buster: "We gave mou set positions and directions [on the CT side], but on the offense we had to explain a lot of specific rounds"

After AVANGAR secured a spot in the quarter-finals at CAC we spoke with Timur "⁠buster⁠" Tulepov to discuss recent results, new in-game implementations and playing out the group stage with Rustem "⁠mou⁠" Telepov.

AVANGAR are currently facing MIBR in the quarter-finals of CAC after demonstrating a 1-1 group stage record, where an opening match against MOUZ went south, followed by a close, but successful series against local squad ViCi. Noteworthy is the fact that these results were achieved despite being forced to employ stand-in mou, who assisted the Kazakh-majority roster in the group stage of CAC 2019 as Sanjar "⁠SANJI⁠" Kuliev was unable to participate due to visa issues.

During the off-day we sat down with buster to discuss whether the team was able to develop their repertoire further post-BLAST Pro Series Moscow, their state of rest, or lack thereof, results at Rotterdam and Belek and the experience of playing out the group stage in Shanghai with mou.

In the MVP interview with Jame that we conducted after BPS Moscow had concluded, he mentioned that the team had a list of issues that needed fixing. How successful have you been in rectifying these now that some time has passed?

I'd say a few of them were internal things we needed to address, while the bulk of it was developing more rounds etc. to our in-game.

And since then, have you had the opportunity to incorporate new rounds into your repertoire or is it still a work in progress?

We're still working on it because we didn't manage to complete everything in time during our week-long bootcamp. Beforehand we had to sort out visas for China, which threw a spanner in the works because our schedules had us waking up at 6 am, arriving at 12 and playing into the night, it was simply not enough time to round out our in-game component.

That interview was unique in that after lifting the trophy and securing his first-ever MVP, one of the first things Jame mentioned was that he was extremely tired, as was the entire team. To add to it all, immediately after the event you traveled to Almaty for a press conference - since then, have you had the time to take a break and reset a little after your packed schedule post-Major?

We didn't have time to rest. After Moscow we flew out to the press conference, probably spent around 20 hours there, where there were interviews, questions and lots of people; we were running on fumes, and right after that we got on a plane back home. There really was no time to rest, and we're probably only going to have time to relax after ECS.

Before we get into CAC, let's discuss a few preceding results. DreamHack Rotterdam saw you guys finish in 3-4th, what were the general takeaways from that event?

We had a period of time where everyone was moving out to live separately, but parallel to this, we trained at home. We didn't dedicate massive focus towards Rotterdam, because we just wanted to test some of the newer introductions that we're trying to incorporate into our game. Obviously we tried to win the event, but it didn't work out in the end.

After that, you had StarSeries Season 8 where you landed in 9-12th. What do you feel went wrong in Belek?

It felt like there was more of a vacation vibe, rather than a tournament atmosphere. We were in Turkey, right next to a beach, so the focus sort of shifted away. This isn't to say that we didn't try our best, but it was difficult to keep composure and remain engaged because of that atmosphere.

Fair enough regarding the atmosphere, but the format must've been beneficial for you in the context of getting practice with some of the new developments that we discussed. Did the BO3-exclusive format contribute to the improvement of your general level at all?

In Belek we were more focused on winning as opposed to testing out our new implementations. Some things didn't work out, which resulted in us bombing out pretty early.

On a more current note, the team will be traveling to ECS Season 8 mere days after the conclusion of CAC. With previous mentions of a severely packed schedule and lack of rest, do you feel it could have been a good idea to perhaps miss CAC with this in mind?

We simply didn't have too many large tournaments to play. All tournaments we participate in are important to us, not to mention the level of teams here at CAC and the sizeable prize pool. We wanted to round out the year with large tournaments. Other teams had EPL Season 10 etc. on the line, while we were fortunate to qualify for ECS S8 and have EPICENTER coming up, which we didn't know about prior.

The situation with SANJI's Chinese visa meant that mou stood in for the team during the group stage. Despite this setback, it turned out decently for you in that you at least secured quarter-final participation. What was it like playing alongside mou for a couple of series?

We were lucky that mou was in China during CAC. Playing with Rus (mou) was good, the only complication was that we implemented a lot of new rounds, which made it particularly difficult on the T side, for example. Our CT side wasn't too bad, because we just gave him set positions and directions, but on the offense, we had to explain a lot of specific rounds, which made it a lot harder.

Obviously missing SANJI played its role in the dynamic of the match, but what were your thoughts on the series against ViCi? Did you anticipate such a close affair considering they were underdogs in the match-up?

We didn't expect them to play so well on Inferno. We prepared against them, and during our preparation, we thought that we had the upper hand on them on Inferno specifically. They showed a strong CT side, whereby a few rounds that they converted put is in a difficult place; Inferno was a tricky one.

As for Mirage, we didn't train it too much, but nevertheless somehow managed to take it, we played well. It was a comfortable map in that on the CT side mou would join me, meanwhile, on the T side we moved together and just closed out the map.

On Train, we explained a few tricks on the CT side and it turned out for the best. Generally speaking, Inferno was probably the trickiest, with Mirage in a close second, not entirely sure what the issue was on that map.