Following Gambit's victory over Renegades, we caught up with Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev to hear about the games they played at the event so far.

The Kazakhstani-Russian side opened up the event by playing TYLOO, losing the game after overtime, before recovering on day two with a 16-10 over Renegades.

AdreN feels like mir still needs to build his confidence up in Gambit

In our post-match interview with AdreN, we discussed the slow start, the approach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy is bringing, and the reasons why Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov is not performing up to his Vega Squadron standards.

Playing TYLOO yesterday, that was a game of momentum I feel like, they started well, you made a comeback and then they closed it out. What was the dynamic of that game from your point of view?

First of all, we started on the T side and it was a terrible T side from us, we didn't do what we prepared from the beginning. When the game got rolling we felt like TYLOO had the game on the CT side, we didn't know how to break it down at that moment. But we managed to win five rounds and that was ok for us, we knew that our CT side was much stronger than our T side.

Playing on CT, everything was good for us, for the first time in the game, and after that, each player did one mistake that cost us one round. It was around four players that did a mistake, costing us four rounds, and it broke down our economy. We shouldn't be doing these kinds of mistakes because we are professional players, you can normally only see these mistakes in matchmaking (laughs).

How do you approach fixing that issue, so it doesn't happen in the future?

We just talked after the game, watched our demo and said "It's unacceptable to play like this in these situations. Just focus, don't think about the win because we didn't win yet."

Coming into the veto for the game against Renegades, you got Train. Was that what you were aiming for, it feels like a comfortable map for you guys?

We knew that we were going to play Train or two other maps, we didn't know how they were going to veto exactly, but we were 60% sure that it was going to be Train. The game was as we expected, they played as we prepared, so everything went well for us.

So you prepared for them, what did you see in your game style that you figured was their tendency, that you were prepared for?

We just knew how they like to get territories, like if they get this territory, then they have weaknesses at these territories, so we just played towards the other site.

It was a good map for you guys even though, in the end, you had a couple of sloppy rounds. Was that similar to the TYLOO game where you lost focus?

Yeah, we lost focus on one round, after that we just relaxed, said "OK guys, that was a bad mistake, let's just focus right now, play our game, don't think about this round, just take it easy and let's win". And it worked.

We shouldn't be doing these kinds of mistakes because we are professional players, you can normally only see these mistakes in matchmaking Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev

Tell me about B1ad3 and having him behind you guys. What does he add and how is it to play with him? You had coaches before, but this is someone who is very in-depth with the game, knows the game very well.

When B1ad3 joined us, he definitely brought a new game style, so right now we are in transition, changing our game style, it is hard for us to play to our100%. We are still figuring out how to play his style, compared to our style. It is kind of hard, we need more time to adapt. But I believe that the kind of game style that he will be huge for us.

mir is in your team now, back in Vega Squadron he was a star player, a very exciting player to watch, and in Gambit he didn't really find his groove yet. What do you think he needs to perform to the level he did in the past? Is it something about his role, confidence...?

It is all about his mental stuff, his confidence. He definitely needs to gain more confidence, playing tournaments, winning tournaments or something. I know myself that after you win a tournament you have a lot of confidence and you play much better than you do when you are always losing. At this point, the first thing for him is to gain more confidence, that is his big problem. He is a good player, he can be a beast, but he just has mental blocks right now.

So you think that you as a team need better results, so after that, he would feel more confident in general?

We are trying to fix that, but it is all about the results, maybe, I don't know... every player is different, for example, I personally am not the guy that has to win to be confident. I'm the guy that is bringing the confidence in the games. Every player is different, we don't know exactly how to help him at this point.

At this point, the first thing for mir is to gain more confidence, that is his big problem. He is a good player, he can be a beast, but he just has mental blocks right now. Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev

Talking about the in-game leading, we had an interview with B1ad3 and he explained that you have a general concept about how you want to play, what you want to do, but at some point, someone has to make a call and decide. Who is doing that right now?

Right now, it is me and Hobbit who are trying to make the mid-round calls. Because we have a plan for the beginning of the game, after that we need to mid-round call, call in clutch situations or mid-game. So we are trying, me or Hobbit, whoever is feeling that drive, whoever is feeling the game, he is calling.

More interviews from the FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage:

More interviews from the FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage: