huNter-: "Our goal is to be as consistent as possible in this online environment, which is a big challenge"

We sat down with Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač after G2 realized their first goal of the season, reaching the ESL One Cologne playoffs, following group stage victories over MIBR and HEROIC.

Since joining G2 last October, huNter- and Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković have been on an ascending path, with the team finishing 2019 by winning the Champions Cup Finals in Malta and kicking off the new year in style by winning all BLAST Premier Spring Series matches in London and coming in second at IEM Katowice early this year.

G2 have since stabilized in the top spots of the rankings, including a two-week stint as the No. 1 team in the world, although the move to online CS has come with a mixed bag of results, ranging from a 10-12th place in ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe to back-to-back second places at ESL One: Road to Rio Europe and DreamHack Masters Spring.

During our conversation, huNter- went over his time in G2 so far and the adjustments the team has made to keep growing, the return from the player break, their bootcamp at the Red Bull headquarters in Salzburg, how nexa's calling is helping G2 succeed, and the squad's first matches of the season in ESL One Cologne.

I would like to start off by going back in time to the beginning of 2020. G2 was doing really well on LAN after getting the team acquainted in late 2019, but once things went online it got a bit bumpy at times. What that period was like?

Just from 2020 or since nexa and I joined G2?

You can go as far back as you like if you need to add context.

Okay, so we signed for G2 last year. It was pretty tough at the beginning because JaCkz didn't speak English very well and it was the first time the French players were on an international team. That was a big challenge for them. Communication wasn't one of our strong suits at the beginning, but we were improving day by day and from event to event. It was also a challenge for nexa and myself to play in a big organization like G2 with big names.

When we signed for the team it was decided that we would play as many events as possible from October until the end of the year. We decided it that way so we would get to know each other, learn how to communicate, to create a family atmosphere, and to really see who could do what and what we could expect from each other since we didn't know each other very well at the time. I can now say, looking back, that it was a really good idea to play a lot of events and to be together as much as possible.

This year started out pretty well for us. We had the online IEM Katowice qualifiers at the beginning of January, in which we won both of the games we played. Then we had the BLAST Premier Spring Series in London after that, where we won all three of our games. At IEM Katowice we did really well, beating teams like mouz and Liquid, all really great teams, up until the final match, against NAVI, which we lost 0-3. That was a bad day for us, we didn't prepare well.

After Katowice we really felt like we were improving our LAN performances and everything was getting better and better, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit. It also happened for the rest of the teams, of course, but I feel like we were in really good shape on LAN and everything moved online after that. Now we're still fighting and doing our best online and we've consistently been a top 3-5 team in the past few months—we even had two weeks at the top. That has been great for our confidence, to be top 1, and now we're trying to be as consistent as possible so that everything else will follow.

How would you say the team has evolved since you and nexa joined? The players, the roles, nexa's calling, the secondary calling... How have all of the elements in the team meshed over time?

At the beginning it was really tough for all of us, we had some roles that we had played before but we found out that we needed to change many of them, especially on the CT side. On the T side we didn't really have that many problems, nexa was calling really well, we had good gameplans, [coach] maLeK had a really good feeling in the game, but we did have some problems on the CT side. It was mainly because of communication, I would say, we didn't understand each other well enough, so we decided to swap a lot of roles. I was playing with AmaNEk at the beginning, but we saw it didn't really work that well so nexa then paired up with him. We tried everything, which is the reason we wanted to play a lot of events, to be able to do this, to get to know each other both in real life as well as in-game. Now everything is good, we’re getting better and better. We still have a lot to improve, and we have room to improve, which is really good for us—to know that we can still improve a lot more. We're getting better and better and that makes me happy.

What has the return after the player break been like?

