00:00.6
00:04.2
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of SHOW ME YOUR SKINS by Kinguin!
00:06.0
00:08.0
By the way, Team Kinguin is one of my previous teams
00:08.1
00:11.1
Those, who follow the scene for a little longer, probably remember about it
00:11.2
00:15.0
My today's guest is a person who remembers me playing in Team Kinguin
00:15.1
00:16.9
Back in the day he was probably still actively playing
00:17.0
00:18.6
I'm not really sure about it
00:18.8
00:20.5
But we know for sure he was a professional player
00:20.6
00:21.9
And now he's a famous CS:GO caster
00:22.0
00:25.0
Probably most of you already know who am I talking about
00:25.3
00:27.8
It's Kuba "KubiK" Kubiak
00:27.9
00:28.8
So let's start with another episode!
00:33.2
00:34.8
- Hello Kuba
- What's up!
00:35.4
00:38.7
Some time ago you were a pro player
00:38.8
00:42.3
and I guess you remember the times when they introduced skins
00:42.4
00:45.2
Could you tell us what was their impact on esports
00:45.3
00:48.1
Now you're casting matches and probably see what's happening
00:48.2
00:52.9
How did it look from your point of view?
00:53.0
00:55.4
Skins had a huge impact on viewership of the matches
00:55.5
00:59.3
When professional bookmakers weren't involved in esports,
00:59.4
01:05.6
skins were bringing in the audience
01:06.3
01:14.7
so disparity between matches featured on Lounge and those, who weren't, was colossal
01:14.8
01:19.8
and this is my first thought when it comes to skins and esports
01:19.9
01:24.1
skins brought a lot of viewers to CS:GO
01:24.2
01:27.4
and in some degree had an impact to development of the game
01:27.5
01:29.1
You mentioned Lounge
01:29.2
01:37.9
Were you trying to trade and upgrade skins at the beginning?
01:38.0
01:41.4
When it comes to trading, it wasn't my thing
01:41.5
01:45.8
I was trading my skins with friends and borrowing knives for a while
01:45.9
01:47.7
To check if it's nice to play with
01:48.6
01:53.4
Being a streamer and cooperating with some skin websites
01:53.5
01:55.5
made me use some of the skins
01:55.6
01:57.6
It was my only opportunity
01:58.4
02:03.1
Being a streamer also meant sharing skins with my viewers
02:04.2
02:08.9
I had a lot of stream partners
02:09.0
02:12.8
but skin partner was always the special one
02:12.9
02:18.6
because thanks to him I could organize a lot of giveaways
02:18.7
02:23.3
When it comes to Lounge, I had a short episode - maybe week or two
02:23.4
02:26.3
during which I was trying to bet on matches
02:26.4
02:27.8
but then, when there wasn't enough matches in Europe
02:27.9
02:30.5
I started to bet on NA teams
02:30.6
02:34.2
and I didn't have time to analyse all of them
02:34.3
02:38.6
Ands I said before, trading wasn't my thing
02:38.7
02:43.0
but I remember it was a great option for my viewers
02:43.1
02:48.4
Was there a time when you wanted to upgrade your skins to play with them?
02:48.5
02:53.7
Did you even care about it? Or maybe you remember some of the skins you've had back then?
02:53.8
02:56.5
Yeah, I remember some of them
02:56.6
03:02.8
My favourite one was Karambit Tiger Tooth Factory New
03:02.9
03:06.6
Definitely the best skin I've ever had
03:06.7
03:09.6
But when I was moving out from my family home
03:09.7
03:13.2
I decided to sell some of them to have money
03:13.3
03:15.8
so I could live on my own
03:15.9
03:18.7
It sounds funny, when skins support adult man in living on his own
03:18.8
03:22.4
but it was a huge thing for me
03:24.9
03:32.7
Thanks to this I could buy new smartphone
03:32.8
03:38.2
When it comes to AK-47, I remember my sub
03:38.3
03:41.4
sending me Wasteland Rebel skin,
03:41.5
03:43.5
and I still have it in my mind
03:43.6
03:45.5
I think that would be all
03:45.6
03:50.0
The moment, when I got Tiger Tooth,
03:50.1
03:55.3
other skins were way out of my league, the prices were 5 times bigger
03:55.4
04:08.2
So I'd say I was quite content with skins that I've managed to get
04:08.3
04:12.1
So you didn't put any of your money to get skins?
