EliGE: “When the team decided to change captains, I immediately said, ‘JT is exactly the right person.’”

It was definitely very important. Just achieving this result—securing a major victory over one of the best teams in the world right now—you could argue whether it’s Team Falcons or Team Vitality, but personally, for me, Team Vitality is still the best team in the world. And even though it’s just online for now, we’re happy with any victory. It doesn’t matter if it’s online or LAN. Just securing a big win over an excellent team is a very positive moment for us.

He really is a very good player. We often play on the same side of the map and take similar positions, so it’s very important for us to be on the same page and communicate constantly. This is one of the things I told him almost right away: “The sooner we start thinking alike—so that we come to the same conclusions in any situation—the easier it will be for us to just focus on shooting and improving our gameplay.” Outside of the game, I’ve told him many times that if he wants to analyze practice demos or watch something together—I’m always open to it. The night before last, we reviewed several of our practice matches together and discussed what he, and we as a team, could have done better. So I just left that door open, and he’s really a pleasure to work with. He takes feedback very well, which helps a lot.

Well, I don’t want to talk about what happened before I arrived, because they’d already gone through their own phase with that roster. But when I joined, it seemed to me that there was already a certain clash of views within the team. From the very moment I arrived, there were already some pre-existing ideas that people weren’t on the same page about. We weren’t all moving in the same direction. Even if it sometimes seemed otherwise. Some of my interviews came across as very confusing because even I was a little confused myself. It seemed to me that we all thought the same way, but in reality, that wasn’t the case. It was as if people were agreeing to things just so as not to upset anyone. That’s exactly how it looked from my perspective. I thought, “Okay, it seems like we’re on the same page,” but we were still getting crushed all the time, and nothing was changing for the better. Everyone needs to actually be playing the version of Counter-Strike they want to play so that everything flows naturally. I think you can see this in the examples of many teams throughout Counter-Strike’s history. If everyone isn’t moving in the same direction… You can put five great players on one team, but if they’re playing different versions of Counter-Strike and it doesn’t look natural, nothing will work out. I think that’s exactly what it comes down to. I believe siuhy is an excellent player and captain, and I’m confident he’ll be able to return to the top level.

We really do have a great rapport that goes back to our days at Complexity Gaming. Over the time we’ve played together, we’ve developed an excellent workflow: how we reach conclusions, how we make decisions, and how we play during a match. I think we understand each other completely. When the team decided to change captains, I immediately said, “JT is exactly the right person.” I truly believe that. You won’t regret it. He’s fantastic. Just trust him. He’s amazing. I love him. We’ll succeed with him. I think that says it all.