slaxejezzz on dastan: "In-game, he might push a bit. But in life, he’s a fun guy, a kind one"

PARIVISION's latest starlet got exactly what he expected from his new head coach.

Vyacheslav "⁠slaxejezzz⁠" Vinokurov arrived in XSE Pro League having already built a reputation among anyone who watched him destroy his opponents as part of PsychoFace.

The 18-year-old posted a 1.25 rating in the first six months of this year, enough to earn a spot on PARIVISION as he looks to test his mettle against some tougher opposition.

Having declined offers from Spirit Academy and VP.Prodigy among others, slaxejezzz's decision has been validated by earning his chance at a top 20 team so early in his career.

His adaptation may take time — he called it "hard at first" and a "completely different mindsent" — but he has been given most of his roles and can now learn from Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev and Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali as he irons out the rough edges of his game.

"Right now [the main challenge] is probably the thinking during our plays: post-plants and the vision of the map," he said. "That’s the hardest thing for me at the moment. They tell me how to play it out, dastan does, and I listen."

Editor's note: This interview was conducted in Russian and translated by HLTV staff.

Tell us how you got the invitation to PARIVISION. How did it happen, and what was your reaction?

dastan wrote to me on Telegram because he wanted to talk. Then we jumped into TeamSpeak, and there he told me how he wanted to bring me into the team. I told him the buyout details and everything. And that's it, within a couple of days I was already in Belgrade.

Were you surprised by the interest from a top team?

It felt good. But I’d had offers before this, so I was expecting it.

The academy projects are very active right now, like Spirit's. Did you get any invitations from them, and if so, how come you didn’t join any of them?

Spirit Academy called me in February 2025, but only for the bench, so I didn’t agree. Then we kept playing, and when we broke into roughly top 100 during spring 2026, VP reached out. But that was even worse than my team at the time, so I didn’t agree. No other academy invitations after that.

So you preferred to play for a team where you were already on HLTV, rather than the perks an academy could offer. Can you walk us through how you reasoned about it?

I didn't want to join Spirit because they had a prime roster with kyousuke, top 30 at the time. It was pointless. And VP academy was totally pointless, because b1st and t0oro had moved up to the main roster, and the lineup was top 200 or so. That made no sense.

What are your first impressions of the team? How much time have you spent together?

We started practicing on 19 June. It was pretty hard at first, a completely different mindset. In the beginning it was very hard to memorize all the new callouts. On top of that we had to prepare five or six maps in a week. That was tough.

dastan has a reputation as a very strict coach. What did you expect of him, and how did it compare to reality?

I watched some vlogs beforehand, so I roughly understood what he's like. He turned out just like that. In-game, he might push a bit, give pointers, in his own manner. But in life he’s a fun guy, kind one, just like I thought. That’s it.

You have dastan but also highly experienced HObbit and Jame. Do you have a specific senior mentor on the team — the way NiKo was for m0NESY in a sense — or have you spent too little time together?

It’s still too early, probably. For now mostly Jame tells me how I should play. Right now we focus on the strats, so there isn't such a thing, really.

You successfully made the playoffs of XSE, the team’s debut tournament in this roster and your first personally. What are your impressions of playing on LAN and at a higher level in general?

There’s not much difference. I played LANs in Russia before this, and there’s not much difference — the opponents are just stronger. Our first matches were on stage. I played average there. Then against MIBR the game wasn’t on stage, and I played well.

Was it the pressure from the stage in that case?

There was no pressure from the stage. The usual pre-match jitters happen, sure, but during the game there was nothing like that.

How do you feel in the team in terms of roles and positions: are you happy with the setup, or is it a certain challenge for you? What's the main challenge for you at this point?

Role-wise everything is comfortable for me. The only new map for me is Inferno. I’m gradually getting used to it, I watch demos, so everything’s going well there.

Right now [the main challenge] is probably the thinking during our plays: post-plants and the vision of the map. That’s the hardest thing for me at the moment. They tell me how to play it out, dastan does, and I listen.

In general, working on yourself, which players do you watch, whose style and tricks you try to pick up?

There aren’t any such players. I just watch all the top teams: NAVI, Falcons, Vitality — all the top ones. I can’t really single out a specific player.

Your first mention on HLTV was making the Prospects list — promising young players to watch. Did you notice that? Was it a sign to you that you’re progressing?

Yes, I saw the first list — I got into the top 15, I think. This blew my mind. My online rating back then was somewhere around 1.20-1.30. Then I slipped, because I think they added the LANs [into the] system, and I only played a maximum of one back then. So I dropped off a bit. That’s it.