Ospreay on Team Yandex: “We know we’re beating everyone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play better.”

Right now, to be honest, we’re probably only at—I don’t know—seventy percent of what we’re capable of. There are a lot of unforced individual mistakes. I mean, I knew this would happen sooner or later because a marathon isn’t exactly a sprint, but it’s better that it’s happening now rather than, as usual, in the playoffs. There’s that aspect to it, too. So it’s better this way—we’re still winning the series, right? I mean, we still haven’t really lost a single series.

We’re still pretty shaky, so to speak. I’m not saying that this is… We’re winning, of course, but we want to win better than we’re winning now, if that makes sense.

The point is simply that we’re probably trying to improve our game right now compared to how we played in the first half of the regular season. We realize we’re beating everyone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play better. We’re trying to develop in some way, and that’s why we’re making unforced errors—because we’re trying to push our limits, perhaps in this regard. And because of that, sometimes a certain—let’s say—mental block arises. In other words, it’s part of the process—it’s just good that it’s happening now rather than, say, in the playoffs. And I think we’ll calmly sort all this out and come back even stronger for the playoffs.

Let’s start with the fact that we’ve never had an overseas boot camp before—this is, so to speak, a first for the team. We’ve never had a long-term overseas boot camp. Now I can say with confidence that it’s happening—yes, we’ve already organized everything, so there will be a boot camp. We’re very excited about this because, finally, we can really start leveling up. I mean really ramping up our training—not gradually, but right away.

Whether we’re talking about the wild card or the main stage, for me personally, the minimum goal is 9–12—that’s the absolute minimum for the main stage. After that, we’ll just have to see how things go, because, first of all, this is the first experience for most players—specifically the M Championship, or, basically, the MOONTON Championship. As for the bracket, again, we don’t know what it’ll look like. We might end up facing—I don’t know—Aurora Gaming, Selangor Red Giants, and Team Liquid PH, and we’ll be like, “Hi!”—I mean, that could very well be the case. I’m not saying we can’t win; I’m saying it’ll be very tough for the guys who lack experience with international events, especially since we’re not playing in many international practice matches right now.

So it’s hard to say for sure yet, but for now, our minimum goal is 9–12, but maybe everything will change, and we could become super strong if we work through the boot camp in Asia properly and see if we can really learn something significant, get a major boost, and build on that.