bondik: Bootcamp was very effective

—    On the European qualification to StarLadder StarSeries Season 3 you played 4 matches. What can you tell about them?— We’ve played the first match against eFuture team. This is a Danish team with young players. The first map was cobblestone, and we lost it. It even seems to me it was our pick. We made a few mistakes, but we won two remaining maps. In a match against Team Spirit, who beat mousesports, the situation was the same. We lost the first map that we’ve previously picked and won two other maps. In a game against Fnatic, we won de_train but the individual game was rather poor. Our last opponent was Team EnVyUs, We lost de_train again, but we discussed the situation, calmed down, concentrated and won two remaining maps. We had additional rounds on de_inferno map, but still won them. This way, HellRaisers joined SL StarSeries Season 3. It was hard, but we’ve managed to do that.

—    Did you expect for such a turn of event? You had strong opponents, especially Team EnVyUs and Fnatic.— We’ve had a goal to pass to StarLadder. This tournament was a top priority for us. Bootcamp after the winning in qualifiers was very effective for us. If we did not have this opportunity, everything would have been more difficult.

— So was a bootcamp efficient for you?— Yes, bootcamp was very effective. There, we’ve spent 10 days, playing from the early morning till the late night; we’ve fixed many mistakes, added new ideas to our game, got fit, and now we are in a perfect shape.

— How will you prepare to StarLadder LAN-final? You are not together now as I understand?— Yes, we’ve discussed everything and decided that we all have got tired a little bit. For me and Kirill (ANGE1) it was easier, as we’ve are from Kiev, and DeadFox is from Hungary, STYKO and Zero are from Slovakia, and Johnta from Dnepropetrovsk. It will be more difficult for them to stay here for a long time. So we’ve made a decision to leave apart and play at home. We’ve achieved our goal staying on bootcamp, boosted our game shape and now we just maintain it playing in the Internet and having online trainings. Also, we’ve decided to gather before StarLadder begins, approximately on April 1-2. Later, we will play on the qualifiers to the tour. Joining this tour is not our priority, as we prepare all our strategies to StarLadder to show our level of the game on LAN-final. Our team is pretty young and our players have some problems on LAN.  It’s one thing to play in the Internet, and absolutely another thing is to play on LAN, but we will find a way to deal with that.

— What are your goals on StarLadder? Top-1?— Telling honestly, we haven’t discussed that yet. The minimum result for us it is to pass the group stage, and later we will see as we do not know our opponents. It will be a complicated tournament for us. All opponents are strong enough. Although we are in a good shape now, but we’re too young, and that’s why we do not always demonstrate the desired game on LAN-finals, even the game that we show in the Internet. We need to back up what we have with LAN-final, and everything will be great.

— Let’s talk about a group stage and a Swiss system used on The ELEAGUE Major 2017, that you won. What are the advantages of this system? What are the drawbacks?— For our team, Swiss system is rather an advantage than a disadvantage as we have previously met it before. It is easier for us psychologically. As I’ve previously told, the players are young, and they have a little experience on LAN-finals, and with the Swiss system, you are not limited with only 2 games. A team has more chances, and the players do not worry as they get worried in other systems for group stages. I think that Swiss system is great and it should be a norm for all tournaments and big championships.

— Your first opponent is European mix FaZe Clan. What can you tell about them?— First of all, Niko joined the team, and he is one of the strongest players in the world. Secondly, FaZe Clan are currently on the 4th position of the best teams according to HLTV.org. Also, they took the second place on the latest LAN-tournament, losing the match against Astralis, the champions of the event. We can play against them. We should put ourselves together, we have nothing to lose. From the one side, in this way, we become a kind of underdogs of the tournament, but someone definitely won’t agree with is. However, taking into consideration what press is writing about us, we do not belong to favorites of the tournament in any case. We will meet such a strong team on the beginning stage of the tournament, and this is an advantage for is, as we won’t meet them later. It’s not such bad, and we will prepare for the match and we will try to win.

