NRG is looking to qualify for the StarLadder Major Legends stage as the team is participating the Major qualifier after winning the recent Americas Minor. With that in mind, Upcomer spoke to NRG's coach Chet "ImAPet" Singh regarding the recent addition of in-game leader Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz, the removal of Damian "daps" Steele, and how this has impacted the team.





Regarding the previous NRG lineup with Daps, you had some relatively consistent placements, finishing top 4, top 2, and even winning tournaments. What would you say was the biggest issue with daps as an in-game leader?





I guess the biggest issue was just individually. He was kind of playing a lot worse than he used too. He used to be fairly consistent,. He had a better form when we first started, but towards the end he kind of started dipping in form, and I'm not really too sure why. It might be because there was a lot changing in the team, like stylistically. Maybe we were making too many changes in-game wise. I think that the biggest issue was just individual form. I think that’s about it.





In previous interviews, you said stanislaw uses a different type of calling then daps. How would you say that the rest of the players are adjusting to the switch?





I think in this style, people have to be a lot more active, like a lot more involved. You know we are going to have to play a lot of high percentage CS, so it's going to require people to make calculated plays, and people are going to have to know every nade and know every smoke-flash so people can support each other. So, there is no one true support. Everyone can do it at any time. You don't have to lose map control if you need a support and stuff like that.





People just need to be ready for pretty much everything, and I think that is a good way to do it. It's like, a lot more consistent, and I think a lot of top teams are like that. Astralis, Liquid, maybe not so much ENCE, but those teams, you can clearly tell everyone pretty much knows everything. They are very versatile. So that's something we are aiming for.





Would you say you’re going for a more strategic play style than you did with daps?





I think we are just trying to get more of a mix because I think we are really good at being aggressive with daps. Like, daps set up a good system to be really aggro, but I think in that system it lacked consistency. It was a lot easier for top teams to read us, and it just didn't suit us long-term. We couldn’t build consistent results, so we are aiming for something a little slower, but with the aggression once in awhile.





Considering the lack of world-class in-game leaders in the North America region, did you ever think of attempting to replicate a previous system, such as Tarik in-game leading, like in the previous OpTic lineup?





We thought about it, and keeping daps on the team, but I don’t think that’s the best solution. I feel like daps was still IGL’ing really well, so we didn’t need to do anything drastic like that. The only thing that would sense is that, there was just really good timing where stan left compLexity and then we were able to grab him.





So that was like the only reason any of that happened. It was just good timing, otherwise we would probably have daps for the Major and for who knows how long. We might have given him a warning or something. There was just a lot of timing involved in these moves. The Tarik thing is a bit risky. We don’t really know how it works⁠—there’s just too much risk.





You mention how the timing had a big role in the choice of stanislaw, but did you look at any other players before stanislaw, or did you have anyone else in mind?





Never miss a moment in esports. Match notifications, latest esports news, and more. Get the Upcomer app now.

I think we had one other player in mind, which was RUSH. But I don't think that was serious or, I don't know, nothing really started from that it was just more like poking around to see if he may have been interested⁠—but nothing serious like it was with stan. The stan thing literally happened overnight, like 36 hours. Everything was just really fast.





You haven’t had as much time to practice as the other top teams like Liquid and Vitality with your new roster. What would you say is the biggest improvement you have seen now that you have stanislaw on the team?





I think the biggest improvement is play making. Just individually, I feel like people are a little bit looser right now, and maybe that's a good or a bad thing. But I think people are feeling like they are a little bit more freed right now, and hopefully we can find a good balance. I still think there is a lack of balance right now, but obviously we haven’t practiced as much, so It's going to come with time.





Like you said we have only had a week and a half of practice, so it's kind of rough, but we are making do. We still did decent at these events, definitely weren't expecting to win any of them, that's for sure. But, as long as we keep up the grind, I think we will find the balance and we will get a lot better.





With stanislaw coming into the team, was there any role changes?





We kind of kept everything a little bit the same. I don't think much changed on any maps. He kind of slotted to wherever daps was playing because we didn’t have a lot of time, and then we kind of adjusted from event to event and day by day. Not much changed, no-one got any roles changed. Just like i said previously, everyone is just a lot more versatile in terms of like supporting or entrying. We are making a system where people can do try to do a little bit of everything.





You have qualified for the StarLadder Major Main qualifier due to your win at the Americas Minor. Who would you say is the most challenging to play against in that upcoming event?





I think, honestly, there’s two teams who are really tough. AVANGAR is probably going to be a tough team because you don't really see them play too much, or I don't see them play that much, but I will try my best to prepare for that. Then, Vitality is also another team where they play really good T-sides. ALEX is doing a really good job⁠—it's hard to read them sometimes. So I think that team is a really tough opponent to make it to the next part of the Major.





As you are the second best team in North-America right now, what would you say is the best method to take down the first, Team Liquid?





I think just playing against Liquid, you have to play with confidence. All their players are just dripping in confidence right now. They are always getting multi-kills and taking risky duels. But, I think they still have a structure, and I think you can try to read them. They aren’t as hard to read.





Individually they are all really, really good and they have a decent system around them⁠—much better than they had the previous year. So, now they have a system and all these good players, it's a little bit harder to fight them. But I think once we build our system, then we will have more of a fighting chance than we did previously.





Where do you see your team performing in comparison to the best of the best in North America?





Performance wise, we are expecting to make it at least to the Legends stage, where people get the coin in their profile. It’s basically the last stage. We are expecting to get that far and lock ourselves for the next Major. We are still a new team, so it's going to all depend on our boot camp and how well it goes before the Major. If it goes really well, that's our goal, then we will see what happens, take it step by step.