We really needed the break, especially nexa and I, because we barely had any free time in the past 18 months. When we were in Valiance and CR4ZY, before signing for G2, we played a lot. We played the Minor, then had a one-week break and we started bootcamping for the Major qualifier, which was the first event of the new season. After the Major there was the whole thing regarding the G2 transfer, which was mentally exhausting and after signing for G2 we played a lot of events up to the last one ,which we won in Malta, but then we just had 10 days off in January and we played the IEM Katowice qualifier, so it was a really tough period for us. We managed to do pretty well, though, and I'm really happy to be in G2 now. But yeah, nexa and I played more than 400 official maps on HLTV in that time and that’s without counting the open qualifiers, which we played a lot of with CR4ZY and Valiance, so it was insane. Now we’re full of energy after a month off, the break was really helpful for all seven of us. We have a bunch of events ahead of us until the end of the year and I think we're ready.

G2 had a pre-season bootcamp at the Red Bull headquarters. Can you tell me a bit about that experience?

The bootcamp we did at the Red Bull House in Salzburg was really something special. We didn't work as we usually had before, and the way most other teams do, which is you wake up, practice, and then play FPL or deathmatch or whatever all day. We had a lot of sports activities and training sessions with professional coaches: running, doing exercises together, challenging each other, doing reflex exercises, and a lot of activities that are connected to the game. We also had a mental coach for a few days who helped us a lot as a team, how we should work together, the keys to success, how we could work on improving, how we could help each other, etc. The guys there are very professional and I'm very happy we had this bootcamp, we learned a lot and we're still working on things we learned there to improve our performance now that we’re at home. I'm really grateful for the experience and I look forward to seeing them again soon.

Can you share a bit about some of those activities? Was there a lot of team building?

Not so much team building, we do that on our own and we always try to improve even though we already have a really good atmosphere in the team. We did a lot of sports exercises and learned a lot about how to focus, how to refocus, how to activate our brain and our body before games or before practice starts. We had a nutritionist help us with what we should and shouldn't eat and how long before a game we should have a meal. Those sorts of really helpful things that athletes count on. The mental coach was with us for three or four days. He helped us a lot with one-on-one sessions, but when we were all together with him he gave us really good and helpful insight. It wasn't a normal bootcamp for us, it was the first time we had this kind of bootcamp in which we didn't play all of the time but did a lot of other things as well. It was really productive and really great.

Do you think that the classic bootcamp that just consists of playing as many hours as possible may be outdated in today’s landscape?

You should play as you normally do, it's tough to play 10 hours a day as we did during bootcamps before. I did that in Valiance and CR4ZY, and we did it with G2 before, as well, but lately we've realised that the most important thing isn't just to play, but to have other activities that will also help us. It's not easy to wake up at 10:00, play until 21:00 and then repeat that every day. It'll work for a few days but then you'll get tired of CS, so having other activities is very helpful. The important thing is to play, be in good shape, and feel good in the game, but you can also improve other things that are not strictly playing CS.

Let's move into the game itself now. How did you feel going into ESL One Cologne after the bootcamp? Some of the teams that have played a few more series, like Heroic, seem to be doing pretty well, even giving you a run for your money. What are the feelings after your first matches?

The first matches at events after the player break are hard because you don't know what to expect from your opponent, and you don't really know if you yourself are really ready. It doesn't matter what happened in practice, you need to play some official matches to see how you prepared, how the other teams prepared, and the first games are always really tough and important to win. We've only played two games so far, against MIBR and Heroic. We wanted to secure the playoffs and we won both matches, so our first goal of the new season has already been achieved.

The opening match against MIBR went great. The match preparation, everything inside the game, it all went pretty well. The boys did great and it was very important for us to win the first game of the season. Things worked out for us, nexa had good calls, and it was one of those games in which everything just works. I was really proud of the team. The second game, against Heroic, wasn't as good. They played really well and although we didn't play at our best level we still won, which is an advantage that great teams have, they can still win even when they don't play the best CS. That's really something, and we couldn't do this before. Heroic played really well but we had some great comebacks, and as you said they had played a bit before Cologne, which was probably good for them. But yeah, they have really good players and HUNDEN has been doing a great job since signing for them.

