The World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) USA National Finals took place last month and brought together some of the country’s top players. They competed in CS:GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, PES 2019, StarCraft II and Vainglory for a $200,000 prize pool. Team Singularity, was the first place team in the CS:GO portion of the competition and I got to ask Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, a member of the team some questions about eSports and the competition.
First some background questions for readers:
Bryan: How did you get into eSports and at what point did you decide this was something you could seriously pursue?
Vanity: I got into eSports watching Call of Duty black ops 2 back in 2012/2013 I don’t remember exactly but that was the first game that piqued my interest
Bryan: What was your plan before eSports took off?
Vanity: Getting a degree in accounting
Bryan: When did decide to focus on CS:GO as your competitive game of choice?
Vanity: I initially was competing in Call of Duty and then they added an age restriction which would have caused me to not be able to compete for 1.5 years so I decided to try another game.
Bryan: What do you play to unwind when you aren’t practicing or competing? Can you still enjoy casually playing CS:GO?
Vanity: CSGO is the only video game I enjoy playing for long periods of time.
Bryan: What has the response been form your family?
Vanity: My Family is really supportive and they are a huge part of the reason that I am still chasing my dream. Without the support of my parents/family I would not be able to pursue this.
Bryan: How did you get your gamer name Vanity?
Vanity: Alias ego was taken in call of duty and I’ve always had really high self confidence so I looked up synonyms of the word and eventually ended up on Vanity
Bryan: How long do you see yourself competing with CS:GO and would you ever consider changing games?
Vanity: The only game I could ever see myself switching to is the rumored Riot FPS. I will play CSGO until that releases and then reconsider.
About the Competition:
Bryan: What do you do before a competition to prepare?
Vanity: Nothing special I just play the game
Bryan: What is your role on the time and how much time do you spend practicing that vs. other roles?
Vanity: I’m assuming that is supposed to be role on the team and I am the In-game leader and Entry fragger/2nd awp I do pretty much everything.
Bryan: Do you scout other teams before heading into a game?
Vanity: Not frequently I don’t like to think too much about other people
Bryan: What is the pressure like during a competition?
Vanity: I haven’t felt pressure playing CS in close to a year. I know I can compete with the best and I know i’m good enough so the pressure isn’t there.
Bryan: What did this victory mean for you as a team and individually?
Vanity: We came in expecting to win and it’s nice to win my first somewhat relevant LAN
For the full recap of the WESG USA Finals, click here.
