AdreN: "When I win a tournament, I want to win more; It's like a drug"

Aleksei "⁠OverDrive⁠" Birukov sat down with Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev for HLTV.org for a lengthy talk about his career, the iconic Major-winning campaign in Krakow, his plans for the future and views on the game.

AdreN is one of the most experienced and decorated players in the CIS scene, with a career spanning almost 15 years and three different games: 1.6, CS:Source and CS:GO. After struggling for international success during the early years of CS:GO, he reached the pinnacle of the game in 2017 as he won PGL Major Krakow with Gambit, also earning the tournament's MVP medal for his role in the team's success.

After spending four months with FaZe as a stand-in, during which the team won the ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational and BLAST Pro Series Miami, AdreN returned to his roots as he linked up with AVANGAR. He will make his first appearance for the team on Friday, in the EMF CS:GO World Invitational 2019, where they will take on FURIA in a winner-takes-all clash with $64,000 on the line.

Read on as we discuss with AdreN a wide range of topics, including the early days of his career, the Major triumph in Krakow, working under Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko, his time with FaZe, and his thoughts about retirement.

How did you come up with your nickname?

In the beginning, my nickname was Tafik, because my brother’s nickname was Taf, and as a younger brother I was destined to be Tafik. With time, I decided to come up with my own nickname, around about the age of 14. I would write down different nicknames on a piece of paper to select something interesting.

Once I was listening to a song by a band named Total – “Adrenaline hits the eyes”, and thought that Adrenaline would be a cool nickname for CS, and no one had taken it yet. I used to type it out fully as Adrenaline, and people would call me Adrenaline in real life as well. One time at a LAN event someone called me AdreN, and from there everyone started calling me that. After that I abbreviated my nickname in CS, writing it as AdreN.

Do you miss 1.6?

I miss those times more than the game. The times when every three months there would be an Asus Cup and the entire CIS community would meet up on LAN and have a great time. As for the actual game, I don’t miss it at all. I recently played 1.6, and even streamed it, and I’d like to say that I didn’t like it at all, it was boring. Its charm has worn off.

How did you transition from 1.6 to CS:GO? Did you like the new version of the game immediately?

My transition was a little bit different. Around about the end of the 1.6 era, I dropped CS for approximately a year and moved to China for studies. I remember ANGE1 sent me a message around 2012 suggesting we get a team together. I liked the idea, and in the beginning, we just wanted to test the waters of the new game. After spending some time on it, we came to the conclusion that if a handful of bugs were to be fixed, the game would be interesting. As such, we started to gather a roster, and given time and a few shuffles we produced our first serious roster with Dosia, Fox and kucher. The guys found the transition harder, seeing as they were coming in from 1.6, whereas I was coming off a year-long break from the game, and didn’t have the same attachment to it. I needed about 50-60 hours to get my head around it.

The initial version of CS:GO was quite clunky, and I practically don’t know a single person who actually liked the game when it launched, barring maybe the Source players, simply because the initial version was basically a copy of CS: Source.

What is the difference between the pro communities of 1.6 and CS:GO?

In 1.6 everyone was more social, alive and it was more intriguing. Game of Thrones would be a good description of the 1.6 community. In CS:GO everything became more professional. From a different perspective, everyone was friendlier back in the day, there was no hypocrisy.

We met on LAN and talked much like the way we talked online, there were no double standards, and if there were disagreements, we would solve issues immediately. Nowadays it’s different; I don’t even go to afterparties anymore, because people don’t say what they genuinely think about you. The online community has grown up, and it has different life values compared to us, 90’s kids.

Tell me about the time k23 traveled to WCG 2005 during the CS: Source times, securing second place at the event.

I was just about starting to play 1.6, then, unexpectedly for everyone, it was announced that WCG would be running CS: Source, so we started playing the new game. Generally speaking, the entirety of Kazakhstan started playing Source, whereas in Russia this wasn’t the case, the majority still played 1.6. We barely won WCG Kz, and in the grand final there was an incident, which I won’t get into, but it meant that all the Kazakh teams turned their backs on us and refused to practice against us, so we transitioned back to 1.6.

