Jack 'xCeeD' Holiman is one of the players from the new Team Dignitas CS:GO roster. xCeeD is a player known for his astronomical rise in ESEA divisions, winning Intermediate, Main and MDL in three consecutive seasons. Having qualified for the first time for ESL Pro League and with the ECS Season 5 Closed Qualifier right around the corner, new and harder challenges await him and the team. We sat down with xCeeD to ask him some questions about this new chapter of his CS:GO career.

First, can you tell us how the opportunity to represent Team Dignitas came around?

xCeeD: The opportunity to represent Team Dignitas came after we won the ESEA Season 26 Mountain Dew League against Rise Nation. We had prepared for this match for a long time and knew what it would mean if we won: the invite to Pro League. By qualifying for Pro League we were able to gain a new perspective on our goals and how much potential we have to go really far, and that’s when Team Dignitas had contacted us. The people over at the 76ers and Dignitas saw our potential and they wanted to work off of that.

How were the initial reactions of the team when you received the invite to play for Team Dignitas?

xCeeD: When we first learned about Dignitas contacting us we were so shocked we thought that it was a joke, because to us Dignitas is such a prestigious organization and we ourselves couldn’t believe it. In reality, we were all so stoked and excited that we would be getting this amazing opportunity to represent Dignitas and the 76ers.

How do you feel towards the future with Team Dignitas and the team?

xCeeD: I am looking forwards to the future with Dignitas and the rest of the team because of how much promise and potential we have. When we first started in Mountain Dew League last season, we didn’t start off too hot, but we did not let that stop us in our tracks. We worked harder than we ever thought we could and we pulled through and won the league, moving us to Pro League. I feel that if we continue that work, and take it up a notch further, we can really be scary good.

You have probably been reading some of the thoughts and feedback from the community after the official announcement. How did you receive it? In general, are you happy with the reaction you got?

xCeeD: I’ve read a lot of the comments about us getting signed to Dignitas off of various websites, HLTV, ESEA, and Twitter. Of course there were both hate and good comments, but in general I was very happy to see so many people excited for our future. When I see the hate comments though, my immediate reaction is to prove them wrong and that’s what I live for.

Are you feeling nervous for the challenges ahead?

xCeeD: I am both nervous and confident for the challenges ahead because I am new to the Pro League and there are a lot of the world’s best in this league. I am confident that the more I play, and the more the team practices, the better overall we will be, and we can soon in the future be considered one of the world’s best.

Now that you’re representing Team Dignitas, will there be differences from the practice regimen you had before? If yes, how so?

xCeeD: Now that we are under Dignitas, one of the changes that both me and the team has been making is kicking the demo watching, aim practice, and scrimmages up a notch. We have been practicing a lot more than we ever have, and we have made sure that the way we practice is effective and necessary so that we can be more than prepared for matches in the future.

How is practice going?

xCeeD: Practice has been going extremely well. Like I said before, we have been making sure that we make the right decisions and taking criticism and learning off of our mistakes that make. Doing so enables our practice to be extremely effective.

How do you practice individually? Do you prefer to do it before or after the team practice? Why?

xCeeD: When I practice alone, I usually do a lot of aim practice, aim_botz, and deathmatch. I do aim practice to make sure that my aim is better than who I am playing against and that I can hit the shots that matter. The other practice I do is demo watching. When I watch demos I usually watch myself, so I can fix some of the little issues that I have in my gameplay, such as positioning and utility usage. When I do practice alone, I usually do demo watching after practice, late at night when nothing is going on, and I do aim practice both before and after, making sure I am always on point whether I am going to play a game or not.

What is the general plan of your team practices? Do you have everything you want to work on set before starting or do you “improvise” as the practice goes on?

xCeeD: Our general plan when we practice is to iron out our mistakes as a team and individuals and practice different setups and team play. We usually practice defensive setups and get used to communicating with each other and using our utility correctly. We also practice executes for the same reason, to practice what will probably happen in a match and what we can do correctly to make sure the execute is effective.

Let’s talk about the next few months. What are the team goals for the near future?

xCeeD: Some of the goals we have for the future is to qualify for ECS Season 5. That’s really huge for us. Another goal is to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals. As of right now we haven’t seen any qualifiers for any events, but any big tournaments coming up, we will set a goal for qualifying for that event and doing our best to win.

What are the expectations you have for yourself in the foreseeable future?

xCeeD: An expectation I set for myself for the future is to be the player my team needs me to be. I can say the same for everyone else on our team. As we all strive to be the best for the team, we all can become very good and we can go very far.

You’re now facing a new challenge: ESL Pro League. You’re competing directly with the best teams in North America for a slot in the LAN finals happening in May. How is the team’s confidence regarding this league?

xCeeD: Regarding the Pro League, I believe that we have a lot of confidence that we can be a top team in the near future. As long as we continue to work hard in practice and keep on working hard, we will be okay. One of the big things that causes nerves is knowing that whatever you do can be punished easily by whoever you're playing against. But once we start minimizing the mistakes and opening we make we will get a big confidence boost.

Talking about you now, how did all this Counter-Strike adventure started for you, all the way until where you are today?

xCeeD: When I was 8, I was shown Call of Duty: World at War. This is what sparked my insane interest in FPS games. I played CoD for about 2 years and then I saw Counter-Strike: Source. I was way too young to realize that eSports was a thing and so I only played on the Jailbreak servers for fun. I ended up not playing an FPS for about 3 more years and when I turned 14 in 2014, I watched a video on a tournament for CS:GO. I was so interested on what CS:GO was all about and what these tournaments were. So I started playing. After a couple of months of playing I found out what professional Counter-Strike exactly was and a fire started in me. I wanted to be a Pro player. I found ESEA around September of 2014 and I made an account but I never started playing until January 2015.

My fire to be professional kept rising as I kept getting better. I started in Season 20 in Open with some friends, and quickly moved to Main in Season 22. I was stuck in Main for 2 seasons where I found my old team, Guerrilla Tactics, and I went to go play for them in Intermediate for Season 24. This was my first real step into the good part of ESEA. We had won ESEA Intermediate Season 24 and we were promoted to the Mountain Dew League. Shortly after though, I was benched from the team 2 matches into MDL, and this caused a major step back for me. After I was benched, I decided to start working on my decision making and my aim as I wasn't where I wanted to be. I left Guerrilla Tactics to stand in for a couple of matches on another MDL team, and that's when I joined Adaptation in Main.

I ended up leaving Adaptation a couple weeks after joining the team I am on now, formally known as Broken Alliance. During that season of Main, we ended up winning the Season 25 Main Division, my second division win in a row. And we moved onto MDL, where we continued to keep going up in skill, and ended up winning the Season 26 MDL Division, where I won my 3rd consecutive division. I had won Intermediate, Main, and MDL back to back to back. Now, I am playing in the ESL Pro League with the world’s best and I had finally reached my dream, to be a pro. Now, I am trying to continue with my goal to become the best team in the world.

Any words you would like to say to wrap up this interview?

xCeeD: I am extremely excited for the opportunity to play under Team Dignitas and the Philadelphia 76ers, and I can't wait for what the future holds!

I want to thank xCeeD for his time and wish him the best of luck on his new endeavours with Team Dignitas. Don’t forget to check out his social media pages and stay tuned:

xCeeD's Twitter
xCeeD's Twitch