arch: "[The group stage] was not easy because it's 2019 and it seems like everyone can show good CS"

HLTV.org chatted with Ukrainian player Vladyslav "⁠arch⁠" Svistov after the first day of matches to hear about the team navigating through Group G, which they topped.

The first day of competition for Ukraine went well, as the mix team were able to top Group G with victories over TNC and ENZO and a tie against 5POWER. Next up for them will be AGO, who they will face in the tournament's Round of 16.

In the interview, arch runs through the mix team's creation, qualifying for the event in China, their first day at the event and topping their group, and ended by giving some personal thoughts about the event and how it is improving year after year.

You played your first day, you had one of the easier groups, but you're telling me it wasn't that easy, so how did you go through it?

Yeah, it was not easy because it's 2019 and it seems like everyone can show good CS. We won the first game against TNC, these guys are pretty good aimers, I would say, and I know they practiced against several teams here who also said they are pretty good, so we didn't underestimate them and did our best. We didn't expect we would play Cache because they had played it 0 times on HLTV, so when they picked it we were surprised, but we had a good flow and did a pretty good comeback.

After that, we played 5POWER, we played Mirage really horribly. We didn't communicate properly, and as mix team, if we want to win, we need to communicate well. So they destroyed us on Mirage but then on Dust2, our map pick, we showed good CS. The last game was against WingHei "⁠Freeman⁠" Cheung and his team and we beat them for first place.

So yeah, you're a mix team, so tell me a bit about how the team came together.

Four of us played in k1ck together like half a year ago. When the WESG qualifiers came out like half a year ago I was sure I'd play them with Sergey "⁠smike⁠" Sklyarenko, then we decided it would be cool to play with Alexander "⁠scoobyxie⁠" Marynych and Sergey "⁠starix⁠" Ischuk as well. We had to find a fifth player, it was going to be Dmytro "⁠def⁠" Lemeshchuk from pro100. We played the first qualifier with him and lost it, then after that, he went to Thailand to play the Toyota Masters and so we asked Artur "⁠DarkS1DE⁠" Kravchenko because he's a good player and, actually, he fits perfectly. We played the Ukrainian finals and lost to the Vega Squadron and Spirit mix team but then we won everything through the losers' bracket.

Did you practice at all before coming?

We actually didn't, we just decided that everyone should practice individually a lot because starix, scoobyxie and DarkS1DE have their teams so they had to practice with them. We just played individually and now we're playing like we did in the qualifiers.

So what were the expectations or the goals for the team here?

Actually, our goal is to just go as far as we can. Mine, personally, was top 8, but I will do my best to go as far as I can, as I said.

Last year the Ukraine team that was going to come was Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev, Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk, Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko, etc. but they ended up not coming. What was up with that?

I actually don't know because I wasn't a part of that, but from what I know s1mple was really tired because of the schedule so they pulled out, which was really unfortunate because some other players, like me for example, would have liked to go.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say, I remember them going to the qualifier in Barcelona, which they won, but then they didn't go to the event. Did you play the qualifier?

No, I played the first WESG in 2016.

What do you think of events like this, in general?

I like Chinese culture, and I see that they try to do the best that they can, but they have some organizational problems because of communication, and also the monitors are still 144hz which I don't think is acceptable in 2019, but it's still fine. I think PCs are pretty good, and the hotel is insane, so yeah, I think they're improving year by year and I hope they'll do even better in the future.

It's also cool as a place for mix teams like yours to come, right? Like there aren't that many events with this vibe...

Yeah, it's pretty fun, actually. Of course, teams that have five players from the same country have an advantage, but it's still fun. It reminds me of WCG in 1.6, which was my favorite tournament to watch, it's pretty fun to play against teams from all regions.

What's going on in your life? I remember you were studying for a while and so on, were you playing much CS?

Actually, I was active the whole time, I was just playing and studying at the same time. Studying wasn't a problem for me, I made some mistakes but always did my best. I'm going to play as much as I can to get a team after WESG because right now I don't have a team. So yeah, just trying to play some CS, I'm free now to give my all.

That's all from me unless you'd like to add anything...

Thanks to everyone who supports me and my team while we're here, and thanks to our sponsors for this event, GG.BET and HyperX, and thank you for the interview.