We played amongst ourselves, sharpened our aim, trained various executes and asked our friends to hop onto the server, where we played 5v8 so that the session was somewhat productive for us. We arrived at WCG and were somewhat taken aback because all the teams there had sponsors, expensive equipment and managers, whereas we were just simple boys from Kazakhstan with stained mousepads and headsets mended with tape. We started playing against Europeans and understood that they were weak, so we didn’t experience issues on the way to the final. The problems started when we played 3D in the final – we weren’t prepared to play on stage. 3D were already using Ventrillo at the time, while we not only played without microphones but barely heard the in-game sound. I think if we played in a normal environment without a stage or viewers, we would’ve won.

What was the incident at WCG Kz?

One of our teammates was fed information about the opponent, but this ended up getting in the way more than it helped. We found out about it only after the match concluded.

Your first teams in CS:GO were Virtus.pro, Astana Dragons and Hellraisers. Could you tell me about this period of your life, how the teams assembled and why you subsequently left them?

In VP we showed good results, but there was once an unpleasant situation. I was approached by the ministry of sports and tourism of Kazakhstan, who told me that there would be Asian games in Korea, and the country’s team needed an esports captain. I obviously accepted, but said that I would have to talk it over with my organisation. About 3-4 months prior to the start of the tournament, I spoke with VP, and they agreed to let me go. A few weeks before the event, I was told that DreamHack Summer would be taking place during those dates, and that I had to go. I was put in a position where I had to choose between the Asian Games or DreamHack with the team. I couldn’t turn down the trip to Korea, seeing as I had promised to participate; besides, I was the team captain, so things revolved around me, I couldn’t pull out. Following this situation, I was kicked. I’ll reiterate, however, that we showed great results and outplayed NiP, while other teams struggled to. Had we continued with the same roster, who knows what could have happened, we could’ve gone on to dominate and win all the events.

After VP I joined Astana Dragons, which was run by two friends of mine. They wanted to assemble a strong roster, I made a proposition, and thus it was born. Everything was going well, but the organisation was slightly impatient. The money came out of their own pocket, and understandably they were frustrated with the lack of monetisation options, particularly since the expenses greatly exceeded any gains. Two-three months after we parted ways with Astana Dragons, Valve introduced stickers, which gave CS:GO a financial boost. The last three months we were playing without wages, purely propelled by enthusiasm. We subsequently decided to find a new organisation - that’s how we got picked up by HellRaisers.

Out of all the three teams, I enjoyed our performance on Virtus.pro the most. We had a unique chemistry, where we understood each other perfectly both in-game and out. We created a meta. Many young players of the time, who have grown into the stars of today, confessed that they took a lot of tricks and rounds that we developed in Virtus.pro. The fnatic roster of the time played Mirage just like we did. Something to understand in all of this is that the Virtus.pro of old and the current Virtus.pro are two different organisations. At the time, it was a small organisation at the beginning of its path, whereas now we’re talking a whole different scale. Generally speaking, the state of an organisation now and its state five years ago are drastically different. Back in the day no one really took care of players either.

In an interview, ANGE1 said that he blames himself for HellRaisers not living up to its potential back in the day. What’s your take on the situation?

We’ve discussed this on several occasions, and I don’t believe that the fault is entirely his. The fault is on the entire team. We could have trained to a point where no matter what ANGE1 instructed, we secured rounds, but we didn’t. Some people got lazy and didn’t do their job properly. After the Cologne Major, I was kicked from HellRaisers. I was very worried about the team, and pushed for a change in our approach to practice, pushed for higher quality and quantities of practice and a transition from a friendly environment to a professional one.

The brain remembers your training routine, and when you’re in a difficult moment, it works automatically, recreating what you practiced, and when you practice differently to how you would play at a tournament, you’re incapable of dealing with difficult situations on LAN. No one on the team agreed with my sentiment on the issue and thought that everything was fine. In such a situation the easiest resolution was a kick.

How did you transfer to Gambit?

Dosia freaked out and left HellRaisers right before the Major, I left afterward. The two of us looked for an organisation, and, for example, SK reached out to us. In the end, we spoke to Groove, who agreed to create a roster with us, and thus the first Gambit roster with Hooch was drafted. We played decently, but not well enough to contend at the tier one level. We didn’t understand what we were missing, but when Zeus arrived, we knew immediately what the missing component was.

