By Taras Bortnik

Special to VPEsports

Chris “chrisJ” de Jong and his mousesports teammates came into the StarSeries i-League Season 6 Finals having won ESL One: New York and are currently 2-0 at StarSeries. chrisJ spoke with VPEsports after their second round win against Cyberzen.

Before the tournament started, it looked like you are total favorite here, but that first match turned out to be a little tougher than expected. Do you have any thoughts about it?

I think the whole team came into this match and we started really focused, doing our best to not give them any chances. We ended the first half with 12:3 score which is definitely convincing. After that we might have been a bit overconfident or maybe too comfortable and let them get back into the game. They played really good as well. They made it hard for us and I think it’s good for us to start a tournament like this. Now we will wake up a bit.

The first match reminds me of your loss in Atlanta to QBF, when they completed that epic comeback. Is there something wrong with Train?

Honestly, I think our train is very good, especially our CT-side, but our T-side is so reliant on winning the pistol round to get a good start. So we lost pistols and then didn’t have smokes or molotovs. It just makes it a lot harder to play like this when you practiced a lot and feel really comfortable in execution. If you want to do it perfectly, you need every molotov, every flash and we just didn’t have them. I think we had exactly same as against QBF. If we don’t get a good start, it becomes difficult for us to get back into the game.

I think we can agree on paper Sprout is not the strongest team here. Aren’t you afraid that you will be knocked out because of your confidence?

No, we are never afraid of that. Even in New York we had some really tough matches against not top-5 teams. But in matches we never give up, doesn’t matter if we are behind or if the enemy team is rallying. We are always ready to show our best when it matters the most.

You’ve just checked into the hotel a day before the tournament. How much preparation did you get in for this event?

We just got back from New York and had to play EPL and ECS matches, so we put some preparation into that. Not so much about this tournament. Not so much for this event, but I feel like we never really prepared specifically for this tournament. We just try to practice on maps which we think we are going to play against our first opponent. That is what we did this time too.

Many top teams refused to take a part in this season of StarSeries. What are your thoughts on that?

First we also decided to not come here. But then some others teams cancelled and we were like ‘Okay, why not go to StarSeries?’ We know this tournament, we know that hotel is very close to the arena and in general it’s kind of relaxing to play here, because you don’t have anything to worry about. Everything is organised very well. We have already been here twice, so we know what to expect. Also it’s Europe, so there is no big time difference, which is hard when you travel to America or others sides of world.

Let’s speak a bit about your championship in New York. What did you think?

I’m not sure. Sunny said in an interview that the moment we knew we would win was in the match against fnatic when we make that big comeback. We were very close to losing on the second map. I think this is certainly true, because in that moment we really started to believe in each other again and people started to not be frustrated anymore. So we just started to fight and didn’t worry about mistakes. We made some, but we are not in our best shape even yet. We didn’t feel super good with that line-up, but if we fight, everybody fighting together, so we can really beat teams.

ESL One New York started very close to FACEIT Major so many teams which you faced in NY were in London as well. You guys took an 0:3 on a Major, but on the other side – fast. So you had time to rest and practice.

We had one more week than teams who were in the playoffs so I think it helped us for sure. I mean, we are obviously disappointed with our Major performance, but it was like, ‘Okay, it’s not the end of the world, we can show a way better side, If we practice hard this week’. Actually, I told my team immediately after we got 0:3 that we can win New York! And that’s what we did. We tried to give our all even though we were frustrated because Major is the main tournament where you want to show your best. But ESL One New York is still a big tournament, it means something.

After your amazing ace with the AWP, many people voted for you as MVP. What were you thinking at that moment?

I wasn’t even thinking! After I completed the ace I just said, ‘Come on guys! Let’s fucking win it!’ I just want to win the tournament for my team. But it doesn’t matter for me if I’d made ace or somebody else.

That moment shows that you’ve got a perfect balance between your responsibilities of IGL and player. Many others IGLs struggle to do that, so what’s your secret?

Well, it’s not a secret. Over the years I just became hungry and wanted to win even more. I just try to do my best. I try to realize what is the best move and execute it. No matter if it works or doesn’t I’ll always give my best.

Regarding the Major, First, I want to ask you about Snax. It became known, that FACEIT Major was the worst tournament for Janush according to individual statistics. Did you think about doing some roster changes again? Why did you decided to keep the line-up with no changes?

It’s not fair to judge someone’s performance when everybody didn’t play the best they could. It’s hard to step up when the rest of the team is so out of control. None of us had a good tournament, except maybe SuNny who had positive stats. So we just felt that Snax needed more to reach his top-form again. And we saw that improvement. In tough matches, we saw that he’s making more quality moves. Obviously in the Major he wasn’t good, but nobody played good at all. Snax had his good moments against FaZe and also in New York. We don’t lose trust in our teammates so fast. We made this decision to get him and we believe that this gonna work.

Have you restored your chemistry between players to full capacity?

After the victory in New York the team feels way better now.

Looking back to the beginning of the previous season I see a parallel. After the ELEAGUE Boston Major you claimed the StarsSeries’s trophy and V4, but your results got worse with time. How will you not repeat the old mistakes and keep that positive momentum with the team?

I think it’s going help that we’ve been in same situation before. I think we learn how to stay hungry after the win and to keep fighting. Because maybe it’s like an easy tournament because that there are not a lot of top teams here. You still need to give everything and I hope we will continue working hard. And I think Snax is going to help there because he won a lot with VP and he knows how to keep winning.

It seems that you guys have a very good habit of beating teams on their homeland. How do you do it?

I think it’s because we don’t have a home country at all. Everybody comes from different places. So we used that crowd is against us. I think that my teammates and I feel better when people are cheering against us, because it adds some extra energy. I think we like it now. We like to make crowd quite.

What is your goals for new season?

With Styko we were in top-2 HLTV rating once. And we made this change for becoming a best team, to play in all finals and win a lot of tournaments.

To become the best team in the world you have to deal with Astralis. Do you have any thoughts about how to throw the Danish beasts off the throne?

They are really good. I like their teamplay which is on point. They seem to keep their motivation and all of the players are playing good. They use grenades very well. So to beat them, you have to understand how to play clearly, so that’s what we are trying to do now.