Belarusian e-sports athlete Aleksander mds Rubets from Websterz has shared how the team has been training for the Phygital Games and evaluated M0NESY’s skills.
– How has your playing style changed after switching to Websterz?
– I played with Pasha Nozh (the Knife), with Russian guys. When they were putting together a team from Belarus, I was offered to join to play all the roles I played in Nemiga. They needed a B-support, and I’ve been playing these roles all my life. This is a steady fact. So, I’m back to where I started.
– Were there any changes after the switch?
– Some of the roles are new I’m mostly playing all the old ones. I know them well and I know what I need to do playing them.
– Has the meta changed in any way?
– The meta changes every two months, I’d say. The meta changes from tournament to tournament. They add something new every time. So you always have to keep the pace, so to speak. Game-style-wise … I’m a support in charge of defence and also a support + a helper.
– A question about your team. Is the way of communication different when you are playing attacking or defending sides?
– No, not really. Communications is one of the underlying principles of CS:GO. The better your communication is, the better results you will have. If communications is great, your team’s performance will be great as well. Sides-wise, it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing for CT or T . You still have to communicate. As much as possible.
– Do you flood in the chat?
– From time to time (smiles).
– Would you point out a guy on the team who takes the initiative the most often coming up with strategies and information?
– That’d be boX, the captain of our team. He is the driving force. Most of the strategies come from him. We just do as we are told.
Mostly it is him who does it for both sides. But if someone comes up with an idea, he hears it out, announces it to the rest and then we talk it through. Then we make a collective decision.
– How would you rate the performance of the opposing teams. Did you do any “homework” before the Phygital Games?
– I honestly know nothing of the Argentines. They’d be from a tier of teams in South America. Let’s just say their game isn’t the strongest one. As for 9pandas and HOTU, 9Pandas are good players as are the guys from HOTU.
– Is there a match that you prepared the most for? With which team? Which team do you think can offer the most resistance?
– We didn’t really prepare for any of the matches. We knew that we’d be competing against the Argentines. We just watched two videos. Just now.
– And laser tag?
– Honestly, we played it just once at a bootcamp. But it was different there. There were no vests. They just explained a couple of things. Not much really. But it was fun.
– You mentioned a bootcamp. Could you tell us more about it? What were you doing there? What is it that you were you preparing for?
– We had Lollipop (Lolipop21k) join us after the new year. So we had to introduce him into our structure and prepare him well. We spent two weeks preparing. We didn’t add or introduce anything new. We slightly edited Overpass, though.
– Which maps are you going to pick, which ones – to ban?
– Ancient’s always the one we ban. The best ones are Anubis and Inferno.
– Did you care to learn the favorite picks of your opponents?
– All of them ban Vertigo. Now we are facing off with the Argentinian team. Their favorite map is Nuke. We banned it. The second map is Mirage. This is the one we’re going to play on.
– Quite a default pool.
– Well, yeah.
– Why choose the Anubis map? What is it with it?
– Well, this map is quite picturesque and also the logic behind it is fairly simple. You can’t really think of any new shenanigans on it. Everything is simple in it and that’s why everyone likes it. So if you win the mid, you win the attack. When on the defensive, you can’t lose the mid. This is how all teams play. This is the only meta on this map. A couple of A-rounds with B-splits. It looks like a mirage. Very eye-pleasing.
– Do you think that Anubis is a more vertical map than all the others?
– Yes and no, but I’ll say yes.
– A quick round of questions and then we’re done.
– Let’s go.
– Eco or Force?
– Force.
– A4 or Silence?
– A tough question…depends on the map but I’ll say Silence.
– ZywOo or M0NESY?
– M0NESY, because he is one of our guys.
– Can you tell us a little more about Silence and why you chose M0NESY?
– It’s not much really. When you’re playing Nuke, a player on the street or behind doors often chooses smoking grenades to cover themselves or chucks a smoking grenade on the door. In this case, you’d better go for silence as it leaves no bullet traces which helps you avoid return fire.
The downsides of silence are a lower rate of fire and a smaller mag. Just yesterday I played with a 30, now it is a 20. I just felt like it. Plus Nuke. We’ve been preparing for it lately. I was killed a couple of times in retaliation when I was playing with a 30. One more thing: a 30 costs 3,100, and this one costs 2,900. It really changes the economy of it all. You can’t have all of the team members play with a 30. It really starts to take a toll.
– It all makes sense and is clear. Why’d you choose M0NESY?
– Well, because he is one of ours. The kid is very promising. I’d never actually followed him. But then I saw his G2 in good shape, watched his demos and the way he moved. Despite his age, he really has a good grasp of CS:GO. He is very talented. I think he’s got a great future ahead of him. ZywOo is also good. We keep in touch, too. We play Faceit, sometimes. But M0NESY really understands things well. He always contributes a lot to the team effort. It’s very cool. Really.
– Would you like to play with him or against him?
– Doesn’t matter. I just want to play CS:GO at some good levels.