Tell me about your preparation for the Major that you won. Some say you had a lot of issues going into it.

Yes, that’s true. We had a lot of disagreements, conflicts, and arguments. Before the Major, we had a ten-day bootcamp where we lost 90% of our practice matches. To add, we didn’t just lose them, we lost without a chance with scores like 25-5, 22-8. We didn’t understand what was going on, and Zeus once said: “I don’t understand why we even came together for a bootcamp if this is the level of play we’re demonstrating”. Despite this, we continued to play and train.

How did it come to be, then, that at the Major you demonstrated performances that are the exact opposite of what you just described?

The amount of time we spent practicing before the bootcamp should be noted. We played a lot, discussed a lot, which led to a snowball effect. At the Major, it was as if all of the training emerged at a single moment, and some sort of enlightenment took effect – our spirits were strong and we played to our maximum.

I heard that you had a special training system in place. Could you tell me about it?

My friend got me “The Golden Rules” by Bob Bowman, who is Michael Phelps’ coach. In this book, Bowman described Phelps’ training routine and his philosophy towards being the best. This book really inspired me, because Michael Phelps isn’t just some random athlete, he’s a multiple Olympic champion who, despite setbacks in the form of injuries and drug use, managed to secure gold medals. Whose biography, if not his, would motivate you to become the best?!

The actual system was quite simple - your training needs to exceed the set plan. For example, the coach would set a 24-second pool lap, even though 26 would have been sufficient to win at the Olympics. When Phelps would finish a lap in 25 seconds, he would get upset and train even harder to follow the training plan. I translated this to CS in the following way – I understood that in a day we would have 5-6 practice matches, and playing another three on top in FPL wouldn’t be an issue. I would set myself the goal of playing an additional six FPL matches after training. If an hour of an aim map was enough for me to warm up, I would do two. If I felt that watching two demos would be enough, I watched four.

I tried to load myself to the fullest and understood that it would become easier with time. This confirmed itself down the line, and this system always helped me. A different factor is that it’s hard to find motivation to follow such a plan, and the book describes how to maintain this motivation. For example, one of the simpler motivations Bob Bowman devised was to place a board with the number of days left until the next tournament. When the athlete saw the exact number of days left, he would automatically align to work harder. During our bootcamp I would write the number of days left until the Major - I would wake up and see that only ten days remained, and would understand that there was no backing out. You have very little time until the tournament of your dreams starts, and you need to prepare rigorously.

Tell me about the Major, how did you manage to win?

As I mentioned previously, we played very poorly at the bootcamp. When we arrived at the Major, we played an MDL match against Playing Ducks, where we just about won at 22-19. We understood that there was a minuscule chance that we would even make it out of groups. In our first match against Mousesports on Inferno we started on the T side, losing 0-6, without any indication of possibly winning a round. Mouz gave us a leg up by rushing us, we shut them down and ended up closing the half 7-8; in the second half, we simply didn’t give them a chance. After this, we were unstoppable. It was as if something had changed from within, even though we played just like we did during training. I felt like all the teams simultaneously started playing poorly, no one could land their shots and they couldn’t hold us back.

What were your initial emotions after winning the final?

Initially, I had no idea what was going on. We won, jumped up from our seats, and I just had this emptiness in my head, a feeling of it being over. Everything we had trained for was over, the feeling is hard to describe. The actual realisation of winning a Major only really settled in after about a month-and-a-half.

What were your feelings on securing the Major MVP?

We went to our room, celebrated, hugged each other, took some photos, and we heard a knock at the door. One of HLTV’s reporters came in and asked for me to visit the press zone to collect my MVP badge after we were done celebrating our victory. I turned to the guys and said: “Boys, I think I landed the Major MVP.”

I didn’t understand what was going on, there was so much going on internally that I couldn’t differentiate between all of the emotions. These are emotions that will be recalled fondly on any given day. I think that we’ll remember those moments for times to come.

Why did you end up booting Zeus after the Major?

