Kaze: "Hopefully, we'll be able to bring back the vibe from IEM Katowice 2019"

The Malaysian player talks ViCi's chances at IEM Cologne, the team's first event in Europe in over two years.

When ViCi last attended a big international LAN in November 2019, Astralis were the undisputed No.1 team in the world, Gambit still had "Youngsters" in their name and had just broken into the top 30, and North America still boasted a large number of teams competing at all levels of Counter-Strike, with Evil Geniuses sitting at No.2 in the ranking, and Liquid at No.4.

For many teams and players, a lot has changed since then, but no one has had it worse than Asian sides, who have been isolated since the pandemic began. They have not been afforded the same opportunities as North American, South American and Oceanic teams, who, to a greater or lesser degree, have had chances to travel to Europe to practice with, and compete against, the best teams in the world despite the global health crisis.

There is a sense of excitement surrounding ViCi’s attendance at IEM Cologne after such a long absence. The Chinese team were frustrated by TYLOO for most of 2020 but hit top form as the year was coming to a close. They have since chained together a three-tournament winning streak (IEM Beijing-Haidian Asia, DreamHack Masters Winter Asia and Perfect World League Season 1), beating their Chinese arch-rival in two of the finals and TIGER in the other.

In this interview, conducted prior to ViCi's trip to Cologne, Andrew "⁠kaze⁠" Khong discusses the team's preparation for the German event and shares his feelings on returning to the big stages in Europe, where they haven't played since the Katowice Major in early 2019. He also plays down the impact of the recently-announced ImbaTV VALORANT tournament on the Chinese scene, and says that he is setting his sights on attending PGL Major Stockholm, with ViCi currently level on points with TYLOO in the Asian Regional Major Rankings.

This will be your first big international tournament since the CS:GO Asia Championships. What is the feeling of being back in a top-tier environment?

It’s been about 1.5 years since the pandemic started and we’ve been facing the same teams over and over again in scrims and tournaments. So I’m definitely excited to be back on a LAN tournament facing teams from NA and EU again. Being back in a top-tier environment invites new challenges and experiences to gain.

After more than a year of Asian action only, how do you think that you’ll do against the best teams in the world, not just aim-wise, but also in terms of the meta?

We’re constantly keeping ourselves updated with the EU/NA meta even though we've been playing in Asia for a long period of time. This is the best time to put the studies we’ve done to use and prove ourselves. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring back the vibe from IEM Katowice 2019.

You’ve been very selective in the tournaments that you have attended. You’ve skipped some events like FunSpark ULTI and the DreamHack Open. Could you explain your reasoning behind this?

There was an RMR event coming up so we wanted to put our full focus on the road to the Major. We also wanted to avoid burnout and just focus on the bigger events.

What has practice been like in the last few months? How is your preparation for Cologne going?

We’ve been drilling as always before any tournaments, so we’re able to go in fully prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. Some of the stuff we’ve been focusing on are making fewer mistakes, improving comms during certain situations, and the latest map - Ancient.

What are your plans during your time in Europe?

We’ll be staying in the designated hotel by ESL until the end of IEM Cologne. Earlier on, we had plans to have a month-long bootcamp, but due to the complications of COVID19, we will be having that after the tournament instead.

You’ll arrive in Europe a few days before the start of the tournament. Do you plan to use that time to catch up on the meta and get some valuable practice before the event starts?

I’ll use this time to adapt to the NA/EU meