BnTeT: "Freeman has helped us create a new structure and a lot of new CT setups"

We spoke to Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand after TYLOO secured a spot in the playoffs of the Asia Minor, discussing the team's bootcamp, the addition of WingHei "⁠Freeman⁠" Cheung and plans for the day off.

TYLOO were one of two teams to secure the first playoff slots of the Asia Minor following a 16-8 opening victory against FFAmix on Mirage and a fruitful best-of-three series against Alpha Red that saw all three maps played out.

After their Group B winners' bracket victory, we sat down with BnTeT to catch up on the team's preparation going into the Minor, discuss the addition of Freeman and break down the matches the team played on day one of the Minor.

It has been a while since TYLOO played on LAN - how did you spend the preparatory period before the Minor? Did you have a bootcamp?

We prepared for this Minor with a two-week bootcamp at the Esport Factory in Osnabrück, near Berlin. We fixed a lot of mistakes there, we progressed a lot and we had good results at the bootcamp. We feel confident about this Minor.

On June 14 you added Freeman to the roster. How did the team come to the decision to replace xccurate?

The team thought Freeman would be a good addition for us. He is a very young and talented player, he brings new stuff to the team. He has also helped us create a new structure, a lot of new CT setups, and he is able to speak English and Chinese, so it kind of helps the team a lot.

How much time were you able to spend preparing with Freeman considering he joined so recently? Was it just the two weeks at the bootcamp?

I think we practiced for one month in total, I guess. Two weeks during the bootcamp and two weeks online.

In terms of Freeman's playstyle, what aspects of it make him a good addition to the roster?

I think Freeman's playstyle is really clever. He can handle a lot of situations, buy time for us to make a rotation and he is also very aggressive on the T side, which is what we need.

Looking at the first day matches, it looked like Freeman was quite aggressive on the T side, as you mentioned, but on the CT side he played more of a supportive role. Would you agree with this assessment?

Yeah. On maps like Train he supports me, but on other maps he is the anchor, the solo player on a site. He can do many variations on his style, he can be a support, he can anchor, he can be aggressive, etc.

Let's go over the matches so far - your first match against FFAMIX was interesting because you experienced a lot of issues on the CT side of Mirage, later closing out 8-1 on the T side. How prepared were you going up against them?

We felt confident against FFAMIX because they are a mix team, and I had met some of their players in FPL. We watched their demos and didn't underestimate them. We still felt confident, taking a win.

Looking at the Alpha Red series - the last two times you had faced them in the EPL Season 9 APAC qualifier you had secured 2-0 victories, both seeing Overpass played out and convincingly won by you. On this occasion, you lost on Overpass - what went wrong on that map specifically?

Online and LAN are different things, I guess, and also this is the Asia Minor, where every team really wants to qualify. Alpha Red had played differently online, they brought a lot of new stuff here. We got caught off-guard on the B site, but after the first map we didn't think much about it and still felt confident we could make it by closing out the second and third maps.

Now that you topped group B you've secured playoffs here at the Minor, meaning you have a day off before your next matches. What are your plans for the day?

We're going to keep practicing, watch the games, watch demos, study our opponents and also practice individually a bit more.