Renegades: "Our plan is to get as much practice as possible before leaving since this opportunity might not happen again for a while"

We sat down with the Australian team ahead of ESL Pro League Season 13 to discuss the recent roster change and their time in Europe so far.

After a year of almost exclusive regional action, Renegades travelled to Europe last month to test themselves against the best in the world, making their first appearance with Alistair "⁠aliStair⁠" Johnston in the IEM Katowice Play-In, in which they went out 9th-12th - beating only TeamOne and suffering losses to MOUZ and Virtus.pro.

The Australian team, who have based themselves in Malta during their European stay, are now preparing for the ESL Pro League Season 13 group stage, in which they will face BIG, HEROIC, Complexity, OG and FunPlus Phoenix. They remain secretive about which player took up shotcalling duties in the team following Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong's departure, aiming to keep the pressure off the new in-game leader.

Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri, one of the three team members who spoke with HLTV.org, said that dexter's departure was something the team had been preparing for and that the addition of aliStair was based on the 22-year-old being a good fit outside of the game, which outweighed the AWP role overlap with Simon "⁠Sico⁠" Williams.

The team, currently ranked 38th in the world, are hoping to make it out of Group A in ESL Pro League, which would ensure them more time in Europe to practice and develop after a year in which they dominated their home region. Coming back to Europe soon seems unlikely, Jordan "⁠Hatz⁠" Bajic noted, as the main focus after Pro League will be on the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events and the qualification for the Major in October.

How hard was it to get to Europe ahead of IEM Katowice? Was this the first time you tried to make the trip since the pandemic started?

malta: Australia currently has travel bans on arrival and departure from the country. To gain approval to travel, you have to submit a lot of supporting evidence of your purpose to travel, plans, and reasoning to the Australian government and just pray that they know what esports are and why it’s a good enough reason to go international.

It was difficult to organize it all, especially under time pressure. The roster situation caused some trouble as we had to get permission for a new person to leave Australia, but luckily our manager is the best in the business and he sorted everything out for us.

It’s the first time we tried, after the year we had we felt like we had to take a risk and get back on the circuit.

On the outside, dexter leaving the team seemed like a big hit for the squad. What was losing him like for the team? Did you expect this change to happen earlier?

malta: Chris leaving was something we’d prepared for ahead of time. He’s a great player and we knew one day he’d be off to test himself in an international lineup. It came at both a good and bad time. Since we’d spent the year in Australia, we needed to do a complete rehaul of our playbook anyway so we really were starting fresh. We’ve improved quicker than I expected, all things considered.

You decided to pick up aliStair as a replacement for dexter. How big of a concern was the role difference between the two? Why add someone who had been a dedicated AWPer if that role was already taken by Sico?

malta: aliStair is someone a few of us had worked with before and is such a good fit outside of the game we knew we’d be able to work him into our style/system quickly. Honestly, a positive environment in which everyone gets along is the most underrated aspect of a team, and for me, it’s more important than any other factor. It helps that he's mechanically one of the best players out there, so he can slot into any role/style if he takes the time to learn.

Talking about IEM Katowice, you had a decent opening game against mousesports, beat TeamOne, and ended up eliminated by grand finalists Virtus.pro. How did you rate your showing in the Play-in?

malta: I think everyone was a little disappointed, we definitely could have closed the mouz game out and potentially had a better matchup than Virtus.pro, but with only two weeks of practice and a new player/IGL, it could have gone a lot worse for us.

In terms of practice, what has your focus been on since Katowice? Are there new things that you've learned regarding the meta, or things you have been surprised by since arriving in Europe?

aliStair: Katowice was a bit of a slugfest for us. It was straight after our first real week of practice so it made it very difficult for us to have much tactical depth, especially on our T side. We’ve just tried focusing on getting more and more comfortable against these European teams while adding more to our book. The only real surprise here was getting used to playing with 40-60 ping, which we were definitely not used to back home.

ESL Pro League is next on the cards, and your group features three teams that recently made roster changes (Heroic, OG, FPX), and two whose form is questionable (BIG, Complexity). Do you see this as an opportunity to reach the playoffs?

aliStair: Yes and no. It makes it difficult to look at these teams and see how they’ve played in recent games when there have been roster changes. BIG and Complexity, regardless of their form, are always going to be strong, so I believe they’re definitely the teams ahead of the others in this group. With that being said, I do believe this group is a good one for us to potentially make waves and reach the playoffs.

How long do you plan to stay in Europe? Do you have any plans aside from Pro League? If you are going home soon, do you hope to return later in the year, or is the focus on RMR events and making it to the Major?

Hatz: We plan to stay a little longer after EPL depending on if we qualify further, our plan is to get as much practice as possible before leaving since this opportunity might not happen again for a while. As much as we would love to be back in Europe, I think most of the focus will be on trying to qualify for the Major and perform there.