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It was once two parents named O’ Toole. From their love were born two beautiful babies : Michael and Jason. Older of both, Michael, is 20 years old. It two years older of his Jason brother. Why do I tell you this touching history of family ? Quite simply because meanwhile, Michael aka  u5|Hare and Jason aka  TEC|moses became high level players with Counter-Strike.

Here is the accomplishments of the two brothers :

Michael

• CEO of United 5 LTD / Leader of United 5 Counter-Strike Division
• 1st place Chicago WCG 2003 Local Qualifier
• 2nd place Chicago WCG 2003 Regional Qualifier
• 1st at CyberX Gaming Qualifier (Chicago)
• 2nd place Ohio CPL 2003 Local Qualifier
• 1st place & birth winner Ohio CPL 2003 Regional Qualifier
• Finished 17-24th at Summer CPL 2003
• 3rd Place Season 9 Cal Invite
• 2nd place 2003 Ultimate Arena/AMD Tournament
• 7th place in World CPL 2003 Winter (1st place of all US teams)
• 1st place CBS LAN Event in Chicago
• 1st place UGS-Pro Season 5
• Invited to ESWC North American Finals and placed 4th.
• Played for notable teams Eminence, Gamers-X, & Chikara
 
Jason

1st @ Ultimate Online Tournament Oct 23 2004
3rd @ ESWC North American Qualifier (United 5)
1st @ Haywire LAN (MachoMen)
1st @ CBS Chicago LAN (United 5)
7th @ CPL Winter 2003 (United 5)
17-24 @ CPL Summer 2003 (u5.valor)
1st @ Haywire Chicago (Club CPL)
1st @ G-Zone Tourny (Club CPL)
1st @ CyberX Chicago (u5.valor)
2nd @ WCG Chicago (u5.valor)
1st @ CPL Ohio Qualifier (u5.valor)
 

We went to the meeting held on both bro’ in order to know some more about their life, their course with Counter-Strike mod and many other things still.


*aAa* : Hello =] Firstly, Can you introduce your brother instead of you ? :)
Michael : My brother’s name is Jason "Moses" O’Toole – he just turned 18 years old and is about a semester away from graduating high school. He lives with the folks in Grand Rapids, MI. Moses has played with teams Chikara, Valor, United 5, and is now in TEC.
Jason : My brother is Michael "hare" O’Toole. He is the CEO of United 5 LTD, and is also the leader (ingame and out) of their CS team. Michael is 20 years old and is currently living in an apartment in Schaumberg, IL with the rest of his u5 teammates. He works at the LAN Cafe that sponsors his team, Xactek.


What are you doing currently : studying in high school, working ? What studies have/had you chosed ?
Michael : I graduated from East Grand Rapids (the school from American Pie – aka East Great Falls in the movie) in the Spring of 2003. From there I chose to attend Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana to study computer graphics & graphic design. I completed a year there and then decided that I wanted to take time off of college to dedicate a year of my life specifically to gaming and my team. I am now living in Schaumburg, IL (outside of Chicago) with my team mates.
Jason : I am currently in my last year of high school. As my "job" or "work" or whatever you want to call it I write articles for www.esportsea.com and some other side projects for them =) Next year I will be attending university at Loyola University in Chicago, but I’m not sure what I will be studying there.


After playing counter-strike, what do you want to do ?
Michael : Honestly I really don’t know. I am 20 years old and most people my age have some sort of direction regarding their education. Depending on how the e-sports scene changes and evolves this next year I can see myself playing games & managing a team for another 5 years. If things don’t really work out with gaming then I will end up going back to school and getting a basic business degree. Again – I really don’t know, but it doesn’t worry me right now, as I am taking things 1 step at a time.
Jason : I don’t know... we’ll have to see how things turn out in the future and then I’ll go from there :D


