Photo Courtesy of Justus Johnson
Counter-Strike manager at Mason Esports details his journey
BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Editor note: The use of the word “server” is referring to the practicing and playing of the game Counter-Strike.
Grayson ”dr1ver” Wood has been the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) manager for Mason Esports since the fall of 2022. From always enjoying the competition, putting in long hours, becoming well-known in its community and having a love for the game, it was no surprise for Wood to take on the manager role for CSGO when the opportunity opened.
One of the people inspiring Wood to take on the opportunity was Connor “Conman” Southwick, the former manager of the CSGO team that bonded with Wood through hanging out to play CSGO and going out to eat food.
From the friendship between Wood and the former manager, Wood acknowledges it to be one of the biggest success factors for the team.
“You’re not going to play as good as you think in the server if people aren’t friends with each other outside the server,” Wood said.
In the last two seasons, Wood would get the team together before games to play pool and have fun. This season, Wood contributed to breaking barriers within the team by buying dinner for his players. Wood says this brought the team together over a shared meal to get to know one another.
While team bonding is one of the biggest success factors for the team, it is also one of the challenges Wood faces.
“Everybody is their own different person, expecting five people who know nothing about each other to get along and play in and out of the server [is challenging],” Wood said. “Everyone has their goals and interests and getting all those five people to work together on the same server.”
Throughout Wood’s experience, he has had to remove several unruly players from the team mid-season who were negatively impacting the team or disrespectful to other players. Part of Wood’s job is keeping his players in line.
Photo Courtesy of Justus Johnson
One of Wood’s favorite memories of managing the CSGO team is making it to the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Finals in fall 2023. Despite not winning, the team had a good trip bonding over flying out to Idaho and having an entire weekend of CSGO, hanging out, playing on the Nintendo Switch and eating food.
Outside of managing the CSGO team, Wood works out at the gym and hosts his own server for friends and family, spending up to six hours a day in a computer’s terminal setting up and breaking down servers.
Wood’s best advice as manager is taking the opportunity and always being willing to try something new.
“Luck is the meeting of preparedness and opportunity… do something you didn’t think you were going to do,” Wood said.