MinD_ContRoL on their elimination from EWC 2026: “We had trouble figuring out who should be handling the picks.”

It was great to finally get a win. Unfortunately, it happened at the very end of the tournament. I think the guys felt less pressure once they were already out. And I think that showed in their play.

We had a bit of a misunderstanding about who should handle the picks: Varizh was drafting at the start, and I wasn’t confident at the beginning because this was my first LAN tournament with them. So I felt a bit of pressure to take on the role of captain. And after we lost the fourth match, I thought: we need to change something, try something new. So I took over the draft, though I was still nervous.

I had ideas, but I couldn’t put them into practice. I worried that the players might not like them or that they wouldn’t be able to execute them. But those were just silly fears that I needed to let go of. And today, I think I was able to do just that.

It hurts less when we lose. I can be more rational in the face of defeat and understand why we’re actually losing, rather than giving in to my emotions.

As an offlaner, I’d always either blame the “four” heavily or, sometimes, myself. If I died for the fifth time, I had no excuse, or I’d just blame the draft. And that was almost always emotional.

But as a coach—I’m never emotional. I’m always objective. Except for the game against MOUZ. I don’t know—I really didn’t like our pick of Gyrocopter, but I knew we could win with it.