Lake on NA CS: “It’s probably worse than it ever has been”
Mason ‘Lake’ Sanderson emerged into the Tier 1 scene last July. Upon joining M80, Lake’s explosive aggression instantly marked him as a top talent in the NA scene – an unexpected emergence of talent in a scene that is rarely creating new stars.
The first season of 2025 saw Lake coming to terms with a Tier 1 who now knew his style, playing in a roster that struggled to perform for much of the season, but their BLAST Open London playoff berth showed both M80’s increased synergy with Jadan ‘HexT’ Postma and Lake’s return to form with victories over NaVi and fnatic.
Esports News UK sat down to speak to Lake about his and M80’s form, NA CS, the Wildcard debacle, and taking up the mantle of America’s team.
Interview with M80’s Lake at BLAST Open London
This tournament, you’ve made it to the playoffs. How would you assess the tournament so far?
It’s been pretty good. I’m excited to see what we can do in playoffs. Obviously, it’s our first arena-type game, but I’m happy with what we did online. I think it was really good by the team.
I think the vibes were really high. There were some clips out there of us singing during matches and stuff like that, but I think that’s the whole team vibe right now, and I’m really enjoying it.
Individually, you maybe had a slower start this year than the kind of momentum you had last year, so how are you feeling yourself like in the server?
Honestly, I think right now I’m probably at the most consistent and best form I’ve been in in a while. I think listening to Rory, my coach, definitely helps. He was always on me about getting a schedule, and I never really listened to him. I really wasn’t that type of person.
But now that I’ve kind of gone up in the in the world of esports, I guess you could say, just playing a lot. I think listening to him and keeping a consistent schedule has really been helping me.
[s1n] reins me in because I feel like there are some times where I could go too overboard, and he’s like, ‘hey,’ pulls back on the leash a little bit, which I think is a good thing.
Lake on his aggressive playstyle
That’s interesting. So stuff outside of the game is helping you deliver in-game, would you say?
Yeah, for sure. Like my normal schedule, at least it was when I was younger or just starting, it was go to bed at 4 a.m., wake up an hour before practice, shower, eat and then play.
Right now, this tournament at least, I’ve been waking up six, seven hours earlier than our matches. I’ve been waking up at like 5/6 a.m., deathmatching (DM) when I wake up, take a shower, go to the office, DM, eat, drink a few Red Bulls, DM again and then I feel quite ready for the matches, and that’s felt nice. It’s felt the nicest I’ve ever played right now.
When players step up to Tier 1, there’s kind of two scenarios that can happen, where on the one hand, it can be very hard for some players to step up and on the other, some players can really deliver straight away, and I feel like you did that. But then there’s the other side of it, where people get used to you and start watching your demos.
Do you kind of feel like you’ve caught up with how people are trying to counter you?
Yeah, I think it definitely plays into it. I think my game has always been very aggressive. I think teams know what to expect when they’re going up against me, but I think that Elias [s1n] kind of helps with that.
He kind of reins me in because I feel like there are some times where I could go too overboard, and he’s like, ‘hey,’ pulls back on the leash a little bit, which I think is a good thing.
I think I’m by far one of the most aggressive players in the game right now, and I think that’s my play style. That’s the way I enjoy playing, but he’s also gotten me kind of into the late rounds, where he’s also talked to me about that a lot.
Like, ‘why don’t you just like stay alive sometimes? It’s okay for you to bait every once in a while,’ but that’s just never how I really like to play the game.
But as I’ve gotten more used to playing more games, I’ve kind of slowed down a little bit, which is nice for me and the team.
I don’t really watch a lot of donk demos, to be honest, because it’s someone that’s so hard to replicate, because he’s so good.
Lake on donk
In terms of your aggressive style, I think every kid playing the game is probably watching donk demos, but who did you take inspiration from when you were coming up?
Honestly, I didn’t really; there weren’t a lot of people I really took inspiration from. Obviously, there are a few that everybody looks up to, like NiKo, ZywOo, everybody looks up to the stars, if you will.
Especially now with donk coming around, being so new, everybody wants to copy donk. I don’t really watch a lot of donk demos, to be honest, because it’s someone that’s so hard to replicate, because he’s so good.
Like having a 1.7 [rating] on Dust 2 or something like that on average, I couldn’t even fathom doing that.
So, there are definitely some people you look up to, but it’s very, very hard or nearly impossible to replicate.
In terms of nuances, is there any player that you kind of think you’ve just taken little bits from?
Honestly, there are a lot of players that play my spots that I really like to watch. Xantares, I used to pull a lot of stuff from him. NiKo pulled a lot of stuff from him. ZywOo, even when he rifles on certain maps, like Inferno, I like to take stuff off of him.
So, at this point, I kind of just pick and choose, scroll through Skybox, if that looks like an interesting play, maybe see a clip somewhere that looks interesting, kind of steal it. NartOutHere [CS Content creator] too, watching like cool tricks, maybe just add it in my game. I’ve recently started doing that.
