This year, Mohan “launders” Govindasamy again appears on The Esports Awards nominee list. Usual stuff, right? In an exclusive interview with CS.MONEY Blog, the Canadian talent doesn’t talk about the esports scene. Instead, Launders speaks on working on himself, the importance of YouTube, football, Miyazaki’s games (Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Armored Core), Dota 2, names the three most stylish CS:GO players, and advises on clothing.
Having accepted the congratulations, modest Launders immediately admits: he did hope to win but wasn’t surprised not to get the award. Still, a question arises: why TEA chose him as a Content Creator, not a Color Commentator, since he completed two Majors in 2022 and had constant BLAST tournaments?
I’m like the second smallest creator on the nominations list. Among Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen, Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez, and other big names. But in terms of just esports content—I have only done esports, and I don’t do any other fluff content—I actually feel really good about the nomination, just being dedicated to CS:GO esports content specifically.
For the last two years, I was the finalist for Color Commentator, but I didn’t win. I think this year, I was on the shortlist but didn’t make it. The Esports Awards are aware of a lot of talent and people, but not everyone. And I think sometimes it’s kind of arbitrary how they choose. Two years ago, it probably didn’t even make sense for me to be nominated. This year maybe makes the most sense, but I didn’t get nominated. But that’s just how it goes with award shows, not just in esports, but all across the board <laugh>.
Casting, YouTube, Coaching
In this case, please make a long story short about your career path and try to inspire or advise younger talents.
I identify as a YouTuber. And I started because of KZ and movement videos, and I used to just help people through KZ maps. Then, I started making YouTube videos to make that easier. I started to get attention off of posting those videos on Reddit, and they did very well. And I made the first bunnyhop tutorial in CS:GO, kinda. Then, I branched off into casting and continued to do esports content. But now it’s all the demo review content and strictly esports players, analytical-style content.
If I were to give advice, all I could say is that I owe everything to YouTube. Even my notoriety as a caster. It helped a lot to be able to have YouTube for people to look at when it came to hiring, especially when I was a nobody. And between YouTube and Reddit, that is probably the reason that I got a chance as a caster. So, no matter what you want to do, it’s a really good idea to start a YouTube channel and try to have some kind of a content archive that’s curated, that you’ve worked hard on, where you can see your personality, and see where, what you’re actually the best at when it comes to kinds of content you want to do if you want to get attention.
How much do you grind your profession?
I grind everything. I make sure that everything is vertically stacked. For example, I make a YouTube video: I’ll turn that into YouTube Shorts, TikToks, or maybe even start it all with a live stream. But I record one thing and it becomes four things. And in that video, I’m also practising things that I use for casting: say, I’m watching a pro player that I’m going to talk about in a game, during a live cast. And then I’m also practising storylines that I’m gonna use, and all that. I make sure that when I do something, it affects everything. And when I do things outside of work, like reading books, I’m trying to improve my vocabulary; when I go exercise, I’m trying to make sure I have good energy all the time. Everything I think about is one way to help more than one thing. And I also just have a list of priorities, with casting being my number one in life and at work. So everything is related to casting first and then everything else. It’s very important to have a list of priorities and try to make your efforts go as far as they can.
With your great analytical skills, have you ever considered becoming a coach?
I’ve been offered a coaching position by a couple of bigger orgs. And I’ve turned them down. I think that coaches don’t get a lot of respect in CS:GO, and they’re, you know, not liked by Valve. It feels like there’s a new rule every single month that just makes it worse and worse. Can’t react, can’t talk. So I don’t think it’s a good job, personally. It’s a very unsatisfying job. It’s also very difficult to do well, and there are very few coaches that have proved to do it very well.
Talking about the game from the perspective that I do, I have a split between the analysis and things like storylines and delivery. A coach has to be a hundred percent ready to talk about the analytical side of the game on a much deeper level. So it’s just a harder job. It has overlap with my skillset, but not a hundred percent overlap. While I have good markings for what would be a good coach, it would be a ton of work for me to become an actually good one.
Football & Drip
With the World Cup going alongside BLAST Premier World Final, it has to be difficult to keep concentrated on CS:GO only. I noticed you are a football fan, too, posting much about the WC.
<laugh> No, I actually joke about it, but I’m not, I’m not really a fan. I have a Liverpool jersey that my friend bought me that has ‘Launders’ on the back. I don’t know anything really about football. I just tweet about it sometimes for fun.
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Among CS:GO-related people, who are wild football fans, then?
Jacob “Pimp” Winneche. Every weekend he has a team he plays on and knows a lot about the game. And honestly, most people, except for me, know about the game. I’m just making jokes about that. <laugh>
As the owner of Boxr, a clothing brand, you know style. But in your opinion, who are the most stylish people in CS:GO? Except for you, surely.
Ropz is a big one. And we recently sent him some clothes as well because he definitely knows how to dress. He has a really good taste. Twistzz is another one: whenever he shows up to events, he’s always dressed, you know, great. And YEKINDAR, actually as well, I’ve noticed that he’s got good fashion sense. Those are three really good picks. I’m sure I’m missing somebody who stands out a lot, though, but I can’t think of them right now.
Three tips on how to dress?
If it looks good, wear it. It’s the best advice I’ve ever gotten, clothing or not. Sometimes you look at something, you’re intimidated by the style of it or whatever, but if you’re looking in the mirror and it looks good, no matter how it looks, if it’s crazy out of your comfort zone, wear it.
Always pick the fit more over the style. If it drapes well in your body, buy that thing, not the thing that you really want to make work.