What are your hobbies ? Do you practice one or several sports ?
Michael : I love having fun. Right now in Schaumburg I play a lot of counter-strike and hang out/work part time at the local LAN center called Xactek. No matter what I am doing I am usually with some of my team mates – cBz, Derosa, Gosu, da bears. We watch movies, shootpool, go bowling, grocery shopping, and an occasional partying.
Jason : Outside of gaming and CS, I write articles and do those side projects for ESEA, read (mostly fantasy books). I have played soccer for most of my life but I don’t think I will continue into college, I play some indoor soccer with school friends for fun but nothing serious. Pretty soon I’m gonna have to make working out a hobby because I eat too many chicken selects from McDonald’s... bastards




*aAa* : Talking about counter-strike now. How can you resume you career until now ?
Michael : I was first introduced to Counter-Strike in beta 5 where I just pubbed cs_mansion all day long on my 56k. I honestly just played for fun until verson 1.3 when I found out that I was actually pretty good and wanted to get involved in competition. I started at the bottom of the CS Ladders/Leagues and just worked my way up. The order of the teams I joined goes: Power, United 5 (oldschool), Eminence, Gamers-X, Chikara, and then back to United 5. I have been to 5 CPL’s, ESWC & WCG USA Finals, and many other tournaments with my various teams.
Jason : Well, as weird as it is to think about it, I too was once at the bottom of the chain. I remember going down the team list of CAL-main teams and just PMing the leaders of every one and getting rejected over and over. Finally, being the good brother he is, Hare arranged a tryout for me with a team that he met at a tournament at w2z in New York. That team was Chikara and I was with them for 4 seasons, making CAL-invite in 2 seasons, and staying in invite for 2 seasons. After that I ran off to what would become United 5 and placed 17-24 at CPL Summer ’03. The only noteworthy thing we did there was beat MurK who was predicted to get top 5 at the event. For various reasons the other three players of our team went inactive, and we recruited tr1p, fRoD, and slick. That Winter CPL ’03 we placed 7th, beating teams like Rival, 3D, g3x.intel, and 4K.intel. Very soon after that tournament I just happened to get a stroke of luck and picked myself up a girlfriend. When summer hit I went inactive so that I could be active in other things aside from video games which took up LOTS of time. However after that summer I joined TEC and got back into the active CS scene. We had a rough CPL but we all really enjoyed it, and are currently havin a lot of fun playing in CAL.



Michael "Hare" O’Toole
 

What are your best moments in cs ? Personnaly and with your brother.
Michael : Some of my best moments in CS are playing alongside my brother in the Old United 5 lineup. At that point our team name was not big and the players were not yet popular. Moses and I had a setup in our basement alongside eachother from our online matches and always traveled/competed together. From the drives from Michigan to Ohio/Chicago for mini LAN tourneys to airplane rides down to Dallas and California we had a blast. I am pretty sure that he is going to name the same victory as me – but it was winter CPL 2003 when we beat 3D on mill. It was that CPL that we took 7th place and somewhat came out of no where stealing the spotlight from several big teams that we upset. The adrenaline rush while playing these matches is incredible.
Jason : Best moments in CS... hmmm, well probably when I first made it to CAL-invite to play with the best. I was on a bad team and we did pretty bad in our two seasons but I still loved being there. Also when I first started seeing people put my name in a list of top 10 NA CS players, that was a nice rush. With my brother my most favorite moment was Winter CPL ’03 where we beat 3D (#1 US team at the time), placed 7th in the world, and 1st in USA.


What is your victory that you are the most proud, which was the most difficult to win ?
Jason : That same match vs 3D. I remember when half time rolled around (we were T first) I was on top of the scoreboard and the score was 7-5 us. An admin passing by said, "Hey what is the score?" I held tab and he saw and said, damn you guys might just win. When we won the entire match the whole team went nuts that players behind us turned around to see what happened... but really I was in disbelief for a while. The real victory came when all five 3D members walked to us to shake our hands.


