- Hello, everybody!
I have the 1st resp on train.
What should I do?
- Go to the 6th platform.
- To the 6th, ok.
Now you all know it as well.
Hereís Sergey ëstarixí Ischuk, isnít he?
- He is
- Ok, and Iím Kirill ëANGE1í Karasiow.
Iíll interview Na`Vi captain.
Iíll ask a few interesting questions
and a few boring ones as well.
Starix, how do you find being a captain?
- Itís tough.
- Really?
- Extremely tough.
- Why?
- Firstly, I have a huge responsibility.
Secondly, I have to think over new tactics etc.
- But you donít have to prove to your teammates,
that this tactics will work, do you?
- Yes, I have to prove.
- So they donít believe you?
- Sometimes they do, sometimes they donít.
Itís a team. There are 5 different people.
- [off-screen voice] how did you benefit from it as a personality?
Which qualities did you gain?
- As for now I gained nothing.
Itís pretty early to think of it.
- Heíll know after the first fail.
- [off-screen voice] for how long have you been the captain?
For 2 months?
- For 2 months, yeah, but I doesnít mean that I lead every day.
- 2 working weeks?
- 2 weeks, smth like that.
- Ok, let us continue.
The next question is about your IEM preparation.
If I were you, my top-priority task would be
to get into playoff with the 1st place.
Thereís a big random.
1 map.
There are you and two other strongest teams in you group.
- According to which rating?
- According to my personal one.
- [off-screen voice] and my one as well.
- Ange1.rating.com
- Our group is indeed extremely strong.
I think itís a fail for organizers to create such a group.
I guess that the Poles donít deserveÖ
- [off-screen voice] To play with you?
- To participate in IEM in general.
There are certain rules and the team has to get the invite.
It has to compete, to be the top3 in one of the championships.
They didnít do a thing of it.
I think itís Carmac who is the Pole, helped them.
Itís unjust. Why the invitations were broke out
among these very teams?
They said ESL had its rating,
and they decided according to the rating.
Now the Poles and their fans are happy,
but what about the other players?
- [off-screen voice] do you consider them to be unworthy
to participate? Who deserves their place?
- I donít know.
Another qualifier should have been done.
The battle is to the strong.
Why didnít they take Russian Virtus.pro i.e.?
- Iím glad you had a discussion with Lesha,
but Iíd like you to answer my question,
is your practice special in any sense?
- No.
- As usually?
- Itís a usual championship.
It became usual for us, but the level is high.
They give $ 50 000 for the first place.
- Potential $ 50 000.
- No, they are real $ 50 000.
- Will they give the money?
- They will.
- [off-screen voice] information spreads that they start giving money?
- Yeah, little by little they start paying.
- Ok, I got it.
Did you decide which maps to pick and not to pick?
- Our choice is stable.
Nuke and forge
- [off-screen voice] are you practicing mirage?
Or is it as a reserve?
- What do you mean by reserve?
If we get into playoff, itís bo3 thereÖ
willy-nilly, but you have to play.
We play mirage and other default maps.
- I think your 5 maps are ok.
And what about tactics?
Smth new and special?
- What do you mean by ëspecialí?
Well, of course we are to surprise the competitor.
First of all weíll surprise on train and mirage.
Mirage is not battled out,
there are no stable tactics
so we can think over something unique.
Thatís what we do now.
- Itís smart.
Plus every attacking round is important.
Hltv.org released a review of A-group teams by lurppis.
He supposes you to get into playoff with the 1st place,
the Poles with the 2nd and SK with the 3rd one.
How do you estimate such a forecast?
Do you agree?
- I think itís his personal forecast.
I neither agree, nor disagree.
We have a very complicated group.
Iím at a loss myself.
Each team may win.
Anexis is a good middle-class player,
and they can show really good level.
They are top-1 in Denmark;
they practice a lot and want to win as well.
We also have TyLoo in our group,
no one can understand them.
They also have motivation.
- [off-screen voice] Lurppis gave them the 6th place.
