NEO : The experience of karrigan can make a player evergreen

During the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, foreign media interviewed the head coach of this galaxy battleship, NEO . The Polish player talked about the team's ranking decline, the state of ropz , and how age affects the career of CS e-sports players.

“The most important thing is not to forget that we have the ability to be number one in the world”

Q: Do you think the team hasn't reached 100% of its state in the new season in the second half of this year?

NEO : Yes, we have just entered the new season, and there are many matches ahead, so it's a long process. We might have started a bit slow, but we hope to rebound and speed up to catch up.

Q: karrigan mentioned in a recent HLTV interview that the team now lacks a “killer instinct”. As a coach, how do you think this issue should be resolved?

NEO : I think the most important thing is not to forget that we have the ability to be number one in the world. A few months ago, we were still at the top of the leaderboard, and nothing has changed now.

We still have the same lineup and amazing players. We just lost a bit of confidence due to some defeats.

Last season, we reached many finals consecutively and achieved a lot of good results, but it made us very tired, so we slowed down at the end of the season.

We can't let this emotion affect us. Most of the matches we lost were very close, and the results were decided by small details, so we are not far from the top. We just can't let this emotion affect our mentality.

Q: You said you are not far from the top, so who do you think is above you now?

NEO : Our matches against Vitality are always tough, and also Natus Vincere , they have beaten us more times than we have beaten them. The new G2 lineup also looks very strong now.

Mouz is always a strong contender in every match, and the strength of all these teams is very close.

Q: Another thing karrigan mentioned in that interview was about ropz's state. How do you think ropz's state affects FaZe's performance? If his state improves, will it awaken your “killer instinct”?

NEO : I think the so-called “killer instinct” comes from more training and confidence, which is exactly what we have been lacking recently.

It's just a matter of making adjustments to our tactics. Obviously, ropz is one of the best players I have ever met. He has the ability to do incredible things, but such moments happen in every player's career. You can't always be at your peak, the key is how you deal with it.

He has the ability to do it, he just needs to make adjustments according to the situation. We need to do a lot of work, every player is part of the team, and if he doesn't have full confidence, it's not good for the team. However, this situation is common.

Q: In terms of confidence, as a coach, how do you help him regain confidence?

NEO : It depends on our tactics. I think he needs to have confidence in his playstyle. Playing the free role is not easy, a lot depends on teamwork. As we have seen in the past, if the team doesn't perform well, it's hard for the free role to perform well.

Maybe we need to be more closely connected, we are still figuring it out. He has played some very beautiful matches recently, just not consistently. We need to have confidence and put in more effort for this.

Q: ropz's performance decline appeared not long after frozen joined. Do you think frozen's position in the team conflicts with ropz's, leading to the latter's performance decline?

NEO : I'm not sure, if I remember correctly, ropz's position hasn't changed from before. Every player can bring a lot to the team, and once you replace a player, that's already a huge change, creating gaps in different areas, so everyone has to naturally fill those gaps.

Some adaptive adjustments are needed after a roster change, but I don't think (ropz's performance decline) is because of this reason. Of course, it might be related, but I think it's more than that.

Q: The schedule is very tight before the end of the year, what are your goals?

NEO : The biggest goal at the moment is IEM Cologne. This is the primary short-term goal. After that, there will be some more matches. But of course, the Major will be the most important goal, as it is for every CS player. We will aim for that.

Q: f0rest recently talked about his career prospects in relation to his age. Your team also has several older players, and you yourself have only recently become a coach, with an age similar to f0rest. How do you view the issue of age in the CS professional scene and the necessity of making career decisions when you reach a certain age?

NEO : I think the charm of CS is that it is a team game, you can have players of different personalities and ages forming a roster.

Roles are more fixed now than before, there weren't so many role divisions in the past, but for example, karrigan is our in-game leader, and the experience he has can make a player evergreen, harder to replace. But for star players like f0rest, it's not that difficult to replace them because there are so many talented youngsters, so many young rising stars, that these types of players can be found.

I think that's the biggest difference, but when we talk about age in CS, the biggest issue is actually not aiming ability or reaction time, but your focus on the game. When you're young, you can train for ten hours a day with full concentration, but as you get older, it's hard to maintain that consistency.

Like I said, in CS, you can have different types of players, and you can have both experienced veterans and young blood at the same time.