(Photo: ESL)

By Taras Bortnik

Special to VPEsports

With the IEM Katowice 2019 CS:GO Major in full effect, we had the chance to catch up with AVANGAR’s Aidyn “krizzen” Turlybekov while his squad competed in the Legends stage. AVANGAR currently sits in the 2-2 pool alongside Vitality after a defeat at the hands of Natus vincere earlier today.

The first half of the interview comes from the Challenges stage while the latter (part 2/3) comes from after the teams loss to Team Liquid in the Legends stage and following their victory over FaZe Clan. You can read the full interview below:

VPEsports: That is the first time you are among 16 best teams at the Major. What emotions and experiences were there when you went through the New Challengers Stage?

krizzen: It seems to me that this was our minimum task, because the previous time we stopped a step away from New Legends Stage. And this time we expected such a result from ourselves. Now we have a new goal – to become Legends. This result will not disappoint us.

VPEsports: In the ranking you were placed 15th. Do you agree with this position? How do you position yourself relative to other teams?

krizzen: We are able to defeat any team. We are now in good shape, and strongly motivated to win. We have no problem with morality. The fact that we were located in 15th place did not come as a surprise to us. In fact, we are not very comfortable to play from this position, but this is a great experience and in any case, to gain a foothold in the world top – you need to play with other top teams. But we are not worried about the fact that we will need to play with strong opponents, because to win the Major you need to win everyone.

VPEsports: In the first matches at the Major you, as I personally think, were not like the team that won the CIS Minor. Is it just my speculation, or was there really a similar place to be?

krizzen: The first games against Renegades and FURIA were difficult because we were very tight. Our movements on the map were constrained. This is a Major, and I’m not ashamed to admit that initially there was a certain fear of be knocked out. But during the tournament, we brought our shape back, along with it fear went away, and everything turned out well.

VPEsports: Between the Minor and the Major you had a sponsorship tournament – ICE Challenge. How much did that influence the preparation?

krizzen: Immediately after the CIS major, we rested a bit, fitch dealt with documents to England, so we didn’t practice much. A week before the London tournament, we actively sat down trained to the very championship. But on the tournament, as it seemed to me, we played poorly. Nevertheless, it was an excellent experience of playing on a LAN with strong teams, and I believe that participation in the tournament had a positive effect on us, as a team. Of course, it was a little disappointing for the defeat, but we learned our lessons.

For us, as for tier-2 team of this major, the ICE Challenge was useful in terms of gaining experience. But for Na’Vi, he was hardly as helpful. But these are just my assumptions, of course.

VPEsports: After London, did you come to the bootcamp again?

krizzen: Yes. Up until the beginning of the Major, we played all the time, we didn’t even leave the house!

VPEsports: During the first game against Renegades, your team performed more like a shadow of itself…

krizzen: Both we and they showed a bad game. This was the first Major game, the Australians did a lot of mistakes, we, as I said, played very tight. Everyone could see it. The outcome of the map was determined by the beginning of the game, when we constantly had a mess with the rounds. There were a lot of mistakes on both sides, but we did more mistakes, and it cost us the victory.

VPEsports: Were you upset after the defeat?

krizzen: On the contrary. After this game I felt that we would go to the next stage. I had no doubt that we could not do it. After the defeat, we talked to each other, supported. After all, this is a Major, who said it would be easy?

VPEsports: How did the experience of last year’s failures help you advance in this tournament? What have you changed in your approach?

krizzen: We can say that now we are a completely different team. We have added many things of a global plan: improved team chemistry, teamwork. Yes, and the experience gained, there were a lot of tournaments and we realized a lot of things for ourselves.

VPEsports: How do you like the new ELO seeding system?

krizzen: Let’s begin from the fact that I welcome more bo3 matches – now the results will be much less random. Regarding the sowing system, I have a few questions. Here were ViCi Gaming, which because of the lowest place had to play with Fnatic, NiP, NRG, Cloud9 and Vitality. This is not entirely fair, as for me. And here we were playing with FURIA, Renegades – teams that are nominally weaker than the same Swedes.