- Itís hard to predict anything at all.
If we had only 2 strong teams in the group, that would be easier.
- Youíre right.
I remember I watched the Chinese playing at WCG against SK.
They lost 2-1, but the game was unbelievably complicated.
I saw them winning inferno, it was absolutely great.
- [off-screen voice] if Iím not mistaken, they are for the first time at IEM.
- Yeah.
Well, if we had bo3 in the group,
that would be easier to predict.
We play one map, and itís dangerous.
If you take the pistols and good device,
itís the half of victory.
- Yeah, one mapÖ
- You start attacking on de_train.
- You are losing 0-5.
You simply gave away one device and itís already 0-5.
- Itís not sweet.
Moreover you understand that you have 5 more strong teams to play with.
- By the way, I recently wrote a review of your game vs fnatic.
Why did you lose on de_train?
I knew you lost in attack and I knew that the score was 16-14.
When I watched you in attack I couldnít understand
how you managed to lose.
You were up 5-0 and what happened next?
Why did you lose?
- Firstly, itís because of you obvious fail in the defense.
We had equal game.
Then fnatic caught us at the valley for a couple of times.
Then they went to B slow.
They threw grenades to the upper and lower plant,
went out, eliminated the main defencer and
threw out the rest of grenades.
We couldnít do anything to stop them.
They won the game with 2 rounds.
We had total fail in these very rounds
ñ on the valley and on B.
- I got it.
- [off-screen voice] How do you estimate the readiness of the team as for now?
How many practice days do you have before the championship? 3 or 4?
- We are leaving on the 5th of March.
- [off-screen voice] So there are three days left.
How do you estimate the team according to 10-grading scale?
- Weíll see in three days.
- [off-screen voice] And now?
- We act step by step.
Today and tomorrow we play train and tuscan.
Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we play mirage and inferno.
We play all the main maps we need.
Weíve already practiced dust,
while tuscan, inferno and mirage are for future.
We have 3 maps to work on.
Itís hard to say anything,
as different teams play different maps.
If we get into playoff with the 2nd of 3rd place,
we are to play 3 maps with group B.
So if we now search teams for pracc,
the choice of maps is very slippery.
Each of the team realizes that we can meet at bo3.
- Are you trying not to play the maps
which are potentially to play against these teams during IEM?
- I have to tell you that very few teams want to play with us.
Neither the Poles, nor SK play with us.
We had 2 maps with fnatic.
All the rest of the games we play with middle teams.
Now itís hard to find pracc and competitor before IEM.
- There are two approaches.
One of them is not to pracc with your competitor
and the other one is to pracc with him as much as possible.
What is closer to you?
- It depends.
You can make test rounds to see their formation
and the way of playing. Or you can show
all your rounds and play against them in full strength.
Thereís a threat that they may be aware of all your game
if you turn to play against each other.
- I agree.
Thereís no point in playing against equal teams
or those who are weaker. While playing against stronger teams
youíll only benefit.
However in your situation itís very complicated
to find much stronger team.
- Look, i.e we play with SK,
whom we consider to be candidates for finals and semi-finals.
If we reveal some tactics,
they will definitely know how to stop us during the championship.
I.e. you play on inferno during the group stage.
You do pistols.
Then you play the second inferno.
You wonít repeat your pistols again.
- Of course.
- Then you get into playoff.
You meet SK in the semi-finals and play on inferno.
Their captain RobbaN may have watched all your previous demosÖ.
- I got it. Lesha signaled us to finish.
- Why?
- I donít know.
He thinks I stopped interviewing you and started chatting.
And now I give the floor to starix.
Any thanks?
- Guys, visit our forum.
You have a chance to win prizes from our sponsors,
such as SteelSeries, Antec and Zone51.
You can also win a pracc with us.
Thanks and see you on forum!
- Good luck.
-
Starix and Angel could not focus
on the last question and
here what it took to finalize the interview
Double 1
Double 2
Double 3
Double 4
Double 5