balblna on signing fame: “The club simply didn’t have enough money to buy out his contract.”
Grigory “balblna” Oleynik, CS2 coach for K27 Oleynik, in an interview on Stake Ranked Episode 3, discussed the team’s preparations for the event, reflected on the team’s prospects at the championship, and shared his thoughts on Petr “fame” Bolyshev and Timur “clax” Sabirov.
On preparing for the tournament
As for our preparation, we didn’t have much time to spare before this event due to roster changes. We didn’t have time to fully train with the new player, and on top of that, we had to make a last-minute substitution. So, given all the circumstances, we’ll have to improvise and come up with interesting tactics during the tournament.
On the club’s results at the start of the year
We had three main goals for this year’s first season. The first and most important goal was to qualify for a Major; the second was to qualify for an additional Tier 1 event; and the third was to break into the top 20 teams in the world rankings. We were able to achieve two of those three goals, but unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck with the Major. The team trained hard, spent thousands of hours in-game, sacrificed their free time, and put in a tremendous amount of work to improve our macro play.
About fame
I consider fame an excellent player, and we didn’t sign him for reasons unrelated to his in-game performance. It all comes down to our organization’s capabilities—the club simply didn’t have enough funds to buy out his contract. Over the past two months with us, he’s brought a wealth of valuable experience to the team, but the deal never went through.
About clax
We weren’t able to spend enough time training with clax, but he’s by no means as passive a esports player as people say he is. He definitely has some high-quality aggressive ideas, so we’ll practice together a bit more, and he’ll show his best form.
On the team’s prospects at the event
Given the current situation with the last-minute substitution, we’ll have to take it one step at a time. It’s good that we’re in the playoffs—it would be great to make it to the finals—but in our current position, we can’t look too far ahead; we need to focus on the next match.
Today, K27 defeated Wildcard in the first-round match of the lower bracket at Stake Ranked Episode 3 with a 2-0 map score in the best-of-3 series and secured a spot in the semifinals, where they’ll face the loser of the Phantom Esports vs. HEROIC match.
Photo — PGL.
Dan Kleiman