Pay attention to your strengths. For example, if you have a skinny frame, maybe you don’t want a really low-weight cotton with a big neck. That’ll show off how skinny you are. Instead, maybe you want a thicker, heavier cotton with a tighter neck and a tighter collar to make you actually look more buff.
So, pay attention to what your strengths are in your body, and try to go for form over style. And when you look in the mirror, trust yourself: if you know it looks good, take that risk.
Gaming: Miyazaki’s Souls and Dota 2
I noticed that you have a lot of games on Steam, and you’ve recently completed Dark Souls and Elden Ring, both games with 120+ hours. How do you find the time to play these games, considering what you’ve said about grinding?
I’m so obsessed with the Dark Souls series. So when Elden Ring came out, I picked a time where I had like a month off in between events, and I just played it every single day, and I just didn’t do anything else. And I did that for myself because I love the game and the series, and I love Miyazaki so much. And I’ve got tattoos on both my forearms with Dark Souls and Elden Ring, so I’m a massive fan. I played Dark Souls after I stopped playing on a team in CS and I started to branch out as a streamer and play some other variety games. That’s when I played Dark Souls 3 a lot. But the only thing I do now is watch people play it. My favorite thing to do is to go on Twitch and watch people playing Dark Soul 3 for the first time, you know, blind play through.
You also have excited about the recent Armored Core announcement. Have you played the previous games? What do you expect from the new game?
No, I haven’t played it myself. I’ve watched it and I’m very aware of Armored Core, and I love it. I was a huge Mobile Suit Gundam Wing fan, so I am super excited to try this. And it felt like they were going to do it. There were many rumors on forums that they were going to try to restart Armored Core. Have you played it yourself?
Only when I was a little child on my PlayStation, and I don’t quite remember anything besides that giant mechs are fighting.
<Laugh>. Okay. And that’s all you have to know, right? It’s all you need. Mechs fighting is just so good. Mechs fighting and Miyazaki driving the van is all you need to know. It’s going to be so good.
Do you have any fears about the upcoming game?
I have so much trust in Miyazaki and From Software. Whatever they do always goes so far above what I’m prepared to expect. Elden Ring was the last example: I thought I was done with the game when I was only 25%. That’s how they surprise me all the time. So I don’t have any fears. There might be the fear that, ‘oh, they tried to dumb down the game a little bit because the studio’s getting more popular’. But since Miyazaki is the CEO and has full control over that, he has already expressed that the game being hard is not for the sake of it being hard but for people to have a more connected experience when they beat the game. That shows me he’s doing it for the right reasons, not just for the shock factor. So I trust that he’s going to keep that up.
Do you have a Steam Deck?
I had one and I gave it to my best friends because they were looking forward to getting it. So I gave it to them for their birthday. But I have my Nintendo Switch and I realized I’m just waiting for The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 to come out.
I also noticed that you have 1k hours on Dota 2, which is surprising.
Yeah, well, they say Dota’s a swamp, right? When you get in, you can’t get out.
I played a lot more Dota AllStars when I was in high school. And then I played a ton back then with my friends in LAN Cafes, it was very popular in Toronto. And then, I played Dota 2 when it came out, and I still watch it a lot, but I have been a big fan since AllStars way back in Warcraft III.
Why didn’t you choose a Dota talent/caster/player path?
I’m a meathead. I like the analytical side of everything, but I also like action games. So CS:GO speaks to me in that way. There is a world where I would’ve tried to become a Dota pro or a Dota analyst if I had been playing it when I started playing CS. But I am always magnetised to high-action games for some reason. So it’s just a better fit for me.
Maybe, one day someone asks you to do a Dota 2 event. Would you agree to do it?
No, definitely not. I know a lot of the talents, I’m really good friends with Blitz, for example, and I just know that the talent in Dota are so good at Dota, and I just feel so intimidated when I hear them talk about the game. I would have to put in so much time to be able to speak competently about it. So I just want to watch. It would be an honor if they asked me, but only if I was a host. As a caster of some sort, no, I would not do that. The talents are too good at Dota for me to get involved <laugh>.
Regular Skins Enjoyer
You have quite a small inventory for a CS:GO personality. Why so? Are you into skins at all?
It’s a matter of organisation. I have skins in CS on different accounts too, and my crates have a lot more stickers and stuff like that, so I have more.
I don’t buy skins that often anymore, but if I didn’t have any, I would definitely buy some. Again. I love my Battle-Scarred Handwraps and I love my M9 Bayonet, and I love my Butterfly Slaughter. I also like having a different AK sometimes, even if it’s like a Black Laminate with cool stickers. I do care about my skins for sure. I have a very particular taste. And in the past, I’ve had a 0.009 Sapphire Bayonet and a Redline AK with four LGB Kato holos. So I’ve had some pretty big buys in the past. And now it’s just simplified down to what I know.
Some of your skins have special name tags, which are… interesting.
I had this Karambit, and it was called “Sidebitch”. And then I had an AK called “GameShark”, which was a, if you know, a cheat thing that you could put in a GameBoy, plug it into the back of your GameBoy and use cheats in games like Pokemon. Also, my AK’s name, “Gunovich”, is a reference to Lil’ Wayne: “And I shoot like I’m from over-seas, so call my gun, “Gunovich”. I like naming guns, for sure.
Name three favorite skins.
So, my Battle-Scarred Leather Handwraps. I think they go with so many skins, and I love how they look: once you get used to seeing the fingers, you actually are gonna be addicted to the fingers. And my M9 Bayonet is a classic, I named that one “Blasdfa” originally after one of the most famous movement players, a Finnish guy who doesn’t play CS as much anymore, but did a lot for helping me learn movement. But it’s called “MUUMI” right now. I also like the AK Pantera Onca, but I haven’t bought one yet.
