BOSS Lives To Fight Another Day As Fruitcupx Talks

Yet, this team that had their own unofficial “bootcamp” in the confines of their hotel rooms have come along into the Perfect World Shanghai Major Americas RMR to take out M80 and push Complexity to overtime. 

What’s their objective here

Part of the reason why BOSS are fighting for their lives at the Americas RMR is to show off their calibre to the world, to the point that organizations would fall head over heels to take them under their wing, especially if they qualify for the Shanghai Major. The team’s coach, Matt “Warden” Dickens has also made this clear: “This is a really deserving team. They practice really hard and have been unsponsored for a while now. I'm not exactly spiteful towards the NA esports economy; it is what it is and it has been that way for a minute. Hopefully we are able to prove ourselves at the RMR, and maybe even secure one of the spots to the point where teams can't ignore us anymore. That's kind of the goal: Get on the radar so hard that it doesn't make sense to ignore us."

Warden also believes the team has a solid chance of qualifying: “There are sixteen teams in the RMR and we have to be top seven, with three losses finally in the Americas RMR. I think we have a good shot, as long as we can win some of these matches against teams that are kind of around our seed.” Sure, they lost to the #5 team in the world, but the performance has shocked all the doubters. Particularly, Gavin "⁠Fruitcupx⁠" Norman has been in great form recently, boasting a 1.26 rating despite having played his last LAN in 2019 since he had to go away for military duties afterwards. Fruitcupx spoke to HLTV after day one to discuss things more.

When asked about how he was feeling about the day's outcome (i.e. beating M80 and taking Complexity to overtime), Fruitcupx said

You know, it's amazing, the excitement, the rush, playing with my teammates in person, this is an event that is just amazing. It's the best time ever, I'm not going to lie. It's the hard work we've been putting in the last three months since we qualified for the RMR. I just joined the team, three months ago, and ever since we've been on the grind. We don't take breaks, it's just straight 10 hours a day, seven days a week, just the grindset ,really.

We know we don't have the resources to bootcamp and go play in Europe but honestly, it really doesn't affect us. We don't think about other teams, we only think about us, we're orgless and we don't get the perks that other teams do but we're still here, practicing 10 hours a day and just trying to make the Major.

When asked about his time away from Counter-Srike as well as being picked up by BOSS when he was back, Fruitcupx said

For the last four years of my life, I've been in the army, active duty army, so this wasn't really something I could do. This was one of my dreams for a long time, I wanted to do it, but since I was in the army I couldn't. I still competed, I started playing Advanced... last year? Beginning of last year. It's just surreal, it really is.

I never thought I would be picked up by BOSS. They texted me, wanted to give me an interview, or a tryout. I was nervous, I didn't think they would pick me just because I had no experience anywhere except Advanced. I hit Advanced playoffs but that's nothing compared to qualifying for an RMR. I'm just glad the boys took a gamble on me, I'm really thankful for it, honestly.

When asked about what it feels like to beat teams he grew up watching like EliGE, Fruitcupx said

It's an amazing feeling. I grew up watching EliGE. Well, 'I grew up,' but you know, before I came into the scene I was watching EliGE and hallzerk and now I'm playing against them. It's just an unreal moment, and I'm just very grateful and blessed that I'm here.

Since this was Fruitcupx’s first HLTV interview, he was also asked to describe how he came up with his name, to which Fruitcupx said

So, I used to have another name, and one day I was playing FACEIT, eating some fruit cups. I was talking to my boys and said, 'Should I change my name to fruitcup just for a meme?' And I was like, 'Okay, let's do it'. I tried fruitcup, and it was taken by an inactive account, so I had to put an x. I was going to change it, but I never did, so I just left it.