Everyone knew that we had disagreements with Zeus. I sympathised with Kane as a person, but as a coach he didn’t have much impact on the team. A coach has to do more than just stand behind his team and help the captain during rounds, he has to be everywhere and has to assist all his players in growing. He has to attend to the process and be in the thick of it at all times, which are things that I didn’t see in Kane. It’s possible that he has changed since, but at the time it was unacceptable for me. He didn’t help anyone aside from Zeus, and even then this could have been an illusion, but Zeus always said we were wrong, that Kane was different, that we should trust him. I couldn’t trust such a coach. Having said that, it’s possible that, thanks to him, the chemistry existed and that we won the Major off the back of it.

Irrespective, the situation came to a point where we decided to part ways with Misha [Kane] - it was an ultimatum. Danya [Zeus] said that if Misha left, he walked as well. We explained why we didn’t want to play with Misha, but Danya didn’t want to play without him. There were rumours that Zeus was in talks about leaving the team, so his departure was more a question of “when”. Even if we had kept the roster, maybe we would have won a couple more tournaments, but in the end, we would still have parted ways. There wasn’t a specific moment or conversation that would have suggested this; it just naturally brewed into it. Having said that, I was more on the side of keeping the roster, rather than making adjustments.

Why did the team struggle going forward, regardless of whom you signed?

We lost our captain, the most important link of the squad. He builds the entire game process of the team. Effectively we didn’t have a player at the helm, who would lead the squad in his wake. If we replaced any other player, we would be able to maintain the level, but it was as if we had assembled a brand new team.

What did you think of Zeus as a captain?

I liked him as a captain. I liked the way he spoke to players, how he communicated certain things. He had an individual approach to each player, which is a very rare attribute. His calls have a peculiarity – we called it “Zeus’ Magic”. He would call a B hit, and you’d ask about how we want to do it. He would say we’ll figure it out on the spot. We walk out onto an empty B site or someone out of position. He has an extraordinary sense of captain’s intuition.

In all, his style of calling plays into having good individual players. Every player needs to demonstrate his skill. A lot of teams have a scripted approach to rounds, which limit the individual capabilities of players. The player can’t demonstrate his full potential while playing a scripted game. How will you grow if everything has been thought out for you - where you need to go, where you need to look? A player needs to understand that if something is going wrong, you need to take initiative and assist in winning the round. If you’re used to playing scripted CS, you are incapable of doing this.

Why did you decide to leave Gambit?

Nothing changed and we were just stagnating, something had to give. I proposed we take a two-month vacation to take some time away from each other, think things over and get together afterward to start things on a clean slate, as a new team, and start things anew. This idea was not approved of, and I decided to leave because I needed a breath of fresh air.

Despite everything, generally, our players were in good individual form, and things weren’t quite as bad as many people expressed. I can say that the in-game understanding of the players on that team was higher than that of some tier one players of the time.

What was the most difficult loss during your time with Gambit?

StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 3 in Kiev. We prepared for it extensively, and at the time we played a more scripted version of CS that Zeus wanted to try out. After our loss, he said: “Guys, we tried everything we could, we prepared, we trained, but nothing worked out and I don’t have an answer.” It was at that moment that we realised we needed a looser playstyle. We needed to mix Danya’s ideas with our individual play. We needed a playstyle that would allow us to shine individually, contrary to Zeus’ initial style, which was scripted to the maximum. You won’t get far with scripted play. When you enter the top tier of competition, scripts will never be enough when it comes to winning tournaments - a script is needed to build a foundation. Astralis used to play a very scripted game, but with the arrival of gla1ve and zonic they found more freedom and life in their game, which led to immediate results. Effectively what they did was combine two styles to create a successful playstyle concept.

Returning to our conversation, after StarLadder, Danya said: “Ok, let’s play like you guys want”. We traveled to America for cs_summit, losing to SK in the final. At that point, we played a looser style. After that, we won DreamHack Austin, which led us to the conclusion that we made the correct call regarding our playstyle. We played with ease, we felt that matches had gone our way effortlessly at these events. Scripts always chain the movement and thoughts of a player, and I think this prevents them from achieving outstanding results.

Do you participate in roster adjustment conversations?

I always actively participate in roster adjustment conversations.

Have you ever personally proposed a roster adjustment?

Yes, the last time I raised the question of a replacement was with fitch. Throughout my life, he has been my bro, but looking at the in-game situation, I understood that a different approach was needed. Fitch was in the team at a difficult time and didn’t put up the performance he was supposed to.