04:12.2
04:18.0
No, I didn't have to. I've had some sponsors
04:19.2
04:21.8
and they were topping up my wallet on the website
04:21.9
04:24.6
And I could basically do whatever I want with the winnings
04:24.7
04:33.9
so I seized the opportunity and did what I like
04:34.0
04:37.0
It works the same nowadays for the streamers
04:37.1
04:39.6
Most of them are being sponsored by some skin websites
04:39.7
04:44.5
Anyway, do you remember the value of your skins?
04:44.6
04:47.5
Of course if you want to share it with us
04:47.6
04:53.6
Sure thing. I think Karambit was worth more than $520
04:53.7
04:58.5
At the time I bought iPhone 6s. I don't know how much was that,
04:58.6
05:02.2
But I think back then its price was less than $750
05:02.3
05:05.3
so I think Karambit covered all the costs
05:05.4
05:13.2
The whole rest of the skins was sold for about $780
05:13.3
05:14.9
As I said, Karambit was the most expensive
05:15.0
05:24.6
I didn't really pay attention to other skins, because I got them for free
05:26.7
05:35.2
Most recently I sold remaining skins so I could save some money for Cyberpunk on Steam
05:37.1
05:41.1
What's interesting, I still have some steam funds left
05:41.2
05:44.1
So I'll probably use it to buy another games I'm waiting for
05:44.2
05:47.5
I also remember buying Mafia III from skin money,
05:47.6
05:50.0
but it was my worst purchase, I was totally disappointed
05:50.1
05:53.5
However thanks to skins I could add new titles to my library
05:54.2
05:59.1
I suppose you're one of the few that managed to benefit from skins
05:59.2
06:02.3
People open cases and most often lose the money,
06:03.0
06:06.6
but you're proving that it's possible to benefit from it
06:06.7
06:13.4
I've also seen you playing on jackpots. Could you tell as a bit about it?
06:16.0
06:20.9
As I said, it was back when I was stepping into adulthood
06:21.0
06:25.3
It has obviously changed over the years,
06:25.4
06:29.5
but winning on jackpot $50 or $100 was great
06:30.8
06:35.6
I just needed 600 PLN a month, I spent 400 PLN for my rent
06:35.7
06:38.1
rest was for my things
06:38.2
06:47.3
So it was a great thing to win $200-300 on jackpot, because it was enough to cover my rent
06:47.4
06:57.0
It was my own system to earn money, the excitement was incredible
06:57.1
06:58.8
I was getting really emotional
06:58.9
07:06.6
After winning I was going to my flatmate Maniek
07:06.7
07:11.7
and was telling him: "I won! Tonight party's on me"
07:11.8
07:14.6
So I'm not hiding that there was a ton of emotions
07:16.4
07:19.9
We could all see that you were super happy
07:20.0
07:22.7
But we also know you need some luck to play in this kind of games
07:23.5
07:26.1
And how is it going nowadays KubiK?
07:26.2
07:31.0
You're obviously still playing, but are you using skins?
07:32.4
07:37.8
I don't care about it anymore. I'm using normal knife and rifles
07:37.9
07:43.2
For now I only think about skins when it comes to my viewers
07:43.3
07:48.5
I get my wallet topped up and then I play some games to give skins away to my viewers
07:48.6
07:53.5
So it's my last and most fun thing about skins
07:53.6
07:56.4
But I think it's because I don't play CS that often
07:56.5
08:00.8
I would care more if I played regularly
08:00.9
08:06.6
The only thing I was missing were gloves, always had default ones
08:06.7
08:10.9
Maybe I'll catch up on that in the future
08:11.0
08:15.8
But first of all I need more time to even spot the difference while playing
08:15.9
08:23.3
as you said, I analyse a lot of games and don't pay attention to skins
08:23.4
08:28.2
I often use third-party program that sets up bots and they don't use skins
08:28.3
08:34.7
so from job's POV skins are put aside
08:35.3
08:40.6
Speaking about gloves, they weren't a thing during your pro times, right?
