s1mple: "We'll see if [our system] gets better with everything on a high level and if we get results with this roster"

We sat down with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev ahead of the BLAST Pro Series kick-off matches to talk about the feeling in the team going into it.

Natus Vincere, who are coming straight from lifting the StarSeries i-League Season 7 trophy in Shanghai, will be trying to claim another title at BLAST Pro Series Miami, where they open tonight against MIBR. The tournament in Florida will prove to be more of a challenge for s1mple and company, however, as both Astralis and Liquid will be competing there as well.

In the interview, s1mple talks about some of the organizational changes that are to come in Natus Vincere and how that has affected the atmosphere in the team, the emotional moments the team goes through when trying to figure out solutions to in-game problems, becoming a consistent tournament-winning side, not coming into events fully focused, and their chances in Miami, among other topics.

At StarSeries, you said B1ad3 was going to be brought in and some changes were going to happen, you were going to get a psychologist and a dietician and so on. I wanted to know the effect that has had on the players. Is there some increased motivation coming from that?

First of all, yeah, we're going to start after London. We decided not to do like a one-week bootcamp but to add more extra days before BLAST Madrid so that we can start working together more. For example, B1ad3 can easily take the players and ask them what their problem is in-game or what they should look at for the next match. I remember when B1ad3 wrote to electronic, and our coach as well, telling them what other players usually do. For example, Brollan likes to play on Balcony, and as we saw in the game on Inferno, he never actually played in Big Pit. Things like this, small details that can help that time, on that day, in that match.

About the psychologist and dietician, we are going to start working on all of this at the bootcamp. We'll get a better sleeping schedule, spend more time together, and we're going to start to progress much better with our tactical and strategic approach.

So B1ad3's helping on both sides, then, outside and inside of the game?

Yeah, yeah.

That brings up a question, sometimes when you are in freezetime or during pauses you get very heated, you can see the conversation is going back and forth, how does that work? Some teams are very quiet and they talk everything through without making much of a fuss, but you are very agitated, it seems like you're almost fighting. How do your pauses work?

It depends on people from different countries. We all have different mentalities. For example, if we're tilted we become angrier and we become louder, while another team can become quieter and they're not trying to find the solution. It depends on where people are from, but we are just trying to discuss what we're going to do. Of course, we are emotional because we just want to win and we understand that we are losing our rounds. We just pause and discuss the next three or four rounds with our coach.

Do you think that it works, when you're very emotional in a pause, can you find solutions?

Yeah, yeah, of course. Sometimes it helps you find solutions as fast as possible, but sometimes it just doesn't work and other teams can find the balance.

At StarSeries, you said that when the team plays well you play better. Do you think that the whole team can stay consistently performing in a way that you can keep winning tournaments?

Yes, I think so because I see when everyone plays in practice. For example, we played 19 maps at StarSeries and I saw my players' individual form becoming better and better and the team play becoming better. So when we are playing a lot, we just remember that we are playing more as a team and it gives us more power. But because of some situations, we couldn't prepare really well for some big tournaments and yeah, that was our mistake, I guess. Now we're trying to get a great system, so we'll see if it gets better with everything on a high level and if we get results with this roster and if everything works.

Talking about when you play a lot, seeing the level going up, you're known to start tournaments really badly and then becoming better as the tournament progresses.

It's hard for us to be in the tournament at the beginning, we need to always work, we need to discuss our opponents every day just to be in this shape. It's pretty hard for us in the beginning.

Is this something you've tried to work on actively, becoming better at the beginning of tournaments?

We always do the same, but we don't know, maybe everything depends on the individual, how ready they are for this game, for this tournament. The most important thing is for everyone to be on the same page and discuss all these things so that your teammate knows that you know what we're going to do tomorrow.

Do you think this is something you could talk about with the psychologist, could he help with that?

Yeah, I think it will help us a lot just to think only about Counter-Strike. That's the most important thing, to make people understand that Counter-Strike is the most important thing they need to do right now. When they arrive at a tournament, they should understand that this is the beginning of the tournament already. Every day in football or basketball people prepare for tournaments, even before the tournament, one month before the tournament, they look at what they eat, they look at how they sleep, and in esports I think that's what players are missing.

Usually, it's been the case that you and electronic have to both play really well for the team to win. Do you think this is sustainable, to need two players always being really strong?

I don't think so, I think our players should always step up. It's not possible to always be the top fragger or leader all the time. I mean it's possible, of course, but it's pretty hard, and when you see that your teammate isn't doing well or isn't trying, your motivation goes down a bit. But when you see that everyone works, you are trying to do extra work, and because of this, you are playing much better. I think electronic and I will see what this roster can do.

Every time we lose in the group stage or something like that, I think, 'What should I do? Should I change teams or do something with the players, or should I fix myself?' You're always frustrated when you lose tournaments and you think about your future. 'What's going to happen if you don't win the Major with these guys?' Or when you sometimes think that you can change a player, you think, 'Do you really think that this player doesn't deserve to win a Major' Yeah, you just understand that all players should always have a good relationship and only with them can you win.

We've seen what happened with different rosters when they tried to remove a player and then they added them back. A team should stick together, it's the most important thing. Of course, it's hard that there are no stand-ins, it's not like in football or NBA, when you see a player isn't working you can't just change him, you can tell him that you will remove a month of his salary, but it's not going to fix the problem. Even if you have a substitute, you need to play with him a lot and it doesn't work like this in esports right now.

You just won StarSeries, but the final boss wasn't there, Astralis are here now. How do you think you match up with them? Can you take them down?

Yeah, I think we have good chances right now. We are in good form. But it's not only Astralis, other teams and the system with 15-15 draws with one point, as we saw with ENCE and Liquid [in São Paulo], it's a pretty tough match every time. We need to focus every day to get as many points as possible and focus on the best-of-three if it's going to happen. I'm just looking forward to a good tournament for us. I hope for the same as in China.