Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov and Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov have been in the wilderness for a good while but in Katowice 1win are the talk of the town.
The team, previously a squad of inactive pros funding their own tournaments in TDK, made it to Pro League by winning ESL Challenger and are making their chance count.
Having already beaten G2 and Legacy, they then slayed former teammate Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov and the dragons of Team Spirit to secure a playoff berth and move to 11th on the live VRS. Already, they are up to a 89% chance of making the Major having been orgless only recently.
With all that success, nafany wonders why more inactive pros don't do the same. "I still don't really understand why players in Europe aren't doing the same thing we did with TDK, because from my POV, it's easier," he said.
"They have pretty cheap flight tickets. They have a lot of LANs. All they need is to invest in their future, let's say. And in my opinion, that's the main problem in Europe right now, because it seems like people don't really want to do something by themselves."
Listen to the interview here.
Congratulations. What was it like to beat sh1ro?
It's not only about sh1ro. In general, it was a long way to be here. So yeah, it's great.
And making playoffs, what do you think is behind your ability to surprise three teams already?
We're just playing CS, and we have a lot of staff behind us. It's not only about people. It's a lot of work which we did in last time. So, we already surprised some teams, so other teams will be more prepared for us. But anyway, as I said, we working really hard, and we have a lot of other stuff which we can surprise.
And when you prepare for a team like Spirit, what is it like as an in-game leader going against the world number one at the time and knowing they might not know as much about you as you know about them?
Actually, Spirit, it's a classic team. They have good structure. You're just preparing for them as for any other team. Obviously, they have really good players. It's not only about donk. Other players not worse than him. But I mean, they're just a team, so we need to prepare as for everyone. Let's say, our preparation was not really different if you compare it with a G2. So, yeah. But I can say that versus Vitality, for example, it's harder to prepare because they have, like... I can't even explain it, but it's just harder.
Okay. Is it their structure? What do you think?
It's not only about structure. It's about... I don't really know how it works in their team, but from my POV, I guess it's apEX who doing a lot of chaos around the map, so you can't really counter that. So yeah, I would say it works like that, but maybe it's an analyst or a coach doing that. So it's pretty hard to know.
And Ax1Le top fragged today, it seems like he's back in the form that we know him from. What's been the difference? 'Cause we know CS2 was very tough at first.
I wouldn't say that it's only about CS2. It's more about which Counter-Strike he playing. When he's working with me and groove again, obviously it's like homeland for him. And, we know how to use him. He knows how to play with us. And I mean, we're giving him obviously the best positions for him, and that's the main reason, I would say.
Again, it's more about him because he's still working pretty hard. Everyone in the team understands that it... People can say anything, but we know that he can be in his prime again. And I can even say that maybe he didn't even show his prime yet.
And how nice was it just to have a team of free agents, but so many good free agents? 'Cause it's not easy to do that when people get locked into contracts and things.
Look, if I'm being honest, let's say if we talk about our team, only I was a free agent. Other guys were on the bench with other organizations, and as you know, in CIS, it's sometimes pretty complicated because some organizations aren't even letting other players play tournaments without an organization, so it's pretty complicated.
In general, I still don't really understand why players in Europe aren't doing the same as we did with TDK, because from my POV, it's easier. They have pretty cheap flight tickets. They have a lot of LANs. All that they need is to invest in their future, let's say.
And in my opinion, that's the main problem in Europe right now, because it seems like people don't really want to do something by themselves. And if you talk about our team, everyone sacrificed a lot: groove, me, Ax1Le. Other guys from TDK, Xant3r and sugaR, shout out to him by the way because as far as I know, he retired. It's pretty sad because he was a good, good guy.
And just finally on the arena, it's been a while for you. What's it going to be like walking back onto that stage?
I don't know. The thing is, I can say, truly, that I will only understand it on the stage, because last time I was on the stage, I don't even remember when. So, I'm just happy that we did it. We did a really good run in Swiss. Now it's time to shine in the playoffs. I hope that we will do it, and then we'll see.
G2
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Guy 'NertZ' Iluz
Artem 'r1nkle' Moroz
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko
Matúš 'MATYS' Šimko
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
TDK
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Dmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovPast 3 months
Legacy
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer
Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto
Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira
Santino 'try' Rigal
Alan 'adrrr' Riveros
Vladislav 'nafany' GorshkovPast 3 months
Sergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovPast 3 months
1win
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner