NatTea: “There is something about CS, there is something about the atmosphere… I would want more of that in my life”

Natalie “NatTea” Mahoney is perhaps more familiar to Dota fans than regular Counter-Strike viewers. After years in the Dota scene, NatTea has made the jump to CS as the desk host for BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026. We were able to catch up with NatTea during the event, talking about her Dota work, getting to grips with the history of CS, working with dupreeh and Mauisnake, and more!

NatTea: “[Entering CS] has been so welcoming and so warm”

Daniel Morris: I want to touch on your pre-esports career. You were an electrical engineer, right? How did that change come about and how did you jump into esports from there?

Natalie “NatTea” Mahoney: That’s a really good question. I think during university, I mean, it’s a very like male-dominated space. I’ve always been into some form of video game. But for me, a very quick and easy way that I found to make more friends in the space was just playing games. And then from that it was like, “Oh by the way, do you know about this thing called esports?” And I’m like, “Not really.” That was back in 2014, 2016, I want to say. It pretty much started with watching Dota 2 esports professionally, watching it a lot. And when you’re in Australian time zone you rarely get things live. So I’m like vod watching like the last four years of tournaments like every day type-thing. Then I started streaming myself and then I started attending esports events within Australia just as a volunteer, you know, like kind of just getting out there, going around, meeting a lot of people. Then when Covid struck and there was that opportunity of not having to be in studio for a lot of events, they were like, “Hey, you stream, you’re into these games and we know you as a person and we think you’d be a great fit.” So I kind of got my opportunity through that. All of 2021 I worked full-time as an engineer. I would like wake up at 5:30, 6 AM, go and do like eight to nine hours in the day just to end early to go and get ready for a broadcast and then spend the evening doing like a five-hour broadcast just to go to sleep and do it again for a whole year. And at the start of 2022, Beyond the Summit gave me a chance of an in-studio event, they’re like, “We’d love to trial you for three weeks,” and then they said “We’d like to bring you on for the rest of the year” at the end of that and I was sort of ready to just give it my all, you know, let’s do it. A year, that’s nothing in the grand scheme of a corporate world where you could take a break from engineering. Then after that I could come back to engineering if I felt it wasn’t going anywhere.

Daniel: You’re obviously a Dota veteran. You’ve hosted TI, is it four times?

NatTea: Yeah, I did TI 10 qualifiers, and then I did Groups of TI 11, and then I did 12, 13, and 14 in person.

Daniel: What was it that made you want to give CS a try and make a little bit of a change?

NatTea: CS has always been one of those casual esports I’ve liked, and in Australia it’s probably one of the biggest esports we’ve had. So when it comes to events, that’s what draws the crowds. They’re the ones that you’re attending a lot. And so I think just coming from Australia in general, that has always been something that’s been there. And yeah, just talked about it a little bit with the BLAST guys of expressing interest and “Hey, this is a game that I do actually follow. I would love to maybe come across, give it a go.” And they said, “Sure, we’ll give you a chance. We’d absolutely love to see how you go.” Then I just really put a lot into making sure I was ready to be there as an esports personality for it rather than just a casual viewer that’s come onto a desk.

Daniel: What would you say are the biggest differences that you’ve noticed not necessarily between the games themselves, but their actual communities?

NatTea: Okay, that’s a good question. I mean, I’ll start with maybe more of the talent aspect. I would say for the talent, the thing that comes across the most is just how direct they are with a lot of things and how unfiltered they are about themselves. Of course, there are things that aren’t really made for broadcast, but the fact that they’re always willing to put themselves out there, and that also extends a little bit to the players. They’re willing to put themselves on the line, they’re willing to put extra stakes there that don’t need to be there. And so because of that, I think that that’s what makes CS just in general a higher-octane esport to watch. Players putting extra things on themselves they don’t have to, talent putting certain things out there too. And the community I think has then evolved from that to be so receptive. They’re just like, this is an extra level of stakes that don’t normally have to be there. For me, whilst I haven’t necessarily interacted a lot directly with the community outside of the arena, it has been so welcoming and so warm, from my point of view. I’ve loved every moment that I can get when it comes to interacting with any aspect of it.

Daniel: Obviously you said that CS was something that you followed a little bit before that. Was it something that coming into it, you had to really dive into? What was that process like for you?

NatTea: Yeah! I always say this –  watching a game is very different to watching a game as a talent because you’re looking for certain things. Like, for me, I probably could have named a lot of CS players, but I don’t necessarily have names to faces because when I’m watching, it’s not like I’m looking and being like, “Okay, so that person is this person and that.” You’re just watching for the sake of the game aspect. And so for me, it was trying to understand a lot more of the history… CS has a rich history.

Daniel: That was actually something I was going to ask you. It’s obviously steeped into so much history. Was that daunting for you?

NatTea: So daunting. And it still is. Like, there’s still moments in the green room the boys will reference something from like, let’s say five, six years ago. And I’m like, “Yeah… what?” I wasn’t really in it to that sort of degree then. There definitely is that aspect that still feels daunting, but a big aspect I wanted to know about as required.

Daniel: You come into the desk with dupreeh and Maui. dupreeh, a legend of the game in his playing days, Maui, a veteran of the desk at this point. How has working with those two helped your entry into CS?

NatTea: It’s been amazing. I don’t think I could have had a better desk in the way of just how they operated with me, right? I don’t think I could have had a, like, better desk in the way of just how they operated with me… I have to put a lot of trust into you guys, but you also have to put some trust in me. And all three of us were just willing to open that up and be like, “I fully trust that what you’re going to deliver is something that will help me and I’m going to do the vice versa for you.” And dupreeh is a funny one for me because I remember my first time watching a CS event and actually working a CS event. And that was during the peak Astralis era. Like, that was when he was at the peak of who he was. And so I’m like, it’s just so funny that eight years later on, now I’m at a desk and I’m going to be working with someone like that, who is also so deeply seeped into that history of CS. And for Maui I was watching like a lot of his costreams and things like that. I think he’s such a funny person. There is a humour in Maui people I think don’t appreciate as much as they can. He is a very funny man. So it’s been good. A nice mix.

Daniel: Final question – you might not have the answer right now. Will we be seeing any more CS from you in the future?

NatTea: I’m going to say I really hope so. I do not have the answer for that. But if there were more opportunities to come my way, I would take them in a heartbeat. You know, there is something about CS, there is something about the atmosphere that I don’t think you can really find somewhere else, and I don’t think you can articulate what it is either. And I would want more of that in my life.