HObbit: "We lost every online match and practice"

Gambit kicked off their journey at the PGL Major with a win over MOUZ, clawing back from a 0-5 deficit in the first half before locking down the defense without much trouble.

HObbit had flashbacks to their online play when Gambit started 0-5 against mousesports

After the Major's first match, we sat down with Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov to find out how his team prepared, and asked him about the match on Inferno as well as whether he's close to signing for Gambit permanently.

Tell me about your preparation for the Major, how much did you play and what did you focus on?

We prepared a lot, we have like 700 hours per two weeks in the team, it's too much. But we lost every online match and every pracc. We didn't know what to do, but we just practiced, practiced, and practiced, and today, the result is what it is.

How did losing those matches online affect your confidence going into the Major?

I don't know, I think we're just really bad online, maybe that's why. We were trying our best, but we couldn't win.

Was there anything specific in-game that you focused on? You did have quite a bit of time to prepare, seeing as you didn't go to that many LAN events.

The Major was our only goal, so we prepared a lot for it. We changed a lot of tactics, we changed some positions, some roles, and now, we're new Gambit with new calls.

I remember you telling me at the ELEAGUE Major that you had prepared for everyone, is it that the case now as well, did Zeus prepare for each team here?

Now we just prepared our game, not every single opponent, we just watch demos like one day before our match. We just look for moves and talk about what we should do.

Touching on the Inferno match you just played, you began 0-5 down, what was the atmosphere like in the team at that point and how did you end up making a good half of it, finishing 7-8?

When the score was 0-5, I thought it was going to be really hard, I thought it was going to overtime or that we'd lose the match, because it looked like an online game for us, no chance for us. But in one round something happened, we just won the round, and after this, I just felt some power again. And we just won it, but I thought it was going to be harder.

Were there any adjustments from Zeus that you can think of?

Yeah, actually he told us that we should play slowly. That's it.

You had some issues at the start of the second half, losing to a forcebuy in the third round of the second half, but then it was a fairly quick affair... What do you think was the key to locking down the defense?

We watched demos of mousesports and we knew they were going to start their tactics at 50 seconds, and we just saved our grenades, we just prepared some tactics with AdreN on banana.

What are the realistic expectations for Gambit at the Major, what result would you be happy with?

At least Legends, but of course we want to go further.

You're still being loaned out from Tengri, can you explain what the situation looks like, whether you're close to signing for Gambit permanently?

Everything is about to finalize.

So, you are going to sign for Gambit?

I hope so, it's not 100% yet, it's maybe 80-90% certain. We will see!