mou: «When we won Astralis, we had already known that the victory had been in our hands»

You have recently won the eleventh Major tournament. What are your feelings about it? What do you think about the organizing of the event?

We have just played the match, won it, so there is a lot of emotions right now but I can’t say all exactly. Everything is on the highest level. I am very happy and glad finally to win the Major. As the first representatives of Kazakhstan, we beat our Swedish opponents in the quarterfinal and felt that we would be able to win. When we won Astralis, we had already known that the victory had been in our hands. But we wanted to play against Virtus.pro.

Did you have a feeling that you would lose after the first map?

No. Because we knew that there were still two our maps, Train and Inferno. We thought that Immortals would pick Inferno instead of cobble because we were one of the best in the world on cobble. We were sure that these were our maps and we only had to concentrate and that’s all.

Zeus has said in his recent interview that «a climate» is very important in the team. Was this your key to the victory?

Yes, I think that this has become the key to the victory because we had really had difficult training sessions, we had trained really hard at the bootcamp and it seemed that we were exhausted because we had lost to everyone without a chance as Hobbit said. Training sessions were unsuccessful and we came with such feeling that we had to have a rest before the storm, before the Major. We had two or three days, when we were not speaking at all, were doing nothing, we simply were playing and we understood that we were playing better and better with each new day. We simply needed a rest.

Can you tell about the preparation to the tournament? How did you prepare for it morally? What was the training regime?

As you know, we have three guys from Kazakhstan, including me, and we live in Kiev, so we wake up and play the whole day. We live at the bootcamp and, actually, we have nothing to do, besides playing, and that’s true. We have played 700 hours, played more than everyone else, we have trained a lot and that’s why I think that this victory is deserved. We have spent more time on it.

Why did you lose on the first map? Were there moral problems or you just prepared for it in a bad way?

Actually, we prepared four maps for this tournament and focused on them and, as you know, cobble had been our one of the strongest maps and we had won a lot of teams at a LAN. We didn’t almost train on this map, didn’t prepare for it as we thought that all teams would ban it at the group stage and hardly anybody from those, who came out to the LAN, would pick this map. So we hoped not to play on it. Immortals surprised us when they picked cobble.

You had lost the first map with a score 4:16. How could you morally organize yourself?

We said to each other: «Let’s forget about this map, we have two our maps now, we have worked on them, we have prepared them, so let’s win.»

What can you say about your last opponents, Immortals? Was their coming out to the final an accident or they had really boosted their skill?

Well, as it is said: There are no weak teams in the final. They trained a lot and we played practices against them before this and they destroyed us without a chance, this team is a dark horse, no one expected them to win. Probably, they were, to some extent, lucky at the group stage that they beat few CIS teams and became the Legends. After this, they had easier opponents and they got to the final due to their team play, confidence, aim.

Who was the most difficult competitor for you at the tournament?

Astralis was the most difficult opponent. Nobody bet on us, everybody said that Astralis would win. This victory became my personal victory and proved that we could win.

Was Astralis an advanced opponent for you in terms of morale?

Yes, they were difficult in terms of psychologic. Almost everyone said that Astralis were the world champions and they would win this Major.

What do you think about the new map veto system?

The new map veto system was ideal for us as we always won coins and chose accordingly what to ban, so that was super for us.

What is your opinion about the group stage system?

The Swiss system is the coolest and the most ideal for our team because we never failed it and had always come out with a score 3-1 before but this time we came out with a score 3-0. I don’t know how it is for other teams like G2 that complain about the Swiss system but such way of running of a group stage is the best. There, you have to win everyone you meet and you don’t have to rely on the luck and to wait to face some weak team. If you want to win, you will have to win every one.

What do we have to expect from you further? What are your plans? At what tournaments will we be able to see you?

Teams take a vacation all over the world in August, so we are going to have a rest and to meet in Kiev at the bootcamp on August 6-7 and will be preparing for Malmö. DreamHack Malmö has become the first championship for us to be given an invite and you will see us only at the end of August.