Behind the Scenes: with Rambo
by Ryan Donlon
12/2/2011 12:11PM ET
Raymond “Rambo” Lussier is a Call of Duty professional player. He has won several MLG events and is a well respected player. I was lucky enough to get some of his free time for this interview.
Can you just give us a short bio about your gaming career for those who don’t know much about you?
RAMBO: I first started playing Playstation 2 online in 2006, heard about Gamebattles through the mic I got and signed up to it. I played GameBattles for about 3 years until I found out about MLG. I started competing in 2009 with Bigtymer and other players. Placed well throughout the years and won 2 events and 2 pcls, also never placing lower than 7th. I first started XtravaganT with Bigtymer at the start of Pcl3 in 09; we went on to win nationals that year giving the name a big boost in the community. We did very well during the course of Mw2 as well. I then joined Optic for most of the past season and ended up being dropped from the team. Started XtravaganT back up for 2 events and got a decent 6th and 5th place finish.
How was your trip to MLG Providence?
RAMBO: It was a good trip for the most part, it went a lot better playing wise then I expect since we went into the event without much practice. Events are always a blast none the less; got to hang with my boys again, actually got to watch a lot of Starcraft 2 this time around which was fun. As far as the details for playing, we managed to beat nV who was the most practiced team going into the event, it was quite a surprise to me. We lost close games with OpTic then got rolled by Collapse, and then we beat LvG in consolation for our 5th place finish. So yea, it could have definitely been a lot worse, I absolutely didn’t want to place outside the top 8 as I haven’t in my entire career thus far, so I’m pretty happy about that and now looking forward to next season if there is one.
What do you think about your placing at the events this past season?
RAMBO: My worst placing this season was 6th, so once again, only winning one event is obviously not much, but it could have been a lot worse after being dropped from OpTic. I missed Dallas due to illness, and then won Columbus. After that, we pretty much didn’t play as much, some players lost interest in the practice dedication part, and it sort of went downhill from that point on. People always hate on practice and say it doesn’t help, it doesn’t necessarily help as far as knowledge is concerned once you`re far into a game because you`ve seen most of the possible situations, but as far as confidence going into events, it helps a lot. I can honestly say that there was a total of approximately 25scrims played for the last 4 events I played this season.... that’s not much team practice… lol
Which team, would you say, is your biggest rival?
RAMBO: Right now, with the current roster of IXI being Assassin, Twizz, Scumpy and myself. Obviously FeaR... I, myself have never been a big fan of Moho; the way he handles people and says things is not respectable at all. He’s never been much of a player as well, and obviously some people will defend him and all, but he’s won one tournament worth talking about, and that was 4years ago. So yea, I’d pick FeaR as rivals of IXI at this point (:
What happened with your departure from Optic Gaming?
RAMBO: To be completely honest, I’ve never heard the actual reasoning to being dropped. I got the usual nice talk lets still be friends kind of release from the team, but as far as an actual reason, I don’t know. Obviously we weren’t winning; in Anaheim we got 3rd and lost a 3-1 series to LvG who ended up winning the event. In Raleigh we got 4th and lost a really close match to Collapse who ended getting 2nd to FeaR. From my point of view, we weren’t playing enough and needed to put more time in the game, but I guess they saw things differently.
What was the hardest part about making a team from scratch?
RAMBO: Finding good players who weren’t already on teams that were dedicated. I was really happy with the roster I put together on such short notice, if Karma and Bobby were actually dedicated about practicing and played more often, I’m sure we could have done a lot better than we did.
What are your plans for Modern Warfare 3?
RAMBO: Obviously putting a strong team together again and not having to stress out over people not getting on and being dedicated was one of my goals. I have a strong feeling that Scumpy, Assassin and Twizz will make great team mates who will give our team great possibility to compete at the top tier. I am also trying to get more into the YouTube scene and help more amateurs out with some instructional videos on how to reach their potential, as well as streaming obviously. I love giving back to the community when I can and since this is officially the off season, I will be doing so very soon.
Who will be the most dangerous player for Modern Warfare 3, and why?
RAMBO: Definitely Scumpy, the kid is incredibly talented and has incredible potential to grow. Once he becomes mentally calm in given situation, he will be impossible to beat.
Are there any players to watch out for that did not play Black Ops on the circuit but are now making a comeback?
RAMBO: I’m not entirely sure of all the players coming back, but if dodgers makes the comeback, he will be a top player, I played with him a bit at release and he was really good.
How did you first get into competitive gaming?
RAMBO: I played GBs for quite a while starting on Ps2 in 06, whenever I started playing Call of duty 4 I heard there was tournaments with money involved, I guess that’s when I started playing competitively. It’s always been a dream of mine as a kid to do something I enjoyed doing as a job in life, when I saw that there was Gamers who made a living off of it, I figured that would be a lot of fun. So I have been doing so for about a year and a half now, been enjoying every moment of it.
What do you think the best way to get into competitive gaming now would be?
RAMBO: Well obviously playing a lot helps to start with, gathering players of equal interest of making it to the big scene is probably the best way to start a team. People tend to always go to fast about things, always thinking they`re the best right away, ranting to pros that they aren’t good, so on so forth. You`ll never be successful at anything in life if you don’t respect everyone, good or bad, every player who gives me respect will get the same from me. It should be the same for anyone in this community.
If Call of Duty was no longer on the circuit, what would you do, and what would you expect other players to do?
RAMBO: That’s a really hard question to answer; me personally would take YouTube a lot more serious and/or switch titles for the season. I have no intent in quitting competitive gaming, I still enjoy it very much and anyone who enjoys it as much as I do in this community would do the same. If it isn’t on the circuit, I do expect other sites just like 360icons.com to run more online tournaments that can possibly keep a part of our community alive and show MLG that we are still worth it for a future call of duty title if there is.
If you were to make the game types for MLG to use, what would you pick, and why?
RAMBO: I would have to go with Mw2 MLG game types. SND, CTF, Demo. Search and destroy is a very skillful game type, as much as people hate it sometimes, with the questionable Spawning system Mw3 is offering us thus far, SND will be the most playable game type on Mw3. As far as Capture the flag, it obviously is questionable due to the spawning system, but definitely still seems playable on some maps. With Demolition, they changed the overtime round to a Neutral bomb which makes for an incredibly exciting round, I wish they would have made it so it couldn’t end in a tie once a team planted, but what can you do. I’m still hoping for Infinity ward to show our community some interest in help us out make the game better for us to a certain extent. Who knows how big Competitive call of duty would be with their full support.
What was your biggest shock this past season?
RAMBO: Being dropped off optic and not being able to compete with Bigtymer anymore was quite a shock to me ill have to admit. Never thought it would come down to that.
Thank you for taking the time to do this interview and good luck at your future events. Any shoutouts?
RAMBO: 360icons and Ego for supporting my team for the last 2 events this year, he does a lot for the competitive community and doesn’t get the respect he deserves at times.
I would personally like to thank Rambo for taking some time out of his day to answer these questions. I also would like to thank you for reading this. Since this is my first interview I would like to hear any constructive criticism. You can do so by clicking the link below.