stanislaw: "A big part of our bootcamp was making sure we are prepared on every single map"

Shortly after NRG brought to and the series against AVANGAR, taking a 2-0 victory, we spoke with the team's in-game leader Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz.

The North American squad started the New Challengers Stage with a slip-up, falling to DreamEaters on Overpass 19-17. After the defeat to the CIS squad, NRG turned things around and displayed dominance in matches against Syman, TYLOO, and AVANGAR.

In our post-match interview with stanislaw, we touched on him transitioning the team to the style of play he prefers, countering AVANGAR's A site execute on Dust2, and the updated Vertigo.

In the post-match interview CeRq mentioned that for the first month or so since you came into the team, you weren't playing with your strats, your idea of how you wanted to play. Coming into the team, people were expecting you to change things and were perhaps judging the team based on the results, while you have still not implemented your stuff. How was that experience like?

I think it is always important for me, every time I join a new team, to first identify how they like to play. I said this before, NRG were always a good team and I admired how they played with daps, they were making top 4 all the time, so as soon as I joined them I just wanted to see what their strengths were, I didn't really want to change too much. As time goes on, it is also important for me to implement my style because that is how I have confidence, being able to call my style to get the best out of everyone. It is just going to show how we progress. I think the bootcamp really helped us and as time goes on, we are going to keep improving.

In the start of the tournament you had the Dreameaters game, you ended up losing it after a big comeback. What was the reason behind the defeat because, after it, you played quite well?

I think it was a little bit of first-day jitters, perhaps, we haven't played a match for a while, we had the player break and then just the bootcamp, I think that was the factor. Dreameaters also played really well on their CT side, we couldn't get our T rounds going. And then as you said, we improved as the tournament went on, now we are just kind of rolling over teams, which we kind of expected to do. As each match goes on we are just going to keep learning and making sure we are fixing our mistakes. From the Dreameaters game, we really sat down and reviewed it and made sure it won't happen again.

I want touch on the AVANGAR game and the Dust map, their pick. They focus on the A site and the execute and you have, it seemed, countered it quite well, but they still managed to get a couple of rounds. Can you tell me about the dynamic of stopping their main weapon on Dust2?

When a team does an execute seven or eight times, you almost don't expect it, because sometimes it doesn't work but they do it again and again and again. It is a good execute, we actually stole that strat from them as well. But I think they were just getting shut down everywhere else so they kept doing what was working for them.

With this stage done, you are moving on to the Legends stage. We already know the eight Legend teams, some of them have stand-ins, we are not really sure what is going on there. What are your expectations in the second stage?

I think that now that we are in the last 16 we are still not too happy about it, we want to make sure we qualify at least for top eight, that was our goal before the Major. I think that as long as we keep doing what we are doing, improving as time goes on, talking about our games, and just really working hard, I think we will make top eight.

Lastly, I want to ask you about Vertigo because it is a map you haven't been playing as NRG. Recently it underwent some changes, do you think it is a map that is viable now? And what is the reason why you are not playing it?

We are ready to play it, we are ready to play any map. That was a big part of our bootcamp, making sure that we are prepared on every single map. As for how ready Vertigo is to be a competitive map, I think it is getting very close. I think the recent update to the B area has really helped a lot, it is a little bit more balanced. As time goes on, people will understand the map more, get more creative. I like it, it is something new, we had the same maps for a while now and Vertigo is something new, fresh, and fun to play.