Janko "YnK" Paunovic: "The transition from observer to analyst was awesome."

We managed to grab hold of CS:GO match observer and analyst, Janko ''YNK'' Paunovic, prior to the day two semifinals and grand final at CounterPit League Season 2 LAN Finals, to get his opinion on various aspects of his job and CS:GO.

Aleksei: Hey guys Aleksei from GosuGamers here with Janko ''YNK'' Paunovic, one of the analysts here at CounterPit. How are you Janko?

Janko: Fine, it was a long day yesterday, managed to get some sleep and am ready for the final today.

Aleksei: You guys showed some quality entertainment last night.

Aleksei: How are you finding Split so far?

Janko: Split has been amazing, the hotel we're staying at is awesome and the city is very beautiful, so yeah, it's been pretty good.

Aleksei: From an organisational standpoint, do you think two days is sufficient time given the amount of matches?

Janko: I think the problem is trying to find a balance between having the games in the arena and also having enough games for the teams to play. I mean it's the playoffs, so obviously the schedule is going to suffer a bit. It's hard to find a balance, especially if you're unlucky with the games and they go to three maps, it gets a bit tight as we could see yesterday, but I'm sure next time they will keep this in mind, perhaps adding an extra day to the arena.

"Being behind the analyst desk is much more fun than just sitting behind the PC for the whole day and doing observing."

Aleksei: In terms of preparation prior to the event, what do you do?

Janko: Well it depends, for this tournament we had a couple of teams that we don't see too often, for example NRG eSports or Team Immunity, in which case I look up recent matches, maps they like to play, maps they like to veto etc. to get a good understanding of what to expect from them. As for tier one teams such as Virtus.Pro, Na'Vi and Astralis, we see them very frequently so I don't have to do specific preparation.

Aleksei: Prior to becoming an analyst you were an observer, how did you find the transition between the two roles?

Janko: It was pretty awesome honestly, because being behind the analyst desk is much more fun than just sitting behind the PC for the whole day and doing observing. I would say that observing is actually underrated because there are a lot of people who just want to watch the game, they don't care much for the commentating/analyst segment and so on, so for them observing is the most important thing, because the observer is the one showing all the action, much like a cameraman in sports. So yeah, I had a fun experience with my first venture into big events being behind the scene and working with production. I'm definitely enjoying the desk more right now.

Aleksei: Did you have any difficulties being in front of the camera when you started?

Janko: Not really, my first event was DreamHack: Stockholm, the qualifiers for Cluj-Napoca. At first perhaps I was a bit nervous, but I'm actually quite confident when it comes to what I'm talking about, so it wasnt that big of an issue for me.

Aleksei: You were a professional player in the past, do you ever feel nostalgia when watching live matches?

Janko: I do, especially because I'm still kind of young, I'm 23, so yeah at times I miss it. I miss the competition actually, more than anything else when playing at that level but it's hard because it's not an individual game, you need to find a team with four other guys that have the same ideas, aspirations, skill and sometimes that's really hard to do. I realised that and that's the main reason I became more focused on behind-the-scenes stuff.

Aleksei: Your job involves a lot of travel, it was recently announced that you will participate at MLG: Columbus as an observer and analyst, does the jet lag associated with travel ever get the better of you?

Janko: I'm still getting used to jet lag because I didn't have a lot of trips to the U.S or flights where there are 7-8 hour time differences. I have to say that ever since I got the Bose noise-cancelling headphones life became a lot easier, they are awesome, but the bigger problem for me is that I have to change at three places when getting a flight somewhere. Flying for 10 hours is not that big a deal for me, but when the travel takes over 18 hours it can get quite tiring. All in all I don't really mind it that much, in fact I've decided that when I travel to a cool location, I will either arrive a couple days early or stay a couple of days extra after the event to be able to explore the location, because most of the time we don't have time to walk around the city.

Aleksei: How do your close family/friends feel about your absence from home whilst travelling?

