I was lucky enough to interview team Method's captain SileNt3m, shortly after their time at RGN Pro Series Championship. He talks to us about the changes in the team, his past, and his goals for the future.

First off, What was your introduction to the Counter Strike franchise?

SileNt3m: My first introduction to CS was my brother! When I was about 5 years old we used to live in a area where we had 2 brothers down the street and another guy 2 houses over who used to be on a CS team with my brother. I used to get in trouble because there was times where he would be gaming at 1 in the morning and I sneaked my way into his room to watch him just play. Then the older I got my brother allowed me to play an hour or so a day and it just built from there.

What made you decide to end up deciding to commit from being a casual to a top invite-level professional player?

SileNt3m: Although I never thought I would get to where I am at so soon, the goal has never changed. Since I was in high school I always used to watch top MAIN matched and top invites matches hoping one day to be one of those players. Although when I started playing CS:GO I never thought this game would be where its at currently. I've just grinded out hours and hours throughout the seasons and the opportunity just was there.

How did you end up on the Paradox/current Method roster?

SileNt3m: Well the roster was originally owned by Eley-fs-. He's been having control of the roster and trying to make something happen since season 14 of ESEA. As far as the begining of Fenix, Just9n, streboR and I joined the roster season 18 of Main when there team just recently had struggled in Premier the season before.

What led to you becoming a dedicated AWPer for your team?

SileNt3m: Well, I've always been the AWPer on every team I've played on. Not really by choice, but I was just simply the best AWPer my teams have had. When I first started playing CS:GO I played on a team with my brother for 2 seasons and we were never able to pick up a solid AWPer so I just took on the role. Within a week of joining Paradox, scrims and practices wasn't going so well so our AWPer at the time doubLe took up on an offer that he believed was best at the time mouseSpaz and decided to play Premier with them. Somewhere in between that time I slowly transitioned into becoming the AWPer for the team even though I still sometimes believe if I rifle for my team I can benefit my team just as much if not more.

SileNt3m at RGN Pro Championship Series (photo courtesy of HLTV.org)

Method has had a plethora of line-up changes, including the addition of Toy and DAVEY. How has this benefited the team?

SileNt3m: These changes recently haven't been something we've wanted to do. I know theirs this thought that NA teams just love to change lineups but we definitely have tried to avoid that. But, our recent changes were simply because streboR wasn't willing to put in the time that we believe it takes to be a Professional player so he has decided to step down. As far as the roster change with Eley, this has been the toughest thing I've had to consider even doing my entire life of competitive CS simply because I truly do see him as a really good friend outside of CS. I believe overall this will benefit the team due to hoping to have a group of 5 dedicated players who all have the same ideas how we should be playing the game.

What are your goals both personally and for Method in both current and future seasons? Where are both the team and yourself looking to improve?

SileNt3m: Our goals are quite simple. I would say next season we want to be in as many pro leagues possible but besides that we are simply going to try and become the best we can. We're all committed to this team, and we see tons of potential.

Your team recently performed less than spectacular at the latest RGN Pro Championship Series LAN, falling out of the lower bracket early on. What would you attribute this to?

SileNt3m: I think our performance at RGN isn't something to be upset about, but neither to be happy about considering our team had a stand-in and that being arya who IGL'd for the event since we don't really have one at the moment. I think once groups were announced everyone thought c9 and coL would clearly be the two teams getting out of groups. The fact that our team managed to beat coL some-what convincingly to get out of groups I think is something to be proud about considering they are the 5th seed of the ESL pro league. I think the clear upset in our minds was once we got out of groups and we were taken to the lower bracket and unforunately lost to EnemyGG 2-0 which is a team we feel we should be beating.

SileNt3m and Method during their match against Cloud9 at RGN Pro Championship Series (photo courtesty of HLTV.org)

What advice do you have to players trying to break into the competitive scene?

SileNt3m: Honestly some advice I would give is to stop paying attention to other players sensitive, res, DPI, everything. As a streamer I've had multiple people come in and ask for my settings. As a PRO, we can't make you better by choosing our settings, it's what you feel most comfortable using. I mean look at me, I'm currently awping for my team at 1920x1080 and I run forward with MOUSE2.. you don't see that often right? Yeah, there is some talented players that simply are gods and have been fortunate to get PRO easily. But if you just simply go DM for a an hour or two a day and possibly even go into a KZ server and work on your movement for an hour, and of course watch demos!

During your long commitment to the CS franchise, who are the people you have looked up to, idolized and respected the most in the Counter Strike scene and why?

SileNt3m: I've never really been a guy who has idolized many players in my life, all of 1.6 I just simply played for 1.6 for fun and wasn't following the PRO scene. I almost regret it to be quite honest. I've heard all these stories on how much of a god players like NEO were, but to be quite honest I barely had any clue who he was. I just simply have respect for any player that has managed to be able to play TOP level CS for all these years like GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, NEO, markeloff and the list goes on and on.

If you can’t include yourself, who is your North American Dream team with the currently available pool of North American players?

SileNt3m: I think NA's dream team would be jdm, shroud, tarik, nitro, hiko with seangares being the coach and why not lets throw in the great stunna as the manager. This would be my dream team because, I think nitro as of late has been possibly the best entry fragger in NA and having shroud 2nd in right behind him would be deadly. Hiko obviously being the best lurk in NA, and tarik just being tarik. Most would question why I would pick jdm over ska.. I may be a bit bias since hes a ^v^ but I think hes clearly been the best awper for the last few months and he will only get better.

Do you have any shout outs? If people are looking to find out more about you or your team, where can we find you?

SileNt3m: Yeah of course, a huge shoutout to the Method organization and our sponsors ZergID, G2A, ROCCAT and HyperX who have done everything that they possibly can to support us. You can find my team on twitter:

twitter.com/SileNtCSGO
twitter.com/Just9nCSGO
twitter.com/ToyCSGO
twitter.com/Davey_3sup
twitter.com/streboRCS