degster commented on the success of Team Spirit and shared his expectations for the future of the team

degster, playing for Team Spirit, commented on the latest success of the roster and shared his expectations for the future. In an interview for the HLTV portal, a 20-year-old Russian sniper told the story of Team Spirit at the last PGL Major Antwerp 2022.

You made it all the way to the semi-finals of the tournament, something no one expected before the start of PGL Major Antwerp 2022. I can imagine how hard it is to digest everything the next day, but what are your first impressions?

I told my team that we did a great job. We have four young players, very young in my opinion. Actually me too, but to my teammates, I'm an old man or something. I told them it was amazing, we surprised everyone. Many professional players put us at 0-3 and they never respected us. When I asked some of them why they did it, they said, "I don't know, I just didn't believe" or something like that.

First, we have done a great job here. It was unpredictable and for us, I don't think anyone on our team expected us to reach the semi-finals before the start of the RMR tournament. We got to the Major from the open qualifiers, so that was great for us.

Speaking of the semi-finals, two very close maps came out, but especially Dust 2 with several overtimes. You had several map points but couldn't close them, while FaZe Clan got their match point and won. How did you experience this moment?

For the first time in the entire Major, we felt the excitement during the match against FaZe Clan. One of my young teammates said this. If you feel that the atmosphere in the game is not the same, then you start making mistakes that you would never have made if it weren’t for your nerves. There were many situations where we should have done differently, but we didn't.

But this is normal, because none of our team has ever been in the semi-finals of a major or even in the playoffs. With experience, we will correct those mistakes, and many of us understand this.

You personally held a very good tournament, entered the top ten players of the tournament. All your teammates also had good moments and games. Being less experienced than the rest of the teams here, how did you force yourself to play your best?

The best thing we bring to this lineup is an atmosphere where you can do a lot of things. It's because of the atmosphere, no one is going to blame you if you make mistakes because everyone does, and you should never blame your teammate if they do something bad. We just say, "It's okay, it's okay, we'll do our best and try to win the round." This is the best thing you can bring to young players with no experience and who are not ready for criticism. This is just my opinion, but it is important.

We talked a bit about how young you guys are, but it's not just that you're young, you were the youngest team at the Major, at any stage. How did you manage to grow up so fast?

I don't have an answer to this question. The synergy in the team just worked in this tournament. I don't think we'll just keep beating teams because of our synergy, we need to work harder, but if you're a team that's only half a year old, synergy is very important.

We can look at other more experienced lineups with more experienced performers and they didn't make it to the semi-finals. We are a team that no one has ever played in the playoffs of a major, and we made it to the semi-finals. I think it's because of our synergy.

What's next for you guys? What are the plans for Team Spirit?

Right now we don’t have invitations to top tournaments, but I hope that Team Spirit will at least be invited to IEM Cologne 2022. First thing after the Major, we will play at Pinnacle Cup IV, after which we will get a few days off. In the future, the preparation plan will be built depending on what invites our squad will receive.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022 was held from May 9 to 22 at the Antwerps Sportpaleis venue in Belgium. During the championship, 24 teams from Europe, the CIS, Asia, Oceania, North and South America fought for a prize pool of $1,000,000, ranking points in the EPT and BLAST Premier tables, as well as one ticket to BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.

Results of PGL Major Antwerp 2022

• 1st place: FaZe Clan - $500,000 + 1,800 EPT points + 4,000 BLAST Premier points + slot to BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.
• 2nd place: NAVI — $150,000 + 1,400 EPT points + 2,000 BLAST Premier points.
• 3rd-4th place: Team Spirit and ENCE — $70,000 + 1,100 EPT points + 1,250 BLAST Premier points.
• 5th-8th place: Ninjas in Pajamas, Copenhagen Flames, Heroic and FURIA — $35,000 + 700 EPT points + 375 BLAST Premier points.
• 9th-11th place: Team Vitality, Imperial Esports and G2 Esports - $8,750 + 330 EPT points.
• 12th-14th place: BIG, Outsiders and Cloud9 - $8,750 + 200 EPT points.
• 15-16th place: Team Liquid and Bad News Eagles - $8,750 + 105 EPT points.
• 17th-19th place: Astralis, MIBR and forZe - 60 EPT points.
• 20th-22nd place: IHC Esports, Complexity Gaming and Eternal Fire + 20 EPT points.
• 23rd-24th place: Renegades and 9z.