kzy: "Communication is key"

The German team got through the group stage after victories against FTW and Tricked. They won 2-0 against Preparation in the Round of 16 and advanced to the quarter-finals where they will face fnatic Academy. We caught up with Oliver "⁠kzy⁠" Heck before this match.

How did you prepare for ESWC 2016? Did you have a bootcamp prior to the event?

Actually we didn't prepare for this event because we have the European Minor and the ELEAGUE Season 2 group stage coming up and we focused on those before ESWC. So far it's going good.

You won against FTW in your opening match. How did it go?

It was quite close and our players tried to warm up during the game because traffic in Paris is messed up and we couldn't arrive as early as we wanted to. We had a short warmup. It was really cold in the match area as well. We just made some stupid mistakes, we tried to get aim duels to warm up so it was a bit close but in the end we won.

The winners' match against Tricked was even closer than the first game. How did you guys close out that one?

In the pistol round, we had a 5vs2 advantage and the server crashed. So we played the pistol round again because they didn't want to give us the advantage we already had. Then of course we lost the pistol round that was replayed and Tricked won the first five rounds. We lost like the first six rounds in the second half as well but we played everything perfect rest of the time and broke Tricked's economy three or four times so it didn't turn out to be that difficult in the end.

Today you played against Preparation in the Round of 16 and won the first map (Cobblestone) with a comeback? What pushed your team to the victory?

We knew that our T-sides were better than our CT-sides and on LAN somehow T-side is always an advantage. We just believed in ourselves, played some good rounds, broke their economy a bunch of times, and had good clutches to win the map. When you win 2vs5 or 3vs5 clutches like we did, you can only win.

On the second map (Nuke), you had an amazing T-side and got a big lead to virtually guarantee a victory. Was this also because T-side is played better on LAN?

The problem is you don't really hear and see much on Nuke, especially on LANs. It's hard to tell where the enemy is and if the communication is not on point. Our opponents didn't get into many aim duels and we communicated well, messed them up every round, and got the match.

You touched on communication and I noticed your team is really calm compared to others. Whether you win or lose a round, you guys are always calm. How does this affect your team?

Communication is the key for us and that's also why we're still playing with a complete German team. We just try to get every advantage we can while talking to each other in crossfire or trade kill situations. That's why it's really important to us.

Your opponent in the quarter-finals will be fnatic Academy as they upset Heroic. They're looking like they're on fire. How do you expect that match to go?

We don't know anything about the fnatic Academy team. We're quite surprised that they won against Heroic. Earlier, we were a bit sad that we had to face Heroic already in the quarter-finals. We just need stay focused against fnatic Academy and we have a good chance to win this.

What about your expectation from ESWC? Six of the eight Minor teams, including you, are here. Is this a good preparation for the Minor?

Yes, of course. For example, we were sad to face Heroic but it would also be good to play them on LAN a week before the Minor so it's both good and bad that we won't face them here. We'll try to win the tournament but we will be satisfied if we end up in the top four.

ALTERNATE aTTaX's quarter-final match against fnatic Academy starts in less than an hour. Keep your eyes peeled as we have more interviews coming up.

BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.