We caught up with Sam "⁠s0m⁠" Oh after Gen.G secured a semi-final berth at DreamHack Open Anaheim with a victory over Complexity in Group B's winners' match.

Gen.G began their first LAN event brightly by topping a stacked group featuring two of the three highest-ranked teams in attendance in Anaheim. The North Americans came back from a 5-13 deficit against ENCE in their opening game before securing a close win against Complexity to seal passage to Sunday's playoffs.

s0m says Gen.G practiced for 14 days straight ahead of Anaheim

In this interview, s0m discusses the team's preparation for the event and why they got off to such a rough start against ENCE and left it late to close out the game against Complexity. He also talks about how Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand's integration into the roster has gone so far and what the Indonesian star is contributing to the squad.

I'd like to start with the match you played against Complexity. It was a little back and forth, you struggled towards the second half there, so talk me through what happened at the end.

I think towards the end we were kind of losing it. We were scared to fight banana, we had watched their demos and we wanted to try to counter their control. But we noticed that it wasn't working, so we eventually just started going into our own banana takes and retakes and I think that's what really shut them off.

Going back to the opening match you had played against ENCE, you were playing really, really slowly on your T side towards the first part of the half and then you picked up the pace. Was that part of your game plan going in?

That was honestly LAN nerves, from everyone. We hadn't gone to a LAN in so long, so it was part LAN nerves and part figuring out how they play. It was a little bit of both, but once we start getting the groove and warming up on the CT side, that's when we knew we could bring it back.

Now you have BnTeT here, but while waiting for him you were playing with SicK for a little while as well. So what was the experience playing with him like as a stand-in?

With SicK we didn't really add anything as we knew he was also an opponent because he wasn't going to be our fifth. So we didn't teach him that much, he didn't teach us that much, and we both knew like he was just a stand-in, we were just playing to play.

I think the transition from SicK to BnTeT was an improvement by a lot in every way, basically. That's also because BnTeT comes from TYLOO, where he had a lot of experience as an IGL. So I think that really helped to polish our banana control.

Can you expand a bit more on what BnTeT has brought to the table, in practice and your team environment as a whole?

I play most of my sites with him, and he has brought a lot of things where I am more comfortable than ever on my bombsites and on the T side. He brings a lot of things for all players, but I think the best thing that he brings to the team is that he's a pretty funny guy. He likes to joke around, so it's good.

So the dynamic with you being the loud hypeman and BnTeT being the funny guy, has that helped bring up the morale in the team?

Yeah, so Tim and Kenny (autimatic and koosta) are usually calm, the quiet guys, and daps is just, you know, the mediator guy. Then BnTeT and I just hype everyone up before and during the game.

You were also on Envy for a pretty decent span of time. About a month ago, FugLy released a TwitLonger post about some of the issues he had on the team. Can you speak about your time on the roster?

They were honestly pretty normal towards me. The way things ended with FugLy and ANDROID, that didn't happen to me during my transfer to Gen.G. But I do feel bad for FugLy and ANDROID because that's definitely not how it should have been taken care of.

Other than that, I can't really think of any past experiences with Envy or Nifty.

When Gen.G came to you, how did the transfer came to fruition?

daps told me that he, Kenny and Tim were leaving to join another organisation and that he was looking to pick me up. I told him I was definitely interested.

The night after, it was like two weeks before our EPL LAN, I told Envy, "I got this offer and I'm really considering taking it and if the offer is final, I'm going to take it." They were all really supportive, so I think it was like a good ending for me.

Now you are through to the semi-finals, where you'll face the second-placed team from Group A. In terms of your general preparation, and also your potential opponent for the semi-final, how are you approaching that?

Honestly, in our last two games we really tried to counter a lot, but I think it's best for us to just play our game and really do our best instead of countering them.

When you say play your own game, your lineup is still pretty fresh, so can you expand a bit on what your own game entails?