dupreeh exclusive: Donk is the best player in the world, my own peak with Astralis, and what to expect from Skyward Masters
Danish Counter-Strike legend Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen has explained why he has no interest in returning to the scene as a pro player in an exclusive interview with Esports News UK.
After stepping away from competitive play, dupreeh has moved into game development. In a wide-ranging discussion about his career and the CS2 scene at present, he told fans what they can expect from Skyward Masters, the upcoming title he is working on for Trinor Entertainment.
Read the full interview below.
Q: Who do you think deserves the best player of the year award so far? Is there anyone who could steal that spot with a good performance at the major?
I think right now it’s mainly just between Zywoo and Donk. I mean, I think Donk has been so insane this year and also last year as well.
Obviously, Zywoo has a lot more trophies with Vitality so it’s the same kind of thing we had back in the days in 2018 where it was a battle between s1mple and device and s1mple actually ended up getting it because they were looking more at the individual aspect of the game. I think it’s gonna be somewhat the same.
I still think that Donk, with his numbers, will be the best player in the world for the number one ranking, and then Zywoo will be second because Donk’s just so good in so many parameters—and of course Zywoo is as well, but I still think that Donk just has a tiny bit edge.
Q: Looking back at your career, do you think about which team’s play style fits you better and which version of dupreeh was stronger?
I’d say Astralis, 100%. I think that was the peak of my career, both individually and as a team. That’s where I thrived as well, and it was such a good time.
If I could, I really wanted to go and relive that moment for those years because that was really crazy.I think I just matched much better with the guys in there, and we had a pretty good understanding. Counter-Strike was just at a time when we were creating a subculture back home, we were creating so many good memories and everything, so that fit very well for me.
Vitality was not bad at all, by far the second best team I’ve ever been in terms of the chemistry and everything, but Astralis was just better. The results were better, the chemistry and everything.
Q: Is there any specific memory from your time with Astralis that you look back on today?
The whole 2018, 2019, half of 2020 run was insane. Being the best team in the world for two years straight, winning four majors, three of them back to back, dominating for so long, creating an era, still being considered the greatest team of all time—all these kinds of things are something that I hold very dearly and it’s something that I think of quite often that I’m very proud of.
Q: You’re still one of the highest-earning CS players ever. What are the economics for a top level player such as yourself?
Back in Astralis, I think that was when I earned the most, in 2019. I think that was like €30,000 a month or something like that. That was probably what we earned the most, and then obviously, the whole sticker thing varied a lot from major to major.
I think a lot of tournaments had a lot of good things, but it was obviously the Paris Major that was the one that paid out the most because of the last CSGO one, but also because we won it. It gave me quite a lot of money in the bank.
Q: Is there anything that would bring you back to CS in the future, maybe as a player, or as a coach?
I don’t have any ambitions of returning to the game in terms of competing. I could return as a coach or assistant coach at some point to help a team develop or something. I could see myself doing that, but it’s not really in my plans right now.
I’m not going to pursue it right now. I don’t feel like it’s the right approach for me as of right now. I’m still hungry to go in and try and work in the competitive environment, but right now I just don’t see it fit for me.
Q: What future do you see for the CS scene in Denmark today?
We obviously have some struggles in Danish Counter-Strike right now with developing the right talents and creating a team that’s actually competitive.
Astralis is sort of struggling a little bit, but it’s also tough with the legacy of the Astralis team. The expectation is just so high, just as it is with the Falcons, so it’s very hard to sometimes work around. But I still think that we’re lacking a lot of talent in the market.
We don’t really have people who can show them the way as of right now. It’s more like they go in and they create a team ,and then they see how things work out. And they’re still struggling to kind of find some structure and actually get the right results.
I think we do have some talents out there somewhere that can actually do very well but it’s just too split right now and we have a lot of Danish players that are split all over the place. It’s definitely not in a good spot right now. I don’t really see it becoming better over the last couple of, like the next couple of years either.
Q: From your time as a player, did you ever feel like you had a rival player or team in Counter-Strike you always wanted to outperform?
I’ve always admired Forest. I think he’s always been a really cool guy and also because he’s just been so good for so many years, back in 1.6 and then into CSGO and everything. I think he’s been doing really well, and he’s just a really funny guy. He’s always been very nice. So yeah, Forest is probably the one that I would mention.
Q: Is there a map you would like to see brought back to the rotation when you’re watching matches?
I’ve always wanted Tuscan to come back, and I think I’ve always said that it’s a map that has been around for so long but has never really become a community favorite, but it’s never really been brought back into the game, which is kind of unfortunate.
But other than that, Cache I think was pretty nice. I’ve always hated Cobblestone, I don’t want that one to come back. But yeah, Cache could be fun as well.
Q: How is your work now working in game development on Skyward Masters?
We have already been doing some pre-alpha tests, but that was a little bit before I got into the project. The project has been going on for about two-and-a-half years now. It’s been a bunch of guys who have been trying to get this breakthrough of trying to create a game that could create some kind of interest. That’s obviously where I came into the project.
