poizon: "I don't think anyone can kill my confidence"

We sat down with Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev ahead of Windigo's WESG 2018 World Finals semi-final match, which pits them agains the French side, G2.

Windigo were able to defeat the tournament favorites MIBR in the quarter-finals, taking two maps in the three map series, with poizon finishing the match with a team-high 1.16 rating. Now, the Bulgarians will go on to face G2 in the tournament's semi-finals in Chongqing.

poizon talked about defeating MIBR, hoping to go on to play fnatic, the match against G2, the importance of confidence, his aggressiveness with the AWP, and adapting to Windigo, among other topics.

Let's start off with MIBR. When you found out you had to play against them, how were you feeling?

Like bubble said, we were a bit... not scared, but we didn't want to face them. We just watched some demos and prepared, our coach and bubble did all of the preparation, I don't know the process, but when he talked to us he told us everything we needed to know. The anti-strats, the maps, we knew everything about them.

Did you think they'd leave Overpass through, you didn't think they would leave Inferno for the decider?

We thought that they could pick Inferno, but they didn't, so we didn't know if they'd end up leaving Overpass.

Tell me a bit about the match. You won Dust2 with a big margin. Did you think it would go that well for you?

We thought it would be close, but we managed to go crazy, not only lucky, but it was crazy, it's like everything went our way, I don't know what to say. We were just so confident about it.

On Overpass you started really well, then you switched and they started to come back. Were you getting afraid at any point?

Not afraid, but we were doing a lot of stuff that they might not know about, which we had prepared for an hour, and it didn't work...

It seemed like some of the faster rounds you were playing kind of worked better.

Yeah, those are our rounds, and that's what was working.

You're a fairly aggressive guy with the AWP, no respect even against MIBR...

I'm just playing the game. I just have the confidence to play the AWP aggressively. I don't think anyone can kill my confidence, I'll always be aggressive.

No matter who's in front.

No matter who, no matter what.

What about when teams start to study you?

I'll change my playstyle. Easy.

Your name is starting to pop up places, people are noticing you more and more, especially when Windigo get a good result. Do you feel any added pressure?

No, no. Not really.

It's been five months since you've been with Windigo now, how have you developed in that time?

I've had to adapt to their playstyle because I've never played like this before, with all of the nades and fakes and stuff, so I had to adapt a lot to the team. It was a bit of a hard time for me in the beginning, but it's fine, it has been okay after that.

When I spoke to bubble he was talking about how the team kind of follows you when you go aggressive... do they ever tell you to calm down?

No, never. I'm not aggressive all of the time, but when I feel it I just go for it.

Now that you beat MIBR, do you think you can go all of the way?

Of course, I want to play fnatic so much in the final.

Why?

I don't know, I just want to face them. It's a big name, you know, like MIBR...

You want to beat the old legends, become the new legend?

Exactly, exactly. I was a big fan of fnatic, so maybe that's why.

First you have G2, how are you feeling about that match-up?

Again, really confident. We'll be prepared against them, we'll do like we did against MIBR. Maybe anti-strat, maybe some mind games, we don't know...

They've struggled a bit as of late, but they also have some good players, what do you think of them?

Well, when they bring on AmaNEk I think they're going to be at least top 6. There's no way they don't become top 6. That guy's insane, so... But yeah, I'm looking forward to playing against them.

What goals did you have with Windigo when you joined the team?

From the beginning we had some goals we achieved like qualifying for the Minor, staying in Pro League, and maybe making it to the finals, although we didn't manage to do that... Right now the goals are pretty much to make it to the top 15.

How about for you individually, what do you want the most?

I don't know... I pretty much have everything I want, for now, just to keep improving individually and as a team.

Do you have anything coming up when you get back home? I know you have a Pinnacle Cup match left...

We have ESL Pro League and United Masters League.

Oh, the LAN finals in Germany, right?

Yeah. And some online leagues, but that's it.

Do you feel confident going into Pro League?

Yeah, always. That's the key. Confidence is the key.

Do you think Windigo can become a top team in Europe?

We'll see in the future... [smiles] But I think that yeah.