Will the adjustments made in Na`Vi/Winstrike be a net positive or negative?

I’m not sure about Winstrike, seeing as they replaced their captain, which is the equivalent of creating a new team. I haven’t played with Edward in a while and don’t know how well his in-game leading is. From my recollection of the old Edward, at the time he didn’t fit into the role of a captain. He was a player that created space in the game.

As for Boombl4, only time will tell – the most important part is for the team to have synergy. Edward was a necessary link that completed the team. Perhaps not with his in-game performance, but factors outside of the game, such as his experience, knowledge of what’s required for victory, and generally being a shining example of professionalism, which created synergy. Boombl4 is young and still needs to grow and learn, but he is entering a team with three young, ambitious players, and how it will all come together is unknown. If they do everything correctly, and successfully create synergy within the roster, Na`Vi will be a serious killing machine.

How did FaZe contact you?

It was quite simple. I received a message from NiKo on Twitter, and immediately understood what the conversation would involve. He asked me if I was interested in standing in at the Major. At the time I had a lot of offers from various teams, and I was weighing up my options. I either wanted to take a break or if I did end up joining a team, I wanted to join one where results were guaranteed. As such, FaZe was a fantastic option, not only because I would be part of one of the best teams in the world, but also because I would get a first-hand view of the internal processes inside a top European team. I agreed without discussing the financial aspect, I genuinely couldn’t care less about the pay.

How did the team train? Were there language barrier issues?

Yes, there were, despite the fact that I played a lot of FPL and felt confident in-game; this was another level. My English level was insufficient, and I don’t consider it to be particularly bad, either. It was difficult to absorb and communicate information instantly, and in order to be able to do this, you need to think in English, whereas I live and have lived in CIS countries and have always spoken Russian.

To be able to think in English you need to live in a country where English is the main language. In the beginning, it was very difficult; I was playing completely new roles, and to add to the difficulty, had to communicate in a foreign language. FaZe players even expressed that had I been able to communicate in English as fluently as in Russian, the game would have been totally different. They saw the communication GuardiaN and I had in clutch situations, and the way we communicated during them. Those were two completely different AdreNs. I think GuardiaN and I converted 90% of clutches when it was just the two of us.

Describe the feeling of entering a server and having GuardiaN, NiKo, olofmeister and rain as your teammates.

Of course, in the beginning, it was quite strange, but in a short space of time, I felt as if I had played with these guys for years. The atmosphere was very pleasant, the guys helped me adapt fast. From this perspective, everything was perfect – as I mentioned previously, the most difficult parts were the new positions and communicating in English.

How did you spend your free time at LANs?

A large portion of the spare time we spent in cafes. Outside of that, we went for walks, chatted, just generally had normal, friendly adult interactions without anything extraordinary. We barely spoke about matches, perhaps a couple of minutes here and there, mainly it was conversations about life.

Who’s the funniest guy on FaZe?

They’re all pretty funny; rain might be a little bit more serious than the others. The funniest guy is probably NiKo, but if I’m serious, then I’ll use this adjective without hesitation – they’re normal. This is to say that they aren’t super serious, but also not too humorous, they’re balanced. Any player that joins the roster will be comfortable and his stay within the team atmosphere will be pleasant. Not a single person is big-headed or complicated.

How did your tenure with FaZe conclude?

I thought I wouldn’t be traveling to Sydney, but after we won in Miami, the team decided to go with me. NiKo couldn’t make it, so we didn’t put up the performance we wanted to. When I asked about my future, Janko [YNk] and NiKo would tell me that it would become clear after Sydney. When I arrived in Kiev, Janko asked me to join our Teamspeak server, and at that point, I knew what the conversation would be about. I was ready for it and understood that NiKo shouldn’t be the captain, instead, he should focus on his individual game and the team should find a new in-game leader. In that specific context, I’m not the player that they needed. As much as I’d like to be a captain, my English simply wouldn’t be enough.

Did you enjoy Niko’s in-game leading?

Yes, I enjoyed it. He has a lot of fresh and interesting ideas. His issue is that he doesn’t have as much experience as a captain at the top level, and didn’t elaborate things in as much detail as the team required. Essentially, the team didn’t always understand his plan, and he had to explain post-game what he meant. Despite this, he is a great captain, and a testament to this fact is the number of tournaments we won in a short period of time.

