EPT
So I’m here with kennyS, from Team EnVyUs who unfortunately were eliminated in the group stage 0-2. I’ll start with your last match against Mousesports. We felt some nervosity at the beginning of the match, and this knife... Then you got into the game. you started chaining rounds, but at some point chrisJ and denis completely turned the table and from then on, mouz were in complete control of the game. How do you approach a team like mouz that has a superstar, NiKo, and some players that are more of a question mark when it comes to showing up in games?
Like you said, it’s not NiKo that gave us issues, it’s chrisJ and denis, especially on their CT side. Overall, I’d say that the issue is that despite our acceptable T side, we couldn’t manage to string the rounds on the CT side and get on a good economic cycle. I think that was a big weakness in this match. Then, we are confident in our CT side but we don’t have that many setups and we couldn’t adapt to them. On the other hand, they actually anti-strated us a lot; they knew exactly what we were doing, what positions we were playing. At this point we haven’t been able to adapt to this, especially on the B bombsite. I think adaptation and the fact we couldn’t stack up rounds are key in losing that match.
Coming back on the results at this major, you lost two times on Train. There’s the scorelines and how it looks like but what do you think about it? Is there something more to it?
As everyone knows, we’re in a big slump. Then, from the major qualifier to E-League, the team showed a new face, especially in the E-League. So it’s quite the incomprehension for that major. The fact we’ve been beaten that hard, there’s a lot of criteria that come into play, some I will not disclose. I think there was the pressure. We came into the tournament as underdogs but we didn’t go into it with that mindset. What’s to take away from the tournament is that this should absolutely not be done again. We should avoid doing everything we’ve done. I think there’s 95% of bad, and 5% of good that we can keep but the rest is just waste.
Indeed, you’re going through a slump, but in E-League, you win your group. It looked like you were climbing back. Did you enter the major with a great deal of confidence?
To be honest, I was personally very confident as the major approached. We had a difficult group, but that was okay. This wasn’t the group of death. The thing is, and you mentioned the right example here with E-League, we were led 7-0 in the grand finals of the group against Virtus.Pro on Train and our reaction was to keep calm, and then we managed to come back. Here instead, we led against Team Liquid 5-0, and the more we won the rounds, the more we were excited, and communication started to worsen. That’s not logical. Basically, the more you’re dominated, the more you panic, though it’s not the good reaction of course. The more you lead, the more calm you are. That wasn’t the case here.
So an emotional reaction that wasn’t the correct one given how the match unfolded.
Exactly, I think the pressure created a chain reaction that completely put us down.
Understood. Now let’s focus a bit more on you personally. The team got out 0-2, but you still showed very good games even in defeat. You showed some great stuff in E-League as well. Recently we feel like we’re seeing a more in form kennyS than some time ago and it reminds a bit of Titan, when you were pulling the team upwards, creating the dynamics of the team. How do you explain that?
That’s true. First of all, we have a more free form kind of play. When things go wrong, I’m taking my responsibilities. Then, to trace that you must go back to the AWP nerf at the beginning of 2015, where in fact the AWP hasn’t been nerfed but I’ve been nerfed [laughs]. For me, people see me in the 2015 season like I was in 2014, and they’re right, that’s the level I have and I must have. On the other hand, I went into EnVy in a secondary role. I still managed to achieved a decent 2015 season, at least I think so. I had to adapt to a different game cycle, I had to adapt to a lot, lot of things, and I’m not sure a lot of snipers would have made the same thing. So I’m actually building some confidence back. Then to win in that kind of matches where nothing goes right… What I can do is try to carry my team to victory, but the root problem stays the same. It’s still a team game.
At the team level in fact, we see that in 2016 you have tried to do a lot of changes, first swapping kioShiMa for DEVIL, then tried to have NBK lead. Then Happy came back to leading, and now you have DEVIL. It feels like you’re trying to find a formulae, to find that sparkle that will ignite the team again. Do you have other changes planned?
For now, to be honest, the truth is that we’re out of the tournament, and we haven’t talked about it at all yet. It’s still really broad, really vague. And it’s true that when the team loses you’re forced to try some new things. Generally speaking.
So after this major, and a later debriefing, are you still confident for the future if you can take away the good lessons from this major?
Right now… yes that’s how things work in theory, but confidence doesn’t just come from talking about it. Then we have a week off afterwards. We have the E-League afterwards. We will have a debriefing and we’ll see after E-League.