In the beginning, you played together. Did you enjoy the time when you played counter strike together?
Michael : Loved every bit of it.
Jason : Of course. It was a lot of fun and really cool to be able to play with him since he was always (and probably still is) a step ahead of me in his career. It was also funny being able to pub together on militia and say "hey shoot through the door riiiiight NOW" and kill people through walls :)


Why you don’t playing together anymore ? Is it a choice, or maybe fate, that made you go separate ways?
Michael : Right now we are both at different stages in our life. Moses is living at home and finishing high school as well as spending lots of time with his girlfriend and schoolmates. I on the other hand am done with that now and am just concentrating on gaming. I would love to play with him again but right now it just isn’t logical. Perhaps after he gets a semester of college under his belt this fall we will see the O’Toole brothers "United" once again.
Jason : It was my choice. I was tired of playing so much every day and just
found other things (specifically my girlfriend) that I wanted to concentrate on more- especially during the summer. However, lately I have found that drive to play that much again... giving my girlfriend lots of headaches! :D


Do you like playing together in the same team, just for one match, one competition ?
Michael : Yeah. Playing with moses really gives me strong reasons to win. I am not only playing for the team or my own reasons, but playing for my brother as well. It adds pressure but I love it. It completely adds an entirely new element to the game when I can look to my side and see my brother get just as into the game as I am.
Jason : I always enjoyed spending a weekend in Chicago playing on the same team as him for a small $1500 tournament. But since his whole team lives in one apartment in chicago I don’t get the chance to anymore.  When they picked up connolly I was going to play with friends at a Chicago tournament, and then he left and Hare came to me BEGGING for me to play at it. So I said fine, I’ll do it (just for the money) and then he got gosu to join and move to chicago... and kicked me off the team ahahah. What an asshole.


Have you ever look a match of your brother in order to know his place, the strates of his team ? :p
Michael : NA! I’ll be damned if I ever watch a TEC demo for strats!
Jason : Well of course. Hare used to type up all of United 5’s strats in MS Word and emails them to his team. He doesn’t have to do that anymore since they live together. Anyways, I was visiting for the weekend and reading his strats for each map. He was watching TV and says "yo I’m gonna get in the shower be back in a bit" I say OK. I put all of them in a .zip file and email them to myself for use in TEC. But one thing you need to understand about TEC is that we don’t use strats, so we never used them.


Have you ever play one against the other in the same appartment the same house ? :)
Michael : We have never played a match against each other while living in the same house. Right before CPL United 5 played against TEC for CAL-Invite on de_inferno. I believe the score was u5 > tec 16-1 :P
Jason : Only in a scrimmage/pcw. It was interesting. He used to hang blankets from our ceiling so I wouldn’t be able to see his monitor.


While you’re dead if you play one against the other, don’t you want just to stand up and take a look at your brother’s screen ?
Michael : Ahaha – if I lived with him I would definitely take advantage of the screen hacking.
Jason : Never had the chance too =( But of course I would


How is a day just before United5 against TEC ? Are there any threats, jokes, or any intimidation ?
Michael : LOL! Ok I’m glad you asked. This was a huge rivalry match because of Moses, Tool, and Jaden all playing for TEC. Moses and ToOl were both old u5 members, and Jaden and da bears have played on teams together since the beginning of time. On October 24, 2004 I made a post on the United 5 website about United 5 facing off against an UNDEFEATED TEC. Elude & Moses decided to open his mouth in our comment section LOL.
 
Moses - when we’re in that 1v1 situation, ur gonna be thinkin about
who got the big-dick genes in the family (ya.. me)
 
Hare - Moses dont even make me bust out the "Jason at the physical"
stories again. YOu liTtLe PiNkY BoOWoO
 
Moses - seriously i have an image to maintain on the internet you ass
 
Hare - jkin moses....lets just leave the penis comments alone. i think
its safe to say that we are both "hung like O’Tooles!"
 
Elude - outside the top32 eh? we will see wont we, we might just have
to try now on monday because of that idiotic comment
 
Hare – OH NO! you should try. but i think we are going to stick to
our original plan and just run around killing you.

Jason : A little bit. I shit talk his teammates more than I do with him, because he never answers me on irc. But when we’re at the apartment face to face I give him more shit than anyone else. TEC is always really vocal ingame even in matches, especially if we are friends with the team. Unfortunately United 5 doesn’t have that same openness during a match so we can be chit chatting away with them and they’d never respond.


