HObbit: "AdreN and Dosia are both calling"

After beating a red-hot FaZe, Gambit will now face Renegades, who are also fighting for survival in Oakland, in a Group B that looks like it will go down to the wire.

Gambit believe they can go through to the playoffs

Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov, a crucial component in his team's victory over FaZe, talks about how his team didn't realize they had a shot at still qualifying for the playoffs after yesterday's defeats, Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov's growing pains, and the in-game leadership situation.

Yesterday was a rough day, two overtime losses, how did you feel after day one?

I was sad, because we practice and trained a lot, and our strategies didn't work. I didn't know what to do, but we just did some team building and talked a lot and said we just need to relax and do our job, that's it.

So you said you've been practicing a lot, have you been bootcamping?

Yes, we had a ten-day bootcamp and we worked really hard there.

How is having AdreN calling the shots working out?

Yeah, he's calling, but actually him and Dosia are both calling. Sometimes AdreN calls, sometimes Dosia, although AdreN is the captain. It went well when we were practicing, but now we made a lot of mistakes. Of course, they need some time and experience in this role, and I think everything will turn out OK.

So with both calling, how does it work? Is it by rounds, maps, someone mid-round calling?

It goes by moments. If AdreN has an idea for a certain round, and Dosia agrees, then we say "let's go, let's do it" and the other way around as well.

As far as FaZe goes, did you prepare any particular way, or did you just play your game?

Actually, we didn't do anything special. Of course, we watched a couple demos. We just understand that they play aggressively and every player is a star in FaZe. For example, rain can go off and that's it, they'll win, so we had to play against them together.

Did you expect it would be this one-sided for you?

No, we were ready for a fight, like 16-14. We didn't know what would happen but we just believed.

Early on, when fitch came into the team, AdreN told him to not think and just shoot heads. Is that still the situation or has there been more of a development?

Actually, fitch is having a tough time now because enemies are watching our demos and they can see what fitch is doing, and he's doing the same things over and over. At tier 3 or 4 level that works, doing the same things, but at the pro level I think you should do different things every round, so he's adapting. But it's hard for him. Now he's feeling some pressure. When we lose he's always saying it's because of his fault and stuff like that.

Before the tournament started, did you think you'd be fighting to get out of groups?

Our goal was to make the final, we hoped to make it through the groups in first place, but... our first day crashed everything!

And now, ahead of your last match of the group stage, what do you expect? Have you prepared for Renegades?

Renegades are very strong right now, and it's going to be hard, to say the least. We didn't know we had a chance to get out of the groups when we lost until we got to the hotel when I looked at our group and saw that Liquid had 4 points and we had 2, so finding that out motivated us. But about Renegades, I really respect them. They are young players, and they're playing really well, but as long as we play our game we will take this.