Our final interview from the ROG Masters EMEA Finals is with Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev, with whom we talked about matters concerning the team's performances in Krefeld and their goals for the rest of the year.
Gambit earned a spot at ROG Masters 2017 after beating Singularity and Seed without dropping a single map, with the current Major champions then losing the final against MOUZ in a three-map series.
After the event, we caught up with the MVP of the Major to discuss the match against MOUZ, the team's approach to a final without prize pool, coach Andriy "Andi" Prokhorov's contribution since joining the team, and more.
mousesports usually do not play Overpass, but they picked it in the series you just played. What were your thoughts on having to play this map?
We feel great on Overpass, it might be one of our strongest maps, but today we did not play like we usually do. The final did not have any prize at all, so I think that in our minds we thought that it did not matter. We just tried to practice the maps that we wanted to get better on.
What were your thoughts when you realized that there was no prize?
We did not talk much about that, but we all knew in our minds that playing this final did not make sense. Yes, we wanted to win, of course, every team wants to win. But, once again, in our minds we knew that it did not mean anything.
Either way, you managed to qualify for the finals. How are you feeling right now?
I feel great, I love to play in Asia. I do not know, but I think that I might feel way more confident playing there. I mean… I like Asians [laughs], so I am really happy to go to Malaysia play this tournament.
Do you feel confident for that event?
Yes, of course. I want to win every tournament that we are going to attend. I know that there will be a lot of top teams there, and although I feel like we are not in our best shape right now, but we want to achieve our goal.
What will your next days be like, especially considering that you have EPICENTER coming up?
We are going to stay here in Krefeld for a week to do a bootcamp and prepare ourselves. We are going to fix our mistakes, especially the ones that we did today – there were a lot, a lot of mistakes. So, one week of preparation before EPICENTER, and then we will prepare for IEM Oakland.
Talking about mistakes, do you think that you did quite a few on Cobblestone?
On Cobblestone we did not play our game. We just tried some things that we had never tried before. Still, we have to change our minds, and we will keep working on it.
How do you feel about Andi and his addition to the team?
He is doing great. I really like how he works, he has brought a lot of stuff that we did not use to do. He has brought a lot of new combinations, but we still have to work on them. He is still a new guy, though, so he still needs time to adapt. Let's see in the future.
Do you remember anything in particular that he has brought to the team?
He is still trying to find out how we are playing right now. He wants to get to know everyone personally so that he can make some decisions after that.
But do you think that your game style might change from now on?
I do not know, but I am willing to change our game style if it means that we will be better. Of course that, if we want to improve, we definitely have to change some stuff. We will see.