So, just a bunch of everything, maybe not specific players, maybe just plays. It could even be from tier two, tier three that I see is like, ‘wow, that looks pretty cool.’ Try that out. But for the most part, just picking and choosing, maybe not a specific player.
I’d say we’re by far the best NA team at the moment.
Lake on being NA’s main representative
I wanted to ask you about NACS. Complexity (coL) has left Counter-Strike, and I was just wondering if you have any reflections on that?
I honestly don’t, for the most part. I think that just kind of shows that NA CS as a whole is definitely on the downtrend still.
The level of talent coming out of NA right now isn’t really anything special, in my opinion. There’s no one, after my age group, I’d say, me, JBA, Grizz, nicx. The talent pool definitely fell off in NA.
I don’t necessarily know why. I think other games are just a little easier to get into, so to speak, than CS. Especially if you’re a young kid, 13, 14 in NA, you’re trying to explain to your parents, I want to play a game where it’s terrorists and counter-terrorists planting and defusing a bomb. It’s a shooter.
But something like Valorant, you could maybe downplay really what it is to your parents. Overwatch, stuff like that, where it’s more cartoony. So, I think that comes into play.
Honestly, the whole thing is a shitshow.
Lake on Wildcard’s roster management
I think also the collegiate scene, there’s no real room for CS, at least in my opinion, because I think it’s hard to pitch to a university or a high school, especially with just how America has been as of late.
But I think now more than ever, it’s probably worse than it ever has been, especially there’s only three or four top NA teams, at least in the domestic region.
And then even the teams that were playing kind of started to fall off. Passion or ex-coL, they kind of started to taper off. Wildcard really fell off after all their roster issues and then NRG has always just been there.
I think right now, more than ever, NA is probably doing the worst it’s ever done. So, especially with Team Liquid also going to Europe, it’s really not looking good for us.
My first memory of an American team winning an event was Boston, Cloud9.
Lake on the dream of winning a Tier 1 event
I watched it on the way home from a volleyball tournament when I was a kid, and that’s when I was like, ‘damn, I really want to do this, that seems like the dream.’
Yeah, you mentioned Liquid, and that was kind of a seismic change when they initially went to the European roster. They came back, briefly, and now they’re in the European VRS again. With ex-Col, they still have NA players, but with them going to Passion UA, it feels like, spiritually, they’ve kind of left NA in a sense.
Do you kind of feel like there’s a chance for you guys to be NA’s team, to be the guys to kind of take that mantle?
I think, honestly, as of right now, we kind of are. I don’t know how many people can really say they have a favourite NA team besides us. Maybe still Passion.
You can’t really say Liquid anymore. You can cheer for the org, but you can’t really say they’re NA. No one really likes Wildcard right now because they suck.
It’s just one of those things where each year you cheer for the best team at the moment. I’d say we’re by far the best NA team at the moment.
Last year, Wildcard made the majors. I think there was a lot of love and appreciation for stanislaw for being in the scene for so long, and then Wildcard made a series of decisions, some of which they’ve come back on like phzy being called back to the roster.
What do you think of the kind of management behind Wildcard?
Honestly, the whole thing is a shitshow. I think there’s a learning lesson for them, I’d say, on what to do and what not to do, but I can’t really comment too much on their roster moves.
A lot of them had little to no impact or had quite a negative impact, but that’s just the mistakes they made, and we’ll see if they can come back from it.
In terms of UK coaches, ash has a huge reputation in GamerLegion, but dephh has been with M80 since 2023 and has been embedded in the NA scene previously. Why do you think dephh has been successful at M80? What kind of qualities do you think he has that kind of make him such a good coach?
He definitely has really good qualities when it comes to a coach. He’s good for a laugh every once in a while, but he’s definitely on the more serious side. Like if something happens [he’ll say] ‘what the fuck are we doing?’ Or, ‘you guys need to pull your head out of your arses’ and stuff like that, which I think is a typical UK mentality, a typical UK personality.
But, I’ve really enjoyed him as a coach. I’ve learned a lot from him. I maybe need to listen to him a little bit more, but I can only listen so much.
You guys won the War of Independence, I have to give it to the Americans. Do you think you’re going to get another win vs the UK here?
I’d hope so. I think we’re starting to really catch our footing. I’m really excited to see what we can do as a team.
What would it mean to you to win a tier one event?
Every kid, every player, no matter what, you always dream of winning an event, no matter who you are, where you are. If you play video games, you always kind of look at it.
My first memory of an American team winning an event was Boston, Cloud9 [2018 ELeague Boston Major].
I watched it on the way home from a volleyball tournament when I was a kid, and that’s when I was like, ‘damn, I really want to do this, that seems like the dream.’
And now to be at the playoffs of a tier one tournament, it just, it’s almost surreal, but at the same time, the job’s not done. I want to get more wins.
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