You joined AVANGAR – what other options did you have, and why did you join AVANGAR specifically?

Prior to AVANGAR I didn’t have any specific propositions. There was interest from the US, and I liked the organisations, but not so much the rosters I would be joining. I declined and said that I would like to play in the CIS region. I’ll mention right now that they aren’t the same organisations that Hobbit received offers from. AVANGAR are my guys – a young Kazakh roster. They’ve demonstrated great CS on an international level, but there was a little something missing. I hope to be that X-factor.

Why is Kazakhstan one of the leading countries in the CIS region when it comes to producing strong teams and players?

If we’re talking from the perspective of mentality, then Kazakhs are quite a purposeful nation. We always want to win, and in-game we aren’t afraid of any opponents. This particular characteristic is missing in a lot of European teams. When we play against Astralis, we don’t get the feeling of – ‘Oh god, we’re playing against Astralis, how will we win against them?’ We have a single thought – ‘Oh cool, we’re playing against Astralis, let’s land a victory and show the world who we are!’. It’s a different mentality, a different spirit.

If we’re talking about esports as a whole, then it’s a lot more established in Kazakhstan than, for example, other Central Asian countries. This happened thanks to Murat Jumashevich, I think he must have organised a million tournaments. These tournaments served as proving grounds for all professional players in Kazakhstan. Prior to him, esports’ development in the country had been on par with some random remote region in Russia. When a Kazakh team arrived at an Asus Cup, it couldn’t even make it out of groups, and a quarter-final exit would merit celebration. After Murat Jumashevich helped us, we started training in Moscow and contended for first place at any given CIS-based tournaments. If it weren’t for Murat Jumashevich, I wouldn’t have become who I am right now.

Why is it that year by year, the CIS region sees fewer new talents emerge?

I think that CIS doesn’t have enough captains that could nurture young talent. Maybe even I should consider shifting my attention away from being an individual player, instead, focusing on becoming a full-fledged captain. Another issue that young players have is that they tend to lack belief in their capabilities. Everyone has something to offer, they just need to work and develop their abilities, and trust in the result.

Name the favourite roster of your career.

I have two favourite rosters. These are the Gambit roster with which I won the Major, and k23, a roster I spent a very long time on. It was composed of Beast, Anvik, Nickel and Mihao. We lived in Moscow and experienced difficulties alongside one another; it was a fantastic period in my life. If that team existed in CS:GO, we would have achieved a lot; we had unprecedented synergy and understood each other seamlessly. We were brothers.

Name your best and worst teammates.

Best teammate – Dosia. It’s difficult to find a better teammate; he was loyal, understanding, observant and simple in life. As for my worst teammate, I’d have to say spaze. We didn’t get on well personally, and in-game he was incorrigible. You would give him feedback and suggestions for improvement in-game, he would disregard it and continue to play his own way, even though he had high potential.

Are high buyouts good for players?

Esports are growing, buyouts are becoming a thing and this is normal, but they have to be proportionate to your compensation. If your buyout is $1,000,000, then your pay has to be appropriate. When your buyout is $500,000, but your monthly salary is $500, that’s strange. I don’t know how these prices are made, and I don’t fully understand how organisations make money, why sponsors pay such large amounts of money, whether it’s possible to come out with a profit. How is it that player salaries have blown up so much in the space of two years? Perhaps it’s because the final business process hasn’t cemented yet. Now, for example, there’s this tendency to found academies, maybe this is could be the next honey pot. We should also consider that each region has its own specificity - America is leading in terms of money in esports, as teams in the top 50 of HLTV are earning about twice as much as top CIS rosters.

Tell me about how your salary grew over the course of your career.

My first salary was with k23 - $1,000. This was a good salary, but I also put myself out there for it. I was receiving the same $1,000 until I took a year break. When I transitioned to CS:GO, we started with $500 wages on Virtus.pro, and it gradually increased. It jumped a bit when I joined HellRaisers, and jumped back up to $1,000 when I joined Astana Dragons. It was when I joined Gambit did it increase significantly, and after we started producing results, the wage increased further. Everything was dependent on results – had we not won, we wouldn’t have received these wages.

