Saksa spoke about being turned down by OpTic Gaming because of his role: “That’s not my position; I can’t play in the ‘fourth’ spot.”

Although, by the way, I remember when I was a stand-in for OpTic Gaming, I thought, “Damn, this team is good. It’s fun to play here.” And after I finished playing for them, they asked me, “Do you want to join the team?” And I was like, “No, no, no—I can only play in the fifth position. I don’t know how to play in the fourth. That’s not my position; I can’t play ‘four.’” So I didn’t join the team for that reason alone. Even though I thought the team was good and everything was working out for us. I think that was a big mistake on my part.

Saksa: I knew I was a good player, but I felt that maybe I wouldn’t get good opportunities because people didn’t see me that way. Back when you were playing the five, it was pretty hard to stand out among the other players. So, if people don’t play with you and don’t understand what kind of player you are and what you’re capable of, it’s pretty hard to show your true potential. I don’t know. I wasn’t sure I’d get a good chance, and I was pretty sad at the time. But I just kept moving forward and thought that as long as I kept getting better, everything would work out for me.

Cap: Wait, you took first place on the leaderboard for the first time, and then you thought, “Okay, what do I do now? Screw it, maybe I’ll just make a second account”?

Saksa: Yeah, I think that happened after TI9. I first took first place around 2015, and then I just kept returning to the top spot from time to time over the next few years. Back then, there was a separate leaderboard for supports, so it was pretty easy to take the top three spots with three accounts. But when it came to the main leaderboard, doing that was practically impossible.

I don’t know—I was playing on my main account and smurfing at the same time because it was pretty hard to find games. So there I was, playing on my smurf account, thinking, “Oh, maybe I’ll try to get it into the top 2.” Then I got another account, and I thought, “I’ll try with this one, too. Maybe it’ll work out.” And yeah, it did. But I think once you’re already in first place, it doesn’t really matter that much. The second and third accounts are just a matter of how much time you’re willing to spend to get there. If you’re already in first place, that’s essentially the only thing that matters.

I was incredibly happy when I joined NIP because, to be honest, I didn’t have any other options at the time. I talked to different people and tried to convince them to take me on the team. I remember even talking to the guys from Tigers. I don’t know if you remember that team. It was a squad from Southeast Asia. I think MoonMeander and 1437 played there. I tried to convince them: “Take me onto the roster. I know I can play well.” And I remember how 1437 told me, “I don’t know. We have a guy named Xepher, and I think he has more potential than you do. I think we’ll keep him.” And I couldn’t make the team.