08:40.7
08:43.7
That's right. Back when I was a pro, glove skins didn't exist
08:43.8
08:48.6
I think it was 2017, when I started transitioning to coach role
08:50.0
08:53.8
and I think at the beginning there were just too expensive
08:53.9
08:55.5
Do you have any glove skin now?
08:55.6
09:03.7
I do, yes. Now I have the yellow ones that I opened from the latest case
09:03.8
09:05.7
And how about them? They're pretty. (laughs)
09:05.8
09:07.1
But how about the price?
09:07.2
09:09.0
About 150 dollars
09:09.1
09:12.9
Exactly... I think they could cost even more than knives
09:13.0
09:19.0
My gloves aren't that expensive. Previously I had red ones that were worth over $620
09:19.1
09:21.2
I don't remember their name, I could look that up
09:21.3
09:25.1
But I sold them and got the new ones from the case
09:25.2
09:26.7
So that was nice
09:26.8
09:35.0
Wrapping it up, if you became a player once again
09:35.1
09:39.9
Are there any skins, that you'd like to get?
09:40.0
09:49.9
There's a lot of skins that I really like, but the problem is I don't remember their names
09:50.0
09:54.4
My viewers are the ones that educate me about skins
09:54.5
09:59.0
I often ask them about my next moves relating skins
09:59.1
10:03.9
Then they give me the names of skins and I'm getting surprised
10:04.0
10:09.8
What's worth noting is that tournament organizers no longer use default HUDs
10:09.9
10:15.5
Nowadays, you won't see the names of skins and it's because many players were using inappropriate names
10:15.6
10:20.4
There's no default HUD, so I don't know the names of new skins
10:20.5
10:25.3
Back in the days I just could see it's, for example, AK Neon Rider
10:25.4
10:30.2
Now it's way different, so it's kinda problematic
10:30.3
10:35.4
But there are many skins from the new collection I'd like to have, especially the gloves
10:36.5
10:41.0
Gloves I was talking about are Hand Wraps | Desert Shamagh
10:42.7
10:47.1
They cost $160 and as you said, gloves are cool thing
10:47.2
10:51.8
I recently bought whole yellow setup but I think I'll show it in some different episode
10:53.0
11:02.5
I have one last question for you: do you think skins have impact on your perfomance?
11:02.6
11:08.8
I think they don't, but people like when something looks nice and is cool
11:08.9
11:16.5
So when there's an opportunity, you don't need to wonder
11:16.6
11:18.9
Just use skins for yourself
11:19.0
11:22.9
Let's remember that buying skins is cool about one thing
11:23.0
11:24.5
It's almost the same as investing in real estate
11:24.6
11:29.4
If we decide to buy, we can always sell it and not always lose
11:29.5
11:34.3
Buying skins in Valorant is for example similar to buying a new car
11:34.4
11:37.1
That just like that loses half of its value
11:37.2
11:41.0
If you buy a skin in Valorant, you can't trade it or sell it
11:41.1
11:49.4
So I think it's nice that you can still trade or sell your CS:GO skins
11:49.5
11:58.9
And it's also a part of entertainment, it's a part of CS:GO and it's nice to have skins
11:59.0
12:03.8
I agree. Some people even make money from trading
12:03.9
12:10.2
Some of them store old stickers that over time gain in value
12:10.6
12:14.0
I just checked my Karambit and now it's worth around $780
12:14.1
12:18.7
so I think old skins and cases really gain in value
12:20.5
12:35.1
One of my subscribers decided to invest 1000 PLN in skins and decided to leave them for 5-10 years
12:35.2
12:45.0
And I suppose now it's worth 2-3 times more
12:45.1
12:50.7
This is how it works. Skins don't improve your skills
12:50.8
12:55.6
but my friends often tell me they get better movement
12:55.7
12:59.5
so there's a slight impact
12:59.6
13:04.0
Thank you KubiK for sharing your stories
13:04.1
13:07.3
and huge thanks for tuning in
13:07.4
13:12.2
Thanks a lot for hospitality
13:15.5
13:17.8
And I invite you to visit Kinguin website
13:17.9
13:19.9
that offers cool items that you can purchase
13:21.4
13:24.8
Remember to hit "subscribe" button, click "like"
13:24.9
13:29.7
and share your inventory to get a chance to take part in next episodes
