HS: "I have a lot of hope for this team; we just need time"

We sat down with Kevin "⁠HS⁠" Tarn ahead of Tempo Storm's offline debut at Moche XL Esports and picked his brain on his first weeks with the team.

Tempo Storm, one of the four teams invited to compete at Moche XL Esports, are all set to make their first appearance on LAN, just one month after officially being picked up by the North American organisation.

The $50,000 tournament, which will also feature two top 15 teams in SK and HellRaisers, will come just days after Tempo Storm replaced Aitor "⁠SOKER⁠" Fernández with Hendrik "⁠cheti⁠" Vallimägi, and a time when the team is still looking for a new coach, after cutting ties with Larratz "dracU" Domínguez.

In this interview, the 21-year-old Estonian talks about the team's mixed online results so far, the preparation for the event, bringing cheti on board, being an in-game leader, and more.

This will be the first LAN event for the team. What are your expectations?

We did not have that much time to prepare with cheti, but we had a really nice bootcamp and learned to play together much more, and we know each other really well now. I do not really have any expectations other than just to win the event. I guess you cannot really always expect the best, but I think that we can win this event, for sure.

You have had some mixed online results. Do you feel you are still getting to know each other, or is it just the way online CS sometime goes?

It's basically that we were not that much prepared, but we fixed it in the last couple of days and we added a lot of stuff to some of the maps. We feel like it is much better now, we understand what went wrong. I guess you learn the most from the hardest losses.

The team is still very new. What is your opinion about this group of players?

It is really fun to play with them. Everybody is having fun all the time. We have some really sick individual players. I need to work on my leadership skills, and I think it is just going to take some time for us to have a full game plan for all the maps and to have something prepared all the time. We just have not had that much time to fix everything yet, and I just need some time to get used to leading and being more of a leader in real life as well.

Was it your suggestion to bring cheti to the team? Did you consider other players? Why did you go with cheti in the end?

At the beginning, we tried out SOKER, cheti and fejtz, we had some other names that we wanted to try out as well. Basically, everyone was leaning towards either SOKER or cheti, and dracu and lowel really wanted to give SOKER an opportunity for at least a couple of months. I just trusted them and went with them. We gave SOKER a chance, but we felt like he was not what we needed, so...

In terms of what? Communication, skill, or...?

It was mostly communication problems. Sometimes you could feel that, in the past, he had not really played at a high level. Everyone agreed that we should make this change, we needed someone who was calm and had really good communication.

This will be cheti's first real experience at this level. Are you not afraid that he lacks experience?

I know how he plays and he always plays the same way. It does not matter whether he is playing against top teams or some random noobs - it really does not. I know him really well and I know he is going to perform.

You said that you still are not fully used to being an in-game leader. Is it harder than you expected?

It's not hard. It's like... I'm really good at mid-round calls, but I have to get used to preparing a lot of things and making a plan on how I am going to lead the game. Because I had never done this before - I was just helping mid-round. It is not that difficult, it is just different.

How would you compare this line-up with the one that you had in OpTic? Are you not afraid that you end up having the same issues - a line-up with very talented players who just cannot work together? What are the differences?

I am not afraid of having the same problems, but we might end up having them. I don't know. I just enjoy playing so much more, I think I'm going to perform much better at the next events than I did in OpTic, at least. I have a lot of hope for this team. It's just... we need some time.

Did Tempo Storm set any goals for the team?

They did not, they know we just want to win everything and to qualify for the Major - first we have to qualify for the Minor, of course. Just qualify for as many tournaments as possible, play everything and improve all the time.

Last week, it was announced that dracu had been kicked from the team. Was it a disappointment for you? How is the process of finding a replacement going?

It was really disappointing because dracu is a really nice guy... We are friends with each other, the entire team, and with dracu as well. He was really good at coaching, too. He helped the Spanish guys a lot, he is close friends with them and he was always giving them advice, especially SOKER. It is a hard loss for us, especially for me, because he was helping me to prepare the game plan and everything. So, it is hard not to have a coach. Right now, we are looking for one, I don't know when it will happen, but, hopefully, it will be as soon as possible, because I need some help.

Are there any candidates shortlisted?

Yes, we have some. But I cannot say any names.

What about the line-up? Are you happy with the line-up as it is right now? Will you consider changes down the line if results do not improve?

I cannot really say anything right now, because we have not played any [offline] tournaments. We are just going to see how we do at this tournament, if we qualify for the Minor and for other tournaments. We are going to take some time, test everything, see what fits and just try to improve all the time.