Janko: At first they found it pretty weird, being a cameraman for a computer game, but progressively as travel became more frequent they began understanding and accepting it. Most of my friends even say they envy me in a good way because I get to do what I love, basically my hobby, and can actually make a living out of it.

Aleksei: Do you have any other work-related activities outside of CS:GO?

Janko: I got my Bachelor's degree in Economics, I'm on my second year of Masters, but from the start of this year it's been pretty crazy with events so I'll have to see if I can finish that during the summer or take a semester off, but besides that not really, I'm currently focused on the work related to CSGO.



Aleksei: I hear you guys have some wild after parties, do you have any hobbies/interests outside of work?

Janko: I wouldn't call them wild, just grabbing a drink and winding down after work. Part of why travel is a fairly easy aspect of my job is because the talent pool we have for CS:GO is amazing, we all get along really well and that's not just a cliché, it actually makes the time you spend more enjoyable. I think it also reflects on our work, its part of the reason why our desks and the commentator pairs work, it enables us to do a better job because we know each other so well and how to work with each other. Of course we tend to have some fun but I wouldn't like to share that in an interview.

Aleksei: Fair enough.

Aleksei: Could you talk with us about the Balkan CS:GO scene?

Janko: What Balkan CS:GO scene? (jokingly) The problem is that it's all backwards here, as the game is getting more popular there are progressively less teams in the region. When I was playing, we were pretty much the only team in the region. I think we didn't even lose a map in at least two years to another team, simply because we were more dedicated and had a better work ethic, trying to reach the top level of play in the European/International scene. Other teams didn't take it as seriously. As for teams, we currently have E-frag from Bulgaria which is a pretty good team, they've had some upsets here and there, they managed to qualify for some events, most recently IEM Katowice, but the problem is, as I said at the start of the interview question, there's not a lot of talent putting hours into the game, the scene is not developed in the sense that there aren't a lot of LAN events to participate, which are required to liven the scene. The players need something to play for to make it more appealing for them. All in all the talent is present, however I feel they need to work on their work ethic.

"Honestly I'm interested in seeing NiP because they were looking much better online at the ESL Pro League."

Aleksei: Who do you think is the favourite for the CounterPit grand final?

Janko: Right now with Team EnVyUs out, I think either Na'Vi or Astralis. I can't really say which team exactly, as they havent faced each other too many times and it will probably be very close, but if I really had to say which team will win, I'd go for Astralis.

Aleksei: Not Na'Vi?

Janko: No, I feel Astralis are upping their form before the major, I think they will be a pretty serious contender there.

Aleksei: Speaking of majors, who is the favourite going into Columbus?

Janko: Obviously Fnatic, they're still the best team in the world, but I actually said at Katowice that I dont think they will win both Katowice and the major because they've won so many tournaments in a row and also because other teams are catching up slowly but surely. I think Luminosity Gaming will be a good contender, Astralis, as I already said. Honestly I'm interested in seeing NiP because they were looking much better online at the ESL Pro League, I have a lot of respect for Threat, it also seems that the players are actually listening to him and are implementing some new things, so maybe even NiP as a 'dark horse'.

Aleksei: From an analysts perspective could you give your opinion on why Fnatic seem to be so dominant compared to other teams?

Janko: I've recently started doing videos on YouTube, one of which is was on the topic of game sense. This is where I mentioned Fnatic as an example. I feel that one of the reasons why they are the best team right now is simply because all of their players are amazing individuals that have really good game sense and aim, which helps them work off of each other without much effort. They make it look easy because they don't go for elaborate strategies, anything really complex, but it's really hard to pull off because you need to have trust in your teammates, especially when it comes to the execution part, where you also have to hit your shots. These are the reasons as to why Fnatic are currently the best team in the world, any of their players can step up at a given point and carry the game.

Aleksei: Any shout outs?

Janko: Shout out to CounterPit for having me here, it's been fun so far and a shout out to my boys from the CS:GO talent pool.

Aleksei: Sound, thank you very much for the interview.

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