Josh "shinobi" Abastado is the coach for our CS:GO team. Although being new to the position, he's embracing and tackling the challenge like a true competitor: knows what needs to be done and is working on getting the team back to the top. We talked with him about this new experience, in what consists is daily work as a coach, how he prepares the team for a match and the differences between playing and coaching.

Hi Josh. To kick off this interview, please tell the readers how you became the coach of our CSGO lineup?

shinobi: Well, initially I had contacted mCe, who was the IGL of the team at the time and expressed my interest in potentially becoming the coach for the team. I was a bit unsure if I would be a suitable coach, as it was something foreign to me at the time, but I've always enjoyed working with and developing young talent in the NA region, so I saw this team as a good opportunity to test the waters a bit. After a few days of practicing with the team, sort of a trial period I guess, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the coaching position and so it was quite an easy decision to want to work with this team.

Being a coach is a relatively new experience to you, right? What made you embrace this challenge?

shinobi: From the beginning, I knew this team would be a lot of work, but I think pushing myself to the limit and trying something new was part of the appeal to me. Being that this is the first team that I have transitioned from a player to the coach, it was a learning experience, not only for the players, but for myself as well. I think that this was the right environment for me to tackle this new challenge, as I can grow with this team and help develop the players into something extraordinary.

Is it a position where you feel you can use your knowledge and skills in the game to their maximum potential?

shinobi: Yes and no, to answer your question. Sometimes there are certain aspects of Counter-Strike that you just have to "feel", where intuition and knowing exactly what to do cannot be explained through words. These are the situations that I find myself most frustrated with, as if I were a player, these scenarios would be much easier to execute than trying to orchestrate or explain it to somebody else. Outside of that, I feel as though the players on this team have great respect for me, so it is very easy to impart my knowledge on them and help develop these guys into better players. It's a very rewarding experience when I am able to see direct improvement of the players on the team through the critique and advice I have given them, which is the best part about coaching, in my opinion.

As a coach, what does your daily job routine consists of?

shinobi: My daily routine usually consists of booking practice scrims with other top teams in the region, as well as creating a game plan for every practice that we have. Every day we try to come into practice with a set goal: something that we want to improve upon in our own play. When I'm not directly working with the team, I'm usually watching demos of our opponents or of other teams to get fresh ideas or learn new smokes and flashes that we can implement into our own game.

How much impact do you think you can have on the team, both tactical and psychological?

shinobi: I think most of my impact is actually directly influenced by my relationship with the players themselves. There needs to be a mutual level of respect between player and coach in order to see progress in not only themselves as individuals, but in the entire team. Thankfully, this is not an issue with this team, as it has been on previous teams I have been a part of. I believe that as long as the players are listening to my input and fully trusting what is being said, from both me and their teammates, then I think that we can accomplish great things. I play a big role in this team when it comes to the tactics we run and the overall style that we want to play Counter-Strike, so I think I do have a big impact when it comes to the development of the team.

When analyzing opponent’s demos, what do you mainly look for?

shinobi: Most of what I look for when it comes to studying other teams is just tendencies in their play that I think we can exploit. I tend to take note of common positions the other team likes to play on the CT side, as well as holes in their Terrorist strategies that I think we can abuse. Outside of that, I honestly prefer to focus on my own team's game and making sure that we can run our playbook to the best of our ability.

How do you prepare a new strategy? You assign players to each position before sharing them with the team or is it all decided among everyone?

shinobi: For most tactics that we implement into our game, I try to put my players into the positions or roles that I think best suit their skill sets. I try to adapt all of my strategies and tactics to the personnel that I am working with, in order to ensure that everyone is as comfortable as possible. We always have team discussions about the tactics and I'm very open-minded to hearing feedback/opinions from my players. Having a good tactic is only half of the battle when it comes to it being a successful tactic; every player on the team has to be comfortable with their role and know their job and their teammates' jobs inside and out. This is the goal I aim to accomplish with every strategy that we implement into the team.

What makes a good map to you when looking for new strategies and improving old ones? Are there any common characteristics in different maps that you like to use in your game and strategy style?

shinobi: I think any map that allows for a lot of different play styles is a good map in my eyes. Mirage is a testament to this ideology, as the map has been largely unchanged for its lifespan as a map, but the meta on it has been constantly evolving over the years. While the architecture of the map remains the same, I think it's telling as to how good of a map it is, when I'm still learning and seeing new strategies be implemented on the map, or old strategies coming back into the meta as teams start to adapt. The map also allows for a variety of play styles: slow and methodical map control to hyper-aggressive scrim strategies, to double fakes and abuse of rotations.

Besides the obvious, how different is the approach to the game while being a coach, in contrast to being a player?

shinobi: One of the biggest differences of being a coach compared to being a player is just how much information you're actually able to see from the coach position. It is much easier to organize players during a tactic. I think there are some aspects of the game that are lost when being a coach, such as instinctual plays that cannot be expressed quickly enough through words or guidance of another player, but outside of that, I think the benefits of being a coach, especially when it comes to the tactical side of CS, far outweigh the cons.

Do you have plans to return to the player seat in the future?

shinobi: I think the desire to come back and compete as a player will always be there. I have played competitively for many years and it has a big part of my childhood and young adult life, so I think that the competition is always something that I will yearn for, but for now, my place is as the coach for this team and I want to see the goals through that I have set for myself.

To finish up this interview, are there any words you would like to say?

shinobi: I would just like to thank Team Dignitas for the opportunity and for believing in the process. Building a great team takes time, and I'm beyond grateful for the support of such an incredible organization. It's been a lot of hard work, but I am confident that we will bring greatness back to this organization in due time. Lastly, thank you for taking the time to put together this interview.

I want to thank Josh for taking his time to answer my questions and wish the best of luck in his career. You can keep up to date with him on his social media:

Twitter

Twitch