— That’s great. So we’ve done with StarLadder StarSeries Season 3, and now let’s talk about DreamHack Austin 2017. Tell a few words about each opponent. You’ve passed the qualifiers beating such teams as BIG, mousesports and Vega Squadron.—BIG was the first team. I can’t tell that it was easy to play against them, as guys play in a good way in the Internet. BIG demonstrated a good game in the tournament. Perhaps, it was one of the most complicated opponents that we’ve could met in the first tour, and we understand that. It’s good that we’ve took the match seriously, and won it with 16:9 and 16:14 score. They started to demonstrate a strong game on the second map when we’ve relaxed a little bit. We’ve won with 16:14 score, but it would be better not to allow such a score. This game was played after we’ve left bootcamp and did not play together for several days. It was rather difficult for us to put ourselves together. But we’ve done that and won the match. Then we played against mousesports. They played first two maps with Sergei lmbt, HellRaisers ex-coach. Denis has some problems with health, but the latest map they played with their main roster. We won de_mirage with 16:12 score and moved forward. We passed to the final of this bracket where we met Vega Squadron and Kinguin. Vega moved to the final. I think that we’ve overpicked them. In a result, we played mirage (16-10) and inferno 12, on the second map we’ve made comeback after losing the first side with 4:11 score, and made 12:1 on the second one. We’ve had a goal to move to this tournament.

—    How will it affect your results that Starladder will take place in Kiev?— I have always liked this tournament because it takes place in Kiev, my native city. I will never forget a tournament in the Olympic National Sports Complex, it was great to play there. This match will take place in National Palace of Arts "Ukraina". We’ve played there once, but did not manage to move to play-off. Now we will try to pass the group stage and only then we will set some goals. In Kiev, we’ve always had another audience that comes to support us. I’m very grateful for that.

—  Moving to DH Austin is the result of effective bootcamp?— We’ve been in a good shape and we knew that we can move forward, and the teams hadn’t been too strong. We understood that we were the favorites of the qualifiers and we would have won these matches.

— Did Johnta bring some innovations to the team?— Vanya have been bringing a lot of new ideas to the team. This is connected not only with the game but also with the bootcamp, our schedule, the development of personal game of each player. He works with everyone, and everyone is satisfied. The most important thing is that his works bring the results.

— What is the role of Ami in your team today?— In general, he is analyzing our opponents. He shows us to what points to pay attention in certain situations. Sometimes he also shows us some interesting things. But his main responsibility is the analysis of the opponents.

— Where can we see you in the nearest time except for SL i-League Season 3, Dreamhack Austin, DreamHack Tours?—  The situation with DH Tours is still unclear, we should have play on the qualifiers for the tournament after April 2. If we won’t go there, perhaps we will go to Copenhagen Games. We don’t know whether we will play there even if we would not win the qualifiers to tours. We have a direct event to Denmark, but we still do not know to use this slot or not. We are also now playing in ESL Pro League Season 5. And we show quite good results there. We still can move to LAN, but we will meet strong opponents, and we need to take points wherever we can, but it will be difficult. We also play on Binary Dragons. We’ve passed from the group stage from the first place, but I do not know whether we will play in play-off stage.  The matter is that it is held during Starladder, and if we will not find a common language with the organizers. We won’t be able to end this event because of the LAN in Kiev. And if some other LAN happens, we will try to join it. Our main task is to get to as much LANs as possible, become more confident and show our game on LANs. I think we do not show the game that we show on CW or in the Internet. That’s why if we overcome this psychological obstacle and the lack of experience on LAN, everything will be great.

— You play all 7 maps now. Will you continue to play without a default ban of your weakest map and ban will depend on the opponent. What map is the best for your team?— It was a perfect situation for us when dust2 was taken from man pull, and we did not play it. Now we are ready to play any of the maps. We have been training for all of them. I cannot select a certain map, as we have everything maps where we show good game, as everything depends on the opponent. Recently, we’ve been playing all 7 maps. This is a huge advantage for us and it helps us show better results. We will not refuse to play all tournament maps and we are not going to ban certain maps. I also cannot tell that we have a certain top-1 map. We have several maps where we show a good game: mirage, cobblestone, overpass, also we play a lot on inferno map. We show good results on this maps on the training, but have some mistakes in the official matches. I can’t also tell that we have some weak maps. Almost with every match the choice of maps in on us, and that is a great bonus.

— The second season of WESG is going to be announced soon. Will you participate there playing for the national teams?— ANGE1 and me participated in the first season of the event. We moved to the final matches in China with this roster: ANGE`, Zeus, arch, smike, and me. Initially, s1mple and Edward should have played with is, but Na`Vi prohibited them to play with us. I do not know how everything will turn this year, but Kirill and me will probably participate there, as the prize pool is rather impressive. But we will do that if only that won’t affect our team, and currently this is the most important for us.

— Thank you for the interview. Do you have something to tell?— Thanks for the interview as well! I would like to say hello to all HellRaisers fans and people who support us, to everyone who writes me on social media! Thanks for good words! We would like to see you on Kiev on Starladder where you can support us, and we will do our best to show everything that we are capable of! Thanks again, see you!