Alright, that’s all for me, any last word?
Well, thanks for this interview, and that’s pretty much all. [laughs]
Interviewer: ragnarork
CSS: FO-nTTaX
Graphics: DearDave
Photos: HLTV.org
Like you said, it’s not NiKo that gave us issues, it’s chrisJ and denis, especially on their CT side. Overall, I’d say that the issue is that despite our acceptable T side, we couldn’t manage to string the rounds on the CT side and get on a good economic cycle. I think that was a big weakness in this match. Then, we are confident in our CT side but we don’t have that many setups and we couldn’t adapt to them. On the other hand, they actually anti-strated us a lot; they knew exactly what we were doing, what positions we were playing. At this point we haven’t been able to adapt to this, especially on the B bombsite. I think adaptation and the fact we couldn’t stack up rounds are key in losing that match.
Coming back on the results at this major, you lost two times on Train. There’s the scorelines and how it looks like but what do you think about it? Is there something more to it?
As everyone knows, we’re in a big slump. Then, from the major qualifier to E-League, the team showed a new face, especially in the E-League. So it’s quite the incomprehension for that major. The fact we’ve been beaten that hard, there’s a lot of criteria that come into play, some I will not disclose. I think there was the pressure. We came into the tournament as underdogs but we didn’t go into it with that mindset. What’s to take away from the tournament is that this should absolutely not be done again. We should avoid doing everything we’ve done. I think there’s 95% of bad, and 5% of good that we can keep but the rest is just waste.
Indeed, you’re going through a slump, but in E-League, you win your group. It looked like you were climbing back. Did you enter the major with a great deal of confidence?
To be honest, I was personally very confident as the major approached. We had a difficult group, but that was okay. This wasn’t the group of death. The thing is, and you mentioned the right example here with E-League, we were led 7-0 in the grand finals of the group against Virtus.Pro on Train and our reaction was to keep calm, and then we managed to come back. Here instead, we led against Team Liquid 5-0, and the more we won the rounds, the more we were excited, and communication started to worsen. That’s not logical. Basically, the more you’re dominated, the more you panic, though it’s not the good reaction of course. The more you lead, the more calm you are. That wasn’t the case here.
So an emotional reaction that wasn’t the correct one given how the match unfolded.
Exactly, I think the pressure created a chain reaction that completely put us down.
Understood. Now let’s focus a bit more on you personally. The team got out 0-2, but you still showed very good games even in defeat. You showed some great stuff in E-League as well. Recently we feel like we’re seeing a more in form kennyS than some time ago and it reminds a bit of Titan, when you were pulling the team upwards, creating the dynamics of the team. How do you explain that?
That’s true. First of all, we have a more free form kind of play. When things go wrong, I’m taking my responsibilities. Then, to trace that you must go back to the AWP nerf at the beginning of 2015, where in fact the AWP hasn’t been nerfed but I’ve been nerfed [laughs]. For me, people see me in the 2015 season like I was in 2014, and they’re right, that’s the level I have and I must have. On the other hand, I went into EnVy in a secondary role. I still managed to achieved a decent 2015 season, at least I think so. I had to adapt to a different game cycle, I had to adapt to a lot, lot of things, and I’m not sure a lot of snipers would have made the same thing. So I’m actually building some confidence back. Then to win in that kind of matches where nothing goes right… What I can do is try to carry my team to victory, but the root problem stays the same. It’s still a team game.
At the team level in fact, we see that in 2016 you have tried to do a lot of changes, first swapping kioShiMa for DEVIL, then tried to have NBK lead. Then Happy came back to leading, and now you have DEVIL. It feels like you’re trying to find a formulae, to find that sparkle that will ignite the team again. Do you have other changes planned?
For now, to be honest, the truth is that we’re out of the tournament, and we haven’t talked about it at all yet. It’s still really broad, really vague. And it’s true that when the team loses you’re forced to try some new things. Generally speaking.
So after this major, and a later debriefing, are you still confident for the future if you can take away the good lessons from this major?
Right now… yes that’s how things work in theory, but confidence doesn’t just come from talking about it. Then we have a week off afterwards. We have the E-League afterwards. We will have a debriefing and we’ll see after E-League.
Alright, that’s all for me, any last word?
Well, thanks for this interview, and that’s pretty much all. [laughs]
Interviewer: ragnarork
CSS: FO-nTTaX
Graphics: DearDave
Photos: HLTV.org
