hally on Team Spirit: “Our goal is to be in peak form by the time we get to Asia.”

I came back after Astana, and we were preparing together for Cologne. Then I got sick, so we worked online. Let me put it this way: it was a huge blow for me to miss the Major. At the time, it felt like we could win it, but I got sick and was in the hospital. As for my return, yes, I missed the team—it was nice to be back. That said, it was clear that we needed to adjust certain aspects of our approach, because the changes made while I was away had a positive impact on the team. I came back already knowing what we shouldn’t do the way we used to. We made those changes, and it started working.

The first tournament was Bounty. There, we were trying to find our rhythm, figuring out our team chemistry, and so on. We played averagely, yes, and even with that level of play, we made it to the finals, where we lost. Then there was a very intense boot camp leading up to the EWC. We didn’t get off to a great start at the EWC, but as the tournament went on, we found exactly the kind of team chemistry we’d been striving for. We won the EWC. Building on that momentum, we went on to win in Portugal. After that, we took a short break.

Then we had 12 days to prepare for the EPL—and when you’ve won two tournaments in a row, reached one final, worked for 40 days, and then had a break after that, you get the feeling that the strong points you had will probably still work, even though we’re already thinking ahead about how our opponents might outplay us. We tried to anticipate and address certain things in advance, but for the most part, we focused on the maps we considered problematic. And, let’s say, we paid less attention to maps like Ancient and Dust2.

In the end, we arrived at the EPL in average form, and there we lost on Dust2 and Ancient—the very maps where we used to be at our best. But then again, when you’ve been playing for 40 days and have a huge win rate, it feels like everything’s fine—you just need to stay on top of things, maintain your form, and mix things up a bit. In the end, that didn’t work out. We arrived in mediocre form and got what we deserved. I’d even go so far as to say that, considering how uncomfortable and unsure we felt, we could have made it to the finals. Of course, we’d love to win every tournament, but it didn’t work out. We’ll see what happens next.

What do I see, especially after EPL? Most of the scene has upgraded their Dust2 play. I see that people have started playing defense differently; they’re deviating from the default setups in many ways, preventing opponents from playing their game, and have learned to exploit certain map features that many didn’t understand before. Now they understand this, and the game has gotten more complicated; the meta has changed, so we need to adapt accordingly. And we’ve been focusing on Dust2. We’ll see how that plays out in this tournament. We’ll still have some time in Asia before the Major.

Yes, we’re heading to Asia for a month and a half. Let me put it this way: you need the right timing for a boot camp. Let’s say you come back from vacation and everyone’s in a different shape, because everyone can spend their vacation however they want. Let’s say one person hasn’t touched CS for two weeks, while another has been playing it for half their vacation. Of course, when you arrive at boot camp, one person will be in good shape, while another will just be getting into it, and emotions will arise—and those emotions will be palpable. You don’t see that online. That’s why we’re more in favor of getting into the season online and holding boot camp in the middle of the season. So, let’s say we went to BLAST Bounty; we trained online, played BLAST Bounty, and made it to the finals. After that—the EWC and BLAST Porto, the most important tournaments. Before them, we practice at boot camp, solidifying exactly what we’d worked on leading up to and during BLAST Bounty. And we head into the tournament armed with that knowledge. Right now, it’s basically the same story: we’re training online, playing PGL Bucharest—a studio tournament—followed by Hong Kong, and then boot camp, because there’s no other time slot for it before then.

We’ve been working on the problem areas that came up at the EPL. It’ll be interesting to see how we put that into practice. In my opinion, we’ve handled it pretty well. Then again, I don’t know—we’ll see. Practices are one thing—we had some ups and downs in practice… Right now, as we’re preparing for PGL, we’ve had a crushing defeat and a very strong victory. It might occur to you that the issue is concentration and engagement. At the same time, some of the practice matches overlapped with periods when we played poorly. We’ve addressed that. So we need to play some official matches and see how it goes. Generally speaking, the expectation is that we’ll be in peak form by the time we get to Asia for the tournament series. If you look at the schedule after the break: we played just okay at BLAST Bounty; next up is the EWC, which is a tough start; we’re picking up steam at the EWC; and we’re in good shape for Portugal. Yes, we just played a long run in the EPL—it didn’t work out. Now we’re taking a short break. Here’s what I’m thinking: we’ll play in Bucharest, and after that, we should be in good shape.