MPKBK: “It’s clear that a lot of teams simply need these tournaments that I organize.”

Not yet—for now, I need to focus on organizing here in Russia. It’s clear that a lot of teams really need the tournaments I organize. And it’s clear that this has already created a significant “boost.” I’d like to do one in Serbia, but I just don’t know where to fit it in. I mean, if we’re talking about the end of the year and the Singapore Major, I have a rough idea of who I can help qualify for the Major, and those players don’t really need Serbia. That’s K27 and Nemesis. And those who have visas can easily make it to European tournaments. So I’d be competing there against DraculaN and the guys from Roman Imperium—the ones running Stake—and I’m not sure I could hold my own against them. But here in Russia, there are a ton of teams that just don’t have the opportunity to advance any further.

Without a doubt, the third LanDaLan is number one. I’m shocked at how easily I managed to work with such a large venue. I seriously doubted whether I’d be able to speak on stage to such a huge audience, whether they’d like it, or whether they’d cheer. It all worked out, and pretty easily at that—I hadn’t prepared for it at all. It’s clear that right now, kids between the ages of 16 and 25 really want to get into events like this. Maybe it’s because sports have basically disappeared here, and it seems like no soccer teams are coming to Russia anymore—the Russian Premier League has become completely unpopular. Then there’s this whole thing with the passes and the fan ID—people have started boycotting soccer and aren’t even really going to the games anymore. There aren’t many events like this, and you can tell people are “hungry” for them, so I argued with the sponsors for a long time about whether it was worth holding LanDaLan for four days. That is, Thursday and Friday, the venue was a bit empty—we didn’t fill the whole arena—but still, when you have 100–200 people, first of all, it adds a lot of background noise to the broadcast; they’re cheering, and you’re showing them on screen the whole time. Then I asked the teams, and it turns out that it’s much more valuable for players to win a match when they see people cheering for them, when people are jumping for joy just because of their own clutch plays. Both the viewers and the players have fallen head over heels for this format.

I felt bad for Team Spirit Academy—they came to my third LanDaLan without Kyousuke anymore, and they picked up—I’ve already forgotten his name… Kurosse, I think that was the guy’s nickname. And they were so down; they said, “Well, we’re not the same—we can’t do it without Kyousuke.” They were totally demoralized when he was taken away, though it’s strange—I’m sure they could have found a player to replace Kyousuke. Well, maybe not at the same level he showed at LanDaLan, but they could still have kept the roster together and tried to sell it as a package, so that the guys—who, I think, had been playing together for two years... I mean, in 2023 they brought in donk and zont1x, and by around 2024 they were already at Spirit Academy—well, you’d have to ask S0tF1k exactly when he put that lineup together. It’s just that when you look now—alkarenn isn’t anywhere to be found, and he was one of the top two players on that roster. He’s with HEROIC; he just played as a substitute for CYBERSHOKE and, apparently, didn’t work out—they’re coming to the LAN with a different sniper, not alkarenn. Then there’s robo at ex-RUBY—you can’t exactly call that a stellar career move—and on top of that, he’s become captain. That’s really strange; everyone says we don’t have enough captains, and no one’s picking up robo. I’m surprised by this, of course. And I remember how robo played at our LAN—he’s top-notch. I guess things worked out for Mokuj1n—he joined CYBERSHOKE—and then there’s SYPH0, who’s with Nemiga; they just won the Challenger, and they won a LAN tournament—I think it was the Exort one, one of them. Well, anyway, they’ve all gone their separate ways—they’re all on different teams now—which is a shame.