mou on 1w Team at ESL Pro League Season 24: “The only surprise is that they beat Team Spirit.”

To be honest, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen this format—the Swiss system is back, where everyone plays a lot of matches to qualify for the playoffs. I mean, back when I was still playing at majors, we had stages like that. So, I don’t think it’s surprising at all: players like donk—veterans and top-tier players—and others can really hit their stride in the finals. <...> That means other players are performing well and playing at a high level, which is great to see. So, the guys are in good form, and ZywOo, donk, or m0NESY will never drop out. In fact, it’s a good thing—it’s even encouraging—that other players are stepping up and racking up good rankings.

I’ll say that the guys are playing well. Yes, overall, if you look at it, any team that, like us, stays in the top 30, or top 40—if they go to, say, a LAN event in Moscow, they’ll play worse than if they went to a Tier 1 tournament. ...> I was sure the guys would perform well; the only thing that surprised me was that they beat Team Spirit. Overall, I thought they could definitely hold their own against other teams. I didn’t expect them to make it to the playoffs, to be honest, but I did expect them to give every team a run for their money—that much I did.

I personally liked the move to bring him back, since Abay is a very experienced player, and I think they were missing another player like him—someone who can clutch well and truly understands top-tier Counter-Strike because he’s been playing for so long.