Jason "Moses" O’Toole


Have you ever try to trick your brother while playing, call him on his cellphone, spam him on msn or irc, or anything else ?
Jason : Nope! You don’t mess with hare when he’s playin cs. I learned that the hard way (he IS a black belt after all: 2-time Junior Olympic champion, 1st and 2nd place in two different world tournaments in Peru, and 2nd in a tournament in China).


What would you add to cs ? Which part of the gameplay would you change ?
Michael : I think the game is fine the way it is. The one thing that I though
could be cool was to make it so as Terrorists – everyone is able to buy a "backpack" so it looks like a bomb. There would still only be 1 bomb but the CTs would never know which Terrorist is carrying the bomb and which ones are running around with a decoy backpack.
Jason : Add a bunch more maps. If I had to change one part of gameplay I would decrease the recoil of rifles.


What do you think about cs:source ? Do you think it is playable actualy for competition like CPL or WCG ?
Michael : No way. United 5’s Counter-Strike team is playing Source Open in CAL right now. It is kind of fun but there are so many bugs in it right now. And even if there were no bugs in it – it just isn’t ready to replace 1.6. I think the main comparison is that in Counter-Strike 1.6 you can completely own people and almost "feel" it when you headshot someone across the map. In source people just die without the feeling that they just got "owned".
Jason : Not right now... but I honestly think it has a TON of potential. Especially with the physics built into the game, I really love watching barrells and shit fly everywhere.


What should be changed in this game for it to be, actually ?
Jason : It really needs to be a lot less random in terms of running spraying morons being able to kill anyone. Minor glitches like flashbangs blinding you around the corner, gun jams, nades dissapearing when you throw and switch to a gun too fast, etc.


What do your parents think about your investment in e-sport ?
Michael : As the older brother – it took some time to first break my parents into computer gaming. Eventually they really started supporting me with it. They would both come to the mini LAN events to watch Moses and I play. My dad even helped me incorporate the United 5 name making United 5 LTD.
Jason : They hate it. They really like how I put alot of time into writing articles and the media aspect of it, but in terms of playing they hate it.


How you see your own future inside counter strike ?
Michael : I have the confidence in myself to know that whatever I do I will be successful. Ahead of being successful I know that I will never do anything that doesn’t make me happy.
Jason : Fun and exciting. Those are the only reasons I have ever played CS and once the game stops being fun and exciting I will take a break (NOT retire). The best way to do that is to surround myself with people I enjoy playing with.




*aAa* : Funny questions now. Just answer instinctively :)
- beer/vodka ? =)
M: beer (Miller Light bottles) J: VODKA

- brown girl/blond girl ? :
M: brown J: BROWN (hopefully green eyes)

- ak/m4 ?
M: ak J: m4

- tec/u5 ? :D
M: duh… J:TEC

- eswc/cpl ?
M: ESWC J: ESWC

- Cs 1.6/CS : S ?
M: 1.6 J: CS:Source
 

Answer by Jason or Michael :
- Who is the most joker ?
M: Moses J: me :D

- Who is the most dreamer ?
M: ME! J: definitely him

- Who is the best in counter-strike ? :p
M: oh boy J: Well, that is a tough one. But all I would like to say is that you should check the GameSense stats of us both and compare. They are at gotfrag.com




*aAa* : To conclue this interview, what would you say to your brother ?
Michael : I just want to say I LOVE YOU MOSES...and your welcome for teaching you how to play cs.
Jason: You were adopted, mom and dad don’t even love you.


Here this history of these two rather similar, definitively delirious particularly gifted young men with Counter-Strike mod, but opposed enough in their vision of the play.

For information, this interview was carried out in middle of week, and this before the great changes which knew Hare and  United5. He stopped playing in competition for the moment, to devote himself to the management of the new line up of the  CS section, of which Hare remains the leader. 

Good luck with these two brothers, and perhaps,  one day, they will have the chance to play together, once again. It is the best which we could offer them !


Liens : United5 - TEC - CAL-Invite