Did FaZe pay you more or less?

FaZe paid me less, but I wasn’t on contract. I could’ve signed a contract for the same money that I was offered on Gambit, and if I was benched then I’d be subject to a buyout. In this particular situation, I didn’t have the goal of making money, and I understood that I might not spend too long on the team, seeing as they needed an in-game leader. According to our agreement, I was paid a specific amount per month, which was less than what Gambit offered. For me it was fine, plus we managed to win a couple of tournaments on top.

Talk to me about the impact of coaches over the course of your career. Who had the most and least impact?

I’d say that YNk was the most impactful coach for me. He has a good understanding of the game and knows how to construct the in-game process. If we go back to 1.6, I’d say Groove, who worked with us during k23. He helped us in-game, in life and without him we wouldn’t have achieved the results we did. If we take it as an aggregate over my entire career, then Groove had the maximum impact on me. As for minimal impact from coaches, I find that difficult to answer. There were a couple, but I don’t want to recall that.

Were you ever asked to fix a match?

Back in the day, it used to happen all the time, but I always said that it was not worth it. Your career is on the line, and you can make a lot more money than you would on betting. Plus, I really hate losing.

Have you taken part in FPL kicks?

I never initiated them, but I always took part in voting. I was asked who I would like to remove, who I liked and who I didn’t. I’d like to play in a competitive hub, and it’s perfectly normal that people would have to be kicked to ensure that. If a player is genuinely good at the game, then a kick from FPL won’t be an issue for him, he would be able to prove himself in another way. As of right now, I don’t take part in FPL kicks.

Who would you like to play with in your career?

I have always wanted to play with f0rest. I think he’s a great guy and teammate, he’s a legend. I grew up watching his demos and formed my style around it.

Have you ever got into fights over CS:GO?

I have always tried to be friendly. Conflicts frequently arose between my teammates and our friends and acquaintances since everyone knew each other. I just loved to play, and this side of it never interested me. As for now, there aren’t players that I have bad relations with or people that would bad-mouth me; I don’t seek conflicts myself either. There’s just no point.

Do you watch tournament streams? Which streams do you prefer to watch, Russian or English ones?

Generally speaking, I rarely watch streams because the observers rarely show what I’d like to see, I prefer GOTV. But if I do end up watching a stream, then it’s in English. I can’t take Russian streams seriously. The commentators, instead of following the game, focus on trolling and insulting players, which I don’t care to listen to.

How should Russian casters improve their level of commentating?

You need to concentrate on the game, instead of specific players. To understand whether a player made a mistake or not, you need to understand the essence of the game, the round or the in-game leader’s call. Randomly saying a player is weak because he went to X and died is stupid.

You actively streamed while not on a team. Have you considered the possibility of becoming the Kazakh “Shroud”?

I thought about it, but I’d like to play a bit longer and win a few more tournaments. I know that streamers can make more money than players, but, for me, the most important aspect are the emotions that I experience during matches on-stage.

As a streamer, you will never experience them. Further, you can’t really jump from being a professional player to becoming a streamer; even if you look at Shroud, he transitioned very smoothly. For a long time he played professionally and streamed simultaneously, and only when he entirely lost the motivation to be a pro player did he focus on streaming. I definitely won’t be able to become a streamer so abruptly.

In order for a player to become a coach, would the transition have to be smooth or is it possible to make it fast?

Coaching is a different story. Generally, in CSGO, there isn’t really a definition as to what the coaching role involves. For now, the functions of a coach are very blurry, as there isn’t a concrete understanding of what he has to do and how he needs to work. In football, for example, everyone understands who the coach is and what his responsibilities are.

In CSGO you can’t definitively say what the coach is responsible for, because in some teams he fulfills a psychologist/motivator role, in others, he may be an analyst/tactician; all of this is to say that, depending on the roster, the coach can be responsible for different things. As for the transition from player to coach, that largely depends on the individual – some might be able to do it instantly, some might need some time, and some will never be able to fulfill the role.

A lot of players are almost in their thirties. What is the age limit for a professional player, and what age do you plan to play to?