You talked about nexa making some good calls, but he's also been doing really well on an individual level. How important is it to have a caller who can also be a strong individual player and help out in the fragging department?

I've been with nexa for like three or four years now and we know each other pretty well. I've known him almost since we were kids. He's not a real IGL, he didn't really want to become an IGL, but he started calling in CR4ZY because nobody else wanted to lead, and I know how important it is for him to still perform well in the game. If you're killing and building your confidence you'll call better, you'll think better, you'll do your best for the team, and if you're calling well while also getting kills, that's really great. I think nexa is one of... he and NiKo are some of the few IGLs who also frag a lot. There's what, maybe four or five of them? I don't know, but for me the best are NiKo and nexa. It's really great and I'm really happy for him because I know he's been working a lot lately. He's in good shape, working hard, and he has experience now. He's always been a good shooter and now he has the IGL thing too, so I think he's going to be a full, complete player soon. I'm happy for him.

As you pointed out, nexa isn't really a natural IGL, so how do some of the other voices from secondary callers or the coach work together?

maLeK really has a feel for the game. His timeouts are always good and he always has good ideas on how to play the next rounds. I'd say that's especially true on LAN. I try to help nexa out on the CT side because I play the rotation roles, while he plays as an anchor and he can't always see what's going on, so I try to help as much as possible in that sense. Of course on the T side I also try to help, but when AmaNEk’s in shape he’s the one with really good ideas.

We all try to help and nexa is really open-minded, so he won't ever say, 'OK, we just do what I say.' If someone has an idea he'll always listen and almost always do whatever is proposed. Sometimes he'll say that maybe it's not the best time to do something or whatever, but he has an open mind and always listens to his teammates, which is what I like about him — he's not stubborn. During mid-rounds if people have ideas he'll always go for it, of course. I think that's a big reason we have a good T side.

How has the adjustment to online CS been? What do you do to stay motivated when you're not looking forward to traveling to LAN?

As I said earlier we were starting to play really well on LAN before the coronavirus. When CS moved online at the beginning we were just thinking, 'OK, this time it's online but next will be on LAN,' and this lasted like five or six months. We just wanted to play on LAN and we weren't that focused on the online stuff. When you're alone at home in front of your PC sometimes you're 100% focused but others you're 50% focused because you don't have the same environment, you don't feel your teammates next to you, etc. That's what we all want.

Everything is pretty different. We need to get used to it so before this season started we just decided that we had to focus as much as possible because we didn't know when our next LAN event would be and that couldn't be an excuse anymore. This is how it is for everyone and like everyone else, we’ve had our ups and downs. It's different when you're bootcamping, when you see your boys next to you. Everything is different then, but it’s hard when you're alone at home, playing online. But as I said, no excuses, we need to just focus and do our best. This is how it is for everyone.

You touched upon the fact that playing from a bootcamp is different. Having your teammates, coach, manager, etc. next to you can make it easier to get into the right mindset. Some teams are playing from a bootcamp, do you think that's an advantage? Is it something you'd want to do as well?

Yeah, it's 100% an advantage to have your teammates next to you. Everything is different, starting with match preparation. You're doing it faster, smoother and everyone is focused. You just feel different when you see your teammates' faces and know how to help them. When you’re playing online and you're losing and someone seems down you don't see that, so you don't know how to help them, and that's really tough. So yeah, it's definitely an advantage to play from bootcamp. In the future we'll definitely play one or two events that way. The most important ones, like the third RMR tournament or something like that.

Now that you've become a stable top-5 team, what goals have you set for the foreseeable future?

We don't really set many goals, we're the kind of team that just looks at what's next, what’s right in front of us, and we focus on that. At the moment we're focused on ESL One Cologne, on the quarter-finals, and that's the goal. We don't think that much about the future, the Major, what events we need to play in December, what we'll do next year, and I don't know what else. We are just focused on what's right in front of us and the rest we'll think about when it comes. Our main goal is just to be as consistent as possible in this online environment, which is a big challenge.