Before I got involved, they had already done a lot of play tests. They are trying to go around this build where they want to be listening to the community, because they can see how much that has meant to other game titles. The more that you can actually incorporate the community inside the game, the better off you are because in the end, they are your customers. They are the ones who are actually going to buy your product. It’s been very important for them to have something to go off and also just to get some valid data to continue developing.
Of course, the build that they have been playing in the pre-alpha has been very limited. The overall gameplay is still at a state where it’s not suitable for a proper release. We’re looking to release it sometime in 2027. There’s no specific month yet or specific quarter of the year. It’s mainly just that we feel like we have enough time to actually get a product going that we feel we’re comfortable with, and it’s constantly developed.
Right now, it’s at a pace where one week things just really change. Let’s say last week and then coming to this week, a ton of things have already changed because there are so many things that we can already develop in terms of the core gameplay, like the map design and the gun feel. So the game is in a flow state where so many things are happening.
We are now looking to go into a phase where we want to bring people from the outside in and have some kind of open alpha test because we also want to make sure that we have a product that we don’t release too early. We don’t showcase it to too many people because in the industry of making video games, even though I’m very new to this, it is very often seen as people who have a very high demand of how the game should be feeling.
If you just put out a product saying, “Hey, this is how it looks,” then they’re gonna play it and feel like “this is pretty terrible, I’m not gonna touch it again.” So we also want to make sure that we have a product that is suitable for what we actually have the ambition to.
Q: How involved are you in the gameplay development and game design?
My main focus in this project is on the core gameplay, and that will obviously be around the gun feel, the movement, the recoil.
Right now, I’m working on the recoil system to make sure that it fits into this style and genre that we’re creating. I’m also helping to shape the environment and come up with ideas. I’m obviously not an environmental artist, and I don’t know how to make levels or anything like that, so I’m just putting in my ideas from a career in Counter-Strike, where I have a lot of experience, but also as an avid gamer as a whole.
I’ve been playing tons of titles throughout my years. I’ve always been playing video games. So I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what is actually needed for a title to be competitive, but also just to be fun. At least I think I do.
I hope that I can also put that out and actually show that to people. So I’m working mainly on the core gameplay, but I’m also trying to have a little bit of a touch on all the other aspects of the game.
Q: Valve rarely communicates with CS pro players about updates. Did that frustrate you, and is that part of the thinking with making Skyward Masters more responsive to players?
I think it’s been a huge issue, and it’s an issue that still stands to this day. When there’s an update just being rolled out all of a sudden, that you’re thinking, why would they make this update? Why wouldn’t they focus on this? Why are they not communicating?
Why are they not showing and telling the community that we know that, let’s say “the cheater issue is a big problem right now”? “We know that there’s an issue with some of the maps”, or whatever it could be. “We are aware of this issue, we are working on it, and this is how we want to approach it.” It’s going to take some time, but just keep people in the loop that “we are aware of an issue and we’re working on it,” but they don’t seem to do that.
They’re running their own kind of thing, and I think it’s also that Valve knows that, regardless of how they treat their community and their players, there will always be people playing Counter-Strike. It’s such a big title that regardless of what they’re going to do, they will still continue to grow.
When I decided to retire, I actually reached out to Valve and said to them that I don’t have any game developer skills or anything, but I feel like I could be a pretty good link between them and the Counter-Strike world, both for casuals but also professionals. I reached out to them and said I would like to have some kind of role where I could be this link and listen to what the players had to say, so we could actually level up Counter-Strike a bit more than what it is. But they were not really interested in it.
I think they are just doing their thing, and I feel like they are satisfied with that. That’s their business model. But it’s very important for us coming into Skyward Masters now that despite us being a very small indie company, and a project that is very limited as of right now, we are already at this stage of taking a lot of the community’s feedback and ideas. We want to engage them. We want to keep them in the loop of what we’re working on and showcase some stuff.
Of course, the bigger company you get, the more difficult it might get, but I still think that a lot of companies out there are actually proving that it’s very important to listen to your community. If you constantly work in a direction but the community wants you to go in another one, then you will never really meet up at the same spot. I think that’s always gonna be a pretty bad product.
Q: What are the specific features that you think will set Skyward Masters apart from other games, other arena shooters, like Quake and Splitgate?
There’s the game mode where we have four teams battling it out. We also wanted to make sure that it is a game that has a high skill ceiling, both in terms of controlling the gunplay and in terms of movement.
We want to combine those things into something that people can constantly develop on. And we want to try and create an environment that is constantly changing and is different, so every game hopefully feels unique and you don’t necessarily have to join the same game and keep doing the same thing over and over again. You actually get more opportunities as the game progresses also in terms of how the environment reacts and what you can achieve out of the environment.
There are a lot of things, but there’s still maybe two years until we release the game, so a lot can still change. I think we’re bringing in a lot of the good aspects from all the games and then trying to make it out. That’s what’s gonna make it unique. But also, the game mode of having four teams of three players is going to create some interesting features.
