Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro is a support player for G2 Esports and a rising talent from the French CS:GO scene. He was hand-picked to join the French super team alongside Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and Richard "shox" Papillon, and the team will make it's LAN debut at the SL i-League Season 3 finals.

Ahead of his games in Kiev, bodyy answered questions from theScore esports about his rapid rise and the state of the team.

It’s been almost a year since you left LDLC.White and now you’re on a lineup with both shox and kennyS. Other than just deathmatch and team practice, how did you achieve this growth so quickly? What advice could you give to an up-and-comer?

This change since one year is still unbelievable to me. I became part of the two previous shuffles without knowing it (the previous G2 version and the actual one), making me play with all the best players in the French scene.

I guess what helped me achieve this growth so quickly is that since I’m playing competitively, I had really smart, motivating and helpful IGLs. They taught me things that I wouldn't have learn that quickly by myself.

The advice I could give to an up-and-comer is to work hard on yourself, play a lot, watch a lot of demos and focus on a role. Entry-fragger, B anchor or whatever, just something you focus on and you are really invested on. After that, give your best and show everyone what value you can give to a team.

You notably got props from both Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and Richard "shox" Papillon in their writeups for HLTV’s Top 20 players of 2016. Granted they may be a little biased as your teammates, but how did their recognition make you feel? Is there more pressure on yourself now?

It’s a great motivation to me to get the props from two of the best players in the world. I’m taking it at the opposite of pressure. I feel like they are trusting me and it’s giving me more of self-confidence.

Actually, I wasn’t teammates with Kenny when he wrote that, so it’s even better.

Another interesting factor for the roster change was SmithZz going from player to coach. How do you think he’s adapted to that role? How has he affected the team dynamic now that he’s coach?

I guess he’s adapted to that role pretty well, he always had a great view on what the team was doing and on what is better for the team to do.

It has been two months since he became coach and I can assure you that he is working really hard on our game in combination with shox and enkay [Niclas "enkay J" Krumhorn]. SmithZz is pointing every mistakes we are doing, a thing that we were not doing in the past, or with less conviction, and it's necessary if you want to improve.

I've never seen him that serious and he kind of scares me sometimes, mostly when I’m making mistakes.

Today a page turns in my life, it was a hard but well thought decision. I play since more than 10 years (cont) https://t.co/G0f5Ex8Im0 — SmithZz (@G2SmithZz) February 3, 2017

Unfortunately the team has not had the results that maybe many expected, so how have you guys adjusted? Are you guys trying to experiment different play styles and roles, or are you guys sticking to the same plan from the beginning and just trying to perfect it?

Yes we didn’t have the results expected at the beginning of the team, but I guess you can’t win immediately when you are change everything in your team. New players and new playstyles, you have to get to know everyone and adapt to them, even more as a support I would say.

I guess we are just following our plan, and correcting everything that we consider bad, and work on it to be as perfect as possible. I would say we have five players talented over that, we are really motivated, with a staff that is doing an incredible job to make sure we are sticking our plan and making it work.

I think it’s fair to say the players on the team can be fairly emotional, given that, how would you say the team deals with losses? What’s the team atmosphere like generally?

Hmm, I guess we heard the same things about players being emotional.

I was kind of scared because it was three players I never played with in a team, so I didn’t know how it was going to go, but to be honest, they are just fighters that have rage to win and are learning from their mistakes.

Obviously it’s not easy to lose, but you have to deal with it and make sure you are going to come back stronger. Generally, we just focus on the current match and give our best, trying not to show our emotions in the match. That could impact your confidence or your teammates’.

A big storyline from the ELEAGUE Major is Astralis’ usage of a sports psychologist. Is this something the team has considered?

We actually did this kind of meeting during our bootcamp in Berlin. It was a new experience for us and a really good surprise.

We didn’t know what kind of benefit it could procure us, but we just talked with him and he taught us things that you are not really thinking about. I guess it is all about self-confidence, how to just focus on the moment, not thinking about anything else and never doubting your competence.

You guys have/had a bootcamp in Berlin ahead of SL i-League S3 in Kiev, how has preparation been going? What are you looking forward to the most in Kiev?

The bootcamp in Berlin was a really good experience as well, we got to know each other better for a week, and it allowed us to work way faster than we could’ve over internet.

We are getting better and better as a team and I’m getting confident about attempting our first event. Most of the best teams in the world are going to attend this tournament, and it’s going to be our first real challenge to contest them.

Regarding our practices, I feel that we have nothing to envy to other teams, and with the Swiss format only the best teams goes through group stages, so we’ll figure out where we stand at that moment.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.