gameinside interviewed interz

Gambit player Timofey "interz" Yakushin in an interview with gameinside.ua said that in the near future his team will try to strengthen the position among the leaders of the world ranking. The 20-year-old Russian believes that the squad will be able to prove their success at IEM Katowice 2021.

Let's go back to that wonderful day when you won the IEM! We've only seen individual videos, like instagram stories or something. Tell us more about how you celebrated. Who was the first person you called?

Well we got together and started talking about goals for this tournament and how it all worked out in the first place. Everyone was shocked. Then our general director, Kostya, came to us. Kostya bought some food, and we sat down to eat and continued to rejoice at our victory. He didn't call anyone, he responded more on social networks. First I wrote thank you, and then we called each other in the morning.

How did your conversation with your mom, with your family go?

They were all congratulating and happy, but they did not understand how big the tournament was, what a prize fund was, etc. But then I explained everything, saying that we had made history and they got even more excited.

What have you been doing for the last 3-4 days? I understand that you were resting.

Yes, we went home. And tomorrow we'll come back, but only me and sh1ro, we just have bad ping at home and can't play our next tournament. But before the ESL Pro League everything will be back.

What is your goal now, before you had to prove that you are higher than teer-2, and what is your goal now?

Our goal now is to establish ourselves in the top 5 of the world, because we worked hard for that and we can prove that we didn't shoot for a reason.

What is the key to your success? What's your special?

Our special was that we were cold-blooded, calm and well prepared for our opponent. We outplayed them in the mind games.

If you think back to the beginning of February, you could have lost FPP there, and IEM was the bottom set. At what period did you feel like you had outgrown it and were ready to win NAVI caliber teams?

Actually, FunPlus Phoenix has always been an uncomfortable opponent for us. We lost to them both in practice and in official games.

And the "level-up" itself happened after the Inferno match against Heroic. It is difficult to explain, we just started to play better.

Don't you think that you got lucky in the playoffs? Like now the CIS scene blew us away and as a result, you got a regular RMR tournament final in the final?

Quite the opposite. I think we were unlucky, because when we play RMR, it's harder for us to play than against the top European teams.

It's not even that we were lucky with the net. I believe that we would have beaten everyone we came up against!

Now after the win in Katowice, everyone looks at you as a tier-1 team. Do you agree with that?

Well, yes, I think we're a tier-1 team, we just don't have much practice against tier-1 teams.

Prior to Katowice, did you consider your team a tier-1 team?

It's hard to say, you can only think so ... I prefer to show strength in action, not in words.

After your win, a lot of people wrote that if you weren't online, you wouldn't have been able to do that. How do you feel about that?

I partly agree, because we have no experience at all against the draw 1 teams on LAN. Even the stats on HLTV show how little we have played against the top 10 teams in the world.

How do you rate yourself on LAN? How do you think you will perform in the offline format?

It's hard to say, we need to get used to LANs. I can definitely say that this format gives me a lot of energy and sometimes the thrill. Nothing is clear yet.

You do not feel pressure from the community? Simply, if you fail at the next tournament, everyone will write that you were just lucky, etc. How do you feel about this?

Personally, I don't feel any pressure, because I understand that we have to keep working. And this victory is just the fruit of our work.

I've seen your group at ESL Pro League, what do you think of that death road?

It's okay, I think it's a passable group. I haven't really watched the other groups, but ours should be fine.

In the group you will play against NAVI once more, in the past you have good statistics with the Ukrainian club. You have won them at RMR tournament and at IEM, of course. What is the secret of playing against them?

NAVI is the team that doesn't adapt to their opponent, but keeps playing their game - and their game isn't especially complicated. If they have "rush" on the map, they will perform it, if they've never had it, it will never happen.

They have everything going on in the middle timing or already at the end.

Honestly, I've always been skeptical of Gambit since you've been playing together for over 2 years. And I always heard that they were about to get that moment when they would shoot, but nothing ever happened. Did you have any thoughts of sprawl? Or did you always go all the way?

I think the guys had no such thoughts. There was a crisis when Abay just arrived. But then things changed quickly and we became a good team. The problem that it took us so long to prove ourselves was that we didn't play enough matches against the top teams.

What's the most important thing about the role of a support? Few people want to be TACO, everyone wants to be a second s1mple. What attracts you to this role?

I didn't want to become a sideline player intentionally, it was our coach who mixed it up. And he was looking to see who was best suited for what role in terms of character and style of play. And it so happened that I got that role.

Do I understand correctly that you are a team that listens to the coach? Do you think that this format has a future?

It seems to me that here, as in any other sport, if the coach said that winter - then it's winter, even if it's summer. Because there has to be one person in charge of the team.

The coach is in charge here, and the captain is already behind him. I think that behind this future, as, for example, FaZe Clan, in which anyone could call a round, but it's not very good. After all, it's possible that you never come to a common solution, and a lot of time spent on arguments.

Even if you do something wrong, but together, you might make it work.

In September there was a huge scandal with banning many coaches in CS:GO, including yours, Ivan "F1_N" Kochugov. How did that situation affect you?

At first we were very upset, but then Kostya (Konstantin Pikiner - CEO of Gambit and a roster coach) said that F1_N wouldn't quit and we calmed down. Especially since Kostya's been taking part in trainings. We also continue to work and talk with Vanya: we`re like a big family, he`ll provide us with analytics.

After Ivan stopped appearing in the teamspeak during the match, did it make anyone talk more?

Nafany started to talk more at first. But then Kostya came and took this space for himself.

In fact, Kostya is a genius, he didn't play CS: GO or LoL. But despite this, he came up with a lot of brilliant things for us.

Kostya often explains to us how to do it, as well as F1_N in his time, because they spent a lot of time in CS 1.6.

6 player system has become very popular lately. Have you considered it? What do you think of it?

I can't tell you exactly how it works. It seems to me that it's getting harder to play in general with 6 player. After all, you have to get used to the person all over again, and you have to play something.

Blitz! What card would you change in the map pool and why?

Probably it would be Mirage because it hasn't been changed in a while. Maybe something should be added there, a tunnel for example. We need to get the meta changed there.

How much does your inventory cost and what is your favorite skin?

The inventory costs around 3000$. My favorite skin is the Fade bowie. Also in the conditional top 3 would be the AK-47 "Empress" and the Deagle "Flame".

The most unbalanced weapon in the game?

Let it be the Zeus, because it costs $400. For such a small price you can kill a guy in one fell swoop and take it away.

Where do you want your prizes from IEM to go?

Nothing so far, I'm saving for my dream apartment!

Origin: gameinside.ua