Q: If you could add one mechanic from Counter-Strike into Skyward Masters, what would it be?
Counter-Strike is obviously a very simple game, and it’s a game that is based around very smooth gunplay and a very smooth way of approaching the game.
For me, the gunplay is probably what is most important. That’s obviously going to be a little bit more tweaked to maybe how the recoil works. You might be able to have a little bit more movement and incorporate it into the game, so the recoil might be a little bit lower, but you can maybe also do jump shots. But the overall crispness and the feeling of satisfaction of taking down players in Counter-Strike, and the skill ceiling that Counter-Strike actually offers. I think that is what I’m trying to get out of Counter-Strike.I think the gunplay is where I’m trying to mimic the most from Counter-Strike, so it feels crisp and rewarding while having a very high skill ceiling.
Q: Are you planning on inviting any other CSGO or CS2 pros to the open Alpha?
It would be very interesting to have some people from inside Counter-Strike that like to play video games outside of Counter-Strike. I feel like it’s actually quite a common thing that a lot of Counter-Strike pros literally only play Counter-Strike. That’s all they play. They don’t actually enjoy playing video games outside of it.
If that’s you, I don’t think you would enjoy Skyward Masters. This is intended for the gamers. Maybe a guy like Forest could be a guy that I thought could be really fun to have inside the game, a guy that enjoys playing video games. It would be awesome to have. I know that a guy like Zywoo also likes to play, it would be fun to have him play it. It could be someone like Shox or NBK, some of the French guys that I know are actually gaming a lot as well outside of Counter-Strike.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be people who are active pros anymore. It could also be retired pros that are now streaming or doing something else, but just to have someone who can influence the game. But it’s important that we have a build that we feel comfortable around showing, so they could also potentially stream it and we can get more attention to the game. But that’s still probably maybe half a year away. We’ll see where we go.
Q: Which other audiences are you looking to attract to Skyward Masters? Maybe like Apex and Valorant players?
That’s why I hope that if we can get something very good from a lot of titles, I think it can actually cater to a lot of the players, if not all of them.
Obviously it caters to the FPS players. I don’t think we’re going to get League of Legends players to play it, or Dota2 players for that matter. I think it’s all about the FPS, but I also think maybe the Apex players could be a good kind of audience because they have a lot of movement, a lhigh skill ceiling and everything.
Then if you’re used to playing Counter-Strike at a high level, I think this could also be fitting for you, and I think it’s just important that we don’t want to go out and try and achieve to just have so many players coming from every single title. That’s not really my goal.
I want new players to come in, players that are not necessarily a fan of a specific game, who just find this game and think, “this could be fun.” But the whole game mode, or the idea for the game, came out of Roblox and Minecraft, Bed Wars, which is a game mode that has been established in those two games for a long time. For the hardcore fans of this specific game mode, it should also cater for them, if not mostly.
Q: Are console players in your thinking?
Right now, we only have the PC players in the loop. I don’t think there have been any talks about the PlayStation or Xbox or anything. I think that’s a question of time, maybe like three to four years or something like that. But that’s not really on my table.
Q: Is there anything else about the game that you want to share, that you want to talk about, that you want to mention?
No, I think we’ve rounded all the things that I can share right now with how the game is developing. I think, obviously, the game is what we have showcased right now. It’s mostly environmental, and I think we’re working on getting a lot more features coming into the game. So I hope that we can share new videos before Christmas.
Q: Do you think core mechanics should ever change in an esports title like CS?
It can change a little bit, and it can be adjusted, but it shouldn’t change as a whole. They shouldn’t rework the entire system. And I feel like Valve is sometimes changing stuff that is not needed to change.
I’m not sure where they find these issues that they feel like they need to change something. I really don’t get it, but I still don’t think they’ve made a change to Counter-Strike where it’s been huge. I just saw today that they tried to change something with C4, so that you couldn’t scope with the AWP anymore when you’re defusing it. You have a small delay from shooting once you defuse. They’re trying to change stuff into the game to see how it works out, without actually having a good reason for why they’re doing it. That is sometimes a bit of an issue.
Q: What is your ultimate ambition for Skyward Masters?
Of course, we’re not trying to create a Counter-Strike 2.0 or a new Apex Legends or anything like that.
If we could do that, that would be really cool, but we’re not trying to compete against the biggest titles out there. Not yet. And of course, the arena shooter has kind of maybe died out a little bit compared to what it was back in the days. But that is why I’m really trying to hope and create something that still has the vibes of the arena shooter, but it’s actually not like a full arena shooter.
It has the format and the movement, and the gunplay is a little bit like Arena, but it will have elements from all the other games that hopefully will make it feel like a brand new title. So maybe it can have its own unique title at some point, but as of right now, I understand that the skeptics like their skeptical thoughts that the Arena Shooters are pretty dead. Why would this one be good? I mean, only time will tell. I don’t know if it will succeed or anything, but we just hope that we can create something that is unique that people will think is fun.
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