Age limitations don’t exist; everything depends on the player’s spirit, and whether he is ready to give the game his all past the age of 30. With age your priorities shift – some people have families, some people simply lose the motivation to play – everything depends on the individual. From the perspective of physical form, you don’t really need it in-game, there’s no physical exertion – you could compare it to chess. Maybe your aim slightly worsens as you age, but the most important aspect is experience and your ability to apply it. A worse aim can be compensated with good positioning and by predicting the opponents’ movement.

I plan to play for at least another 2-3 years, at the very minimum. When I come to the realisation that I’m significantly lacking in-game and cannot maintain a sufficient level, then I’ll consider concluding my career. On a side note, take a look at f0rest, who, despite his age, is capable of destroying top teams no worse than his teammates, if not better.

At what age would you say you were in your best form?

I can’t say for sure, but I think it would be during the 1.6 times in 2008-2009. In CS:GO, my best form was when I was named the MVP of the Major.

How do you maintain motivation after victories at tournaments?

When I win a tournament, I immediately want to win more. There are a lot of tournaments that I haven’t won. It’s like a drug - you win, but you want to win more, and even though you get nice pay-outs, you want to earn more. I want my team to dominate the top layers of the scene, much like Astralis did, but things don’t always go the way you want them to, so there’s a lot of work ahead.

Does your wage affect your motivation?

It’s like a nice bonus for me. If I was invited to a strong roster, which produces results, but the pay isn’t the best, I would be fine with that.

If you were invited to Astralis, but without a wage, only prize winnings, would you join?

Why not? But from a different standpoint, I’m not sure we would have the chemistry required to produce victories.

Did you ever let success get to your head?

I think so, yes. I played at an internet café in Kazakhstan called Skynet, and whenever anyone got big-headed, it was explained to them that this was wrong, so if I ever got cocky, I was leveled quite fast. After our victory at the Major, I was probably in a comparable state, but it evaporated really fast. The most important thing is the kind of person you remain in the memories of people, not an event you won some time ago.

Tell me about your family.

I have an older brother, he used to play Quake professionally - it was from him that I found out about esports. He was actually categorically against me playing games, and in the beginning, I hid the fact that I wanted to become a professional player from him. It’s understandable, that’s brotherly love – he worried about me, which explains why he was against me playing computer games. My parents are currently retired, they used to own a family business. Mum was against me playing games until I traveled to WCG in 2005 and brought back prize money. My dad didn’t really know that I was all that into games. When he found out, he wasn’t particularly against it. I was quite lucky in that I always did what I wanted to. Even if I spent a lot of time behind the PC, mum didn’t get into arguments and carefully asked me to take a break. My brother and I have assumed financial responsibility for our parents. If there are ever questions when it comes to money, we deal with them immediately.

You mentioned that you traveled to China – what did you study and were the studies helpful at all?

I traveled to Shanghai to learn Chinese because I thought it would be useful, but as it turned out, I didn’t need it at all.

How many languages can you speak?

Russian, Kazakh, English and a little bit of Chinese.

Have you ever worked outside of esports?

No, I’ve been playing since I was 14, and have been winning prize money since I was 16.

What’s your favourite type of cuisine?

Asian. I really like chicken with rice, Asian style. And, like any Kazakh, I love meat. Some say that a Kazakh cannot live a full life without meat, he’ll fall ill.

What music do you listen to?

I listen to everything from Scriptonit (Russian trap music) to Kirkorov (Russian pop). I don’t care for trends; I just listen to what I like.

Do you have a dream outside of esports?

I had a dream of opening a pub where people could watch tournament matches. At any point, I could go there, let my staff off for the weekend, get behind the bar and pour a few pints for my customers.

Will you allow your kids to become pro players?

If I see the same ambition I had for it in my child, then I will gladly help them, but that’s what I’m saying right now. Who knows what my outlook will be when I actually have a kid.

Are you ready for a family and kids?

I think I’ll be ready in a couple of years.

Do you have any fears?

I wouldn’t say so. I have a few things I’m afraid of, but I wouldn’t call them fears per se. I’m fearless when it comes to flying. Maybe I haven’t seen or felt everything yet to be discussing fears.

Do you have a specific country or city which you love?

Los Angeles. I really vibed with the city and I’d want to live there.

Who is the most talented young player of today?

ZywOo, qikert and sergej. There are a lot of very talented young players at the moment.