of EC Brugge to develop and help young Belgium players afterwards"

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After Steven joined the organization together with the two Belgians simix and ritchiEE, as well as the two Poles matty and n0tice at the beginning of 2021, there were unfortunately frequent changes in the lineup and as of now, the team is looking for a fixed fifth player!

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"We´re currently still testing people, it´s not an easy decision, we´re taking our time to find the perfect addition.
The main points we look for are motivation and experience. There are many people who say that they are experienced but only played regional events and don’t have the level we´re looking for. One of the biggest challenges is to filter out the potential fitting players out of all the applications."

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In their first year with Brugge, the team won some C-Tier events, such as the ESL Benelux Championship Winter 2021, and also participated in their first A-Tier tournaments. However, since the lineup joined the organization, the role of the coach has always been unoccupied. Perhaps on purpose?

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"We´ve been trying to find a coach for six months now but every time we´re trialing someone, the input is too little to be worth adding him to the team."

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The Struggle With Regional Leagues

Part of the event routine for EC Brugge are also local events and championships. It's always beautiful to compete in your own national leagues and meet familiar faces. However, along with an international lineup, there are plenty of challenges at national tournaments.

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"In national leagues we need to play with stand-ins and when qualifying for bigger events through these leagues we still need to compete with stand-ins. I just really hope we will soon be able to play every event with the same lineup."

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Steven "Stev0se" Rombaut

Coming to you personally, how are you feeling? How has the last year been for you in terms of individual goals? What are your long term goals as a player?

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"We all improved a lot this year. I don’t feel like I´m on my peak individually right now, but we all try our best and over the last year grinded seven days a week. I don’t really have personal goals, I always think about the team in general. I hope we get into top-50 and stay there. But for now, the first big goal is to get a consistent lineup!"

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Teams outside the Tier-1 scene often have an enormous number of games within a year; Steven and his team are no exception. So far in 2021, the Belgian has participated in a total of 64 different events. But what does the everyday life of a professional player look like apart from officials?

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"Our normal pracc days are from 1 pm till 8 pm with an hour break to eat. Starting off with one hour server time, then we practice 2-3 maps and then after the break we continue practicing or play officials. Before we start around lunchtime, I play deathmatch and watch demos in between whenever we need anything or prepare for a specific enemy."

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Motivation is a big point as we have seen in our last article about the topic "Retirement Age in CS:GO". What is Steven's point of view regarding that and how does he keep himself motivated?

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"I think it really depends on the individual if you´re still able to compete at a higher age. For example, f0rest is 33 and is still owning everybody at this age. It really depends on the player and the motivation. If I weren't motivated I would have already quit. I haven´t yet reached my goals but I´m still motivated every single day!"

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Valorant

Valorant is considered to be the biggest competitor CS:GO has ever faced. So far, Riot is convinced with good marketing, fast and above all well thought-out updates, and positive interactions with the community as well as the pro players. Did Steven also consider switching to Valorant after the departure of his two Belgian colleagues Nivera and Scream?

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"I played Valorant for two days and it was totally enough. I have zero interest in this game. I think for Scream it was a good decision, there was no French team willing to pick him up anymore, but for Nivera I think it’s a bit sad, he still had so much to show in CS."

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Latest Transfer News: m0NESY

Days ago the transfer of m0NESY to G2 was reported by several mediums. The young star, just 16 years old, will move from NAVI to G2 for an incredible sum of around 600,000 USD. Steven had a personal experience with the rookie and had following to say regarding the transfer news:

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"I think it´s really nice. I played with him when he was in FPL-C. I think he was around 14 back then, but was such a friendly and nice kid. He had zero ego and accepted people telling him his mistakes although he already back then was ten times better than all the other players. He is just a really nice guy and I´m very happy for him."

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You can find the full interview on Youtube! Check it out here:
Youtube Link

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Generally About CS:GO

The utility update initially brought a big outcry in the pro scene and opinions differed. Some players and coaches criticized the update for making the game unpredictable and having a negative impact on CS:GO, but Steven disagreed on that.

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"I really like it, it´s great and adds more tactical parts to the game. You see people dropping nades on positions where you didn’t think about it yourself and can adapt and try out new ways for your own game."

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At this point, we just need to ask the one and only question: What would you change about CS:GO if you could choose one thing? Interestingly, and somewhat surprisingly, Steven wasn't thinking about himself or the pro scene, but rather the casual player who is new to CS:GO and thus forms the basis for the future of the popular strategy shooter.

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"Maybe their anticheat. The anticheat in Matchmaking is just bad. Additionally if you´re a new player and want a good experience you also want to play on a proper server. 128 tick servers would be a nice experience for the new casual players."

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Any Role-Models?

On the question "Do you have any particular role models in the field of being the IGL and AWPer of the team?" he answered "not really", yet he elaborated a bit on the question, naming one player he particularly enjoyed analyzing.

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"I watched a lot of dev1ce demos, because I think dev1ce is a really smart player who is not playing for the frags like other Tier-1 AWPers. Back in the days when Astralis was so dominant they were just perfect together as team and not depending on a single individual alone."

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But Who´s Going To Be The Next Belgium Star?

When asked who will be the up and coming talent in the Belgian scene, Steven mentioned 17-year-old Bram "Nexius" Campana, who currently plays for LowLandLions and made his first appearances at bigger tournaments last year. The young star's birthday is in two days, Dec. 19, 2021, feel free to check out his Twitter profile!

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"His name is Nexius, he´s 17 years old and he´s currently fulltime grinding. He once played an official with us because we needed a stand-in and it was really nice to play with him, he´s pretty good! Maybe at some point we can get him over."

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A Question From Our Community

Twitter Community: "With enough practice and dedication, can anybody do it?"

Steven: "Not everybody but many could do it. With a lot of practice you can get a smart player. But it’s a long grind and many many hours to put in before you get anything out of it."

Five Quick Ones

EsportFire: What was the first CS:GO team you cheered for?
Steven: "In CS the VeryGames lineup with Ex6TenZ. They were one of the best teams in the world and still competing on small LANs back then. For CS:GO I was always supporting the French but never really had a favourite team."

EsportFire: Favourite and least favourite map?
Steven: "Least definetly Overpass, we never played it, it´s my perma ban for 4 years in a row. My favourite one is Veritgo."

EsportFire: M4A4 or M4A1?
Steven: "M4A1 after the update, before that A4."

EsportFire: After s1mple and ZywOo who's your number 3 of 2021?
Steven: "I think sh1ro to be honest. He had a really good year and performed great. In my opinion Gambit will be fighting again amongst the top-1 spot in the world next year."

EsportFire: Pineapples on Pizza?
Steven: "No, thanks!" [Editor's note: Pineapples on Pizza are underrated, give them a chance].

Final Words From Us

It was a great pleasure to talk to Steven about his life on and off the server, his career as it stands so far, opinions and thoughts. I wish you all the best for your upcoming endeavors and careers and would be enormously happy to feature your questions and thoughts on our articles in the future! Have a great day everyone.

Last but not least make sure to follow Steven on his Twitter and support the whole team for their upcoming matches: Twitter.com/Stev0se

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