VPEsports: fnatic has been knocked out. Was it unexpected for you?

krizzen: Very, I did not expect this at all. I didn’t really follow their performance, but it seems to me that the matter is in the draft maps for matches. For example, they played against Winstrike on Train – and this is their strongest map. Unclear.

VPEsports: Advancing to the next stage, you played against TyLoo. Was this match any different in terms of preparation for it?

krizzen: We knew that we will definitely play Cache and Inferno. This is very obvious. The game plan was simple – to play as reliably as possible, verified, not relying on the opponent’s mistakes. It was very noticeable that with the arrival of Johnta, the Chinese began to play better in terms of gaming tactics and rotations on the map, there were some moments in which TyLoo behaved like HellRaisers. If I’m not mistaken, they began to play on the B-site with the AWP, as woxic does. Someone at the tournament here would say that they were preparing for the Chinese on the HR demo.

VPEsports: Clutch situations with your participation deserve a separate remembrance.

krizzen: I was shocked. Starting from 15:5, all rounds shocked me. We thought that if we always will rush B, then sooner or later we will win a single round. We have never been so wrong (laughs). Therefore, in the last two rounds, we attacked A. After I lost the clutch against three players, I became very angry and said: “F*** it, I’m going to kill them”

VPEsports: Ending was emotional?

krizzen: I was really wasted.

VPEsports: But AVANGAR, after all, is different from other teams with philosophy of composure in the game. What has changed this time?

krizzen: It was just too much to hold inside. We were on the verge of a comeback.

VPEsports: Tell us more about this philosophy.

krizzen: It’s simple, this is in order not to make mistakes in the rounds. When adrenaline rises, it can happen that in a round you will be too out of focus. We went through this at the tournament six months ago in New York. After it, we agreed that we would no longer scream constantly and show emotions.

VPEsports: You are, in fact, the second team from the CIS in a Major, joining HellRaisers. Do you feel any pressure, need to prove your strength to all?

krizzen: It happens sometimes. In the first games on the Major, there was definitely something similar.

VPEsports: Your first opponent in the Stage of Legends – Liquid. What do you think about their new lineup?

krizzen: Strong. The previous one was also good, but with this they have already won a tournament. Their weakness in the absence of a sniper. Due to the similarity of our mappool in bo1 it is comfortable to play with them. And in bo3 too. Plus, we played with them in training, three or four times for sure.

PART 2:

VPEsports: So, what went wrong in the match with Liquid? At one point you had the advantage…

krizzen: The map was convenient for us, but first we lost the thread for the game, and then we had to comeback. There were some unpleasant moments with lost force rounds, pistol round, but after we took the lead in the score 12:9, the real problems appeared and we struggled to solve them quickly.

VPEsports: The victory over the NRG also did not come easy to you. You almost gave away the comeback again.

krizzen: We knew it would not be easy. On Overpass, I played against Cerq a long time ago, and even then he played well for CT side. The very nature of the game reminded our match up with TyLoo. It is good that we managed to gather strength and bring the map to the happy end.

VPEsports: Do you think that you spent too much time on that boost near T-respawn?

krizzen: We tried it several times in training, but it was 2-3 weeks ago, so it did not work out a bit. I don’t quite understand why this time there were so many problems with it.

PART 3:

The opponent of AVANGAR on the second day of the Major group stage was the FaZe Clan – one of the favorites of the Katowice tournament. But despite the status of their opponent, the team from Kazakhstan was able to upset FaZe fans, coming close to the decisive match for reaching the playoffs of IEM Katowice Major 2019. There was almost no time left after the match, but Krizzen still gave us a few minutes:

VPEsports: What is the secret to defeating FaZe Clan?

krizzen: They are a comfortable opponent for us, we often train with them lately. They are treated differently than with the same MIBR, or Astralis.

VPEsports: Why is this? Anything to do with AdreN?

krizzen: No, the whole thing is exclusively in the game style of FaZe, which suits us. The fact that AdreN plays in this team does not put a hype or spice into match up, or something like that. In addition, the games of the first day ended rather late, and we were not fully aware of the opponent. The name of our opponent was found somewhere around 1 AM and there was no time left for preparation.

VPEsports: Now you’ll play only bo3 matches with top teams ahead. Ready?

krizzen: It is hard to say. And what can I say? We have to win.