zorte on the IEM Cologne Major: “It was my dream to play at the arena in Cologne”
Daria Ushakova
BetBoom Team sniper Alexander “zorte” Zagodyrenko shared his emotions in an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 after winning the match against GamerLegion and advancing the team to the second stage of the Major.
On the match against GamerLegion on Nuke
I think they didn’t expect us to pick Nuke, since they usually prefer playing on Anubis. This time, we prepared specifically for Nuke, and they were surprised. We started with an excellent pistol round, felt comfortable, and they didn’t use any counter-strategies.
On playing Ancient
We didn’t practice enough on this map. We practiced on it a bit before the match, and I think that’s the reason [for the shaky performance. — Ed.]. We didn’t prepare our setups for this map, so we need to play more best-of-3s to gain more confidence.
On my own dream and teammates
This event is extremely important to me because it was my dream to play at the arena in Cologne. I don’t know how we did it [Advanced to the second stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. — Ed.], but my teammates are very confident and in excellent individual form. I’m happy to play with them.
Earlier, BetBoom Team became the first team to advance to the second stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. The Russian squad swept GamerLegion in a best-of-3 series: 13-2 on Nuke and 13-8 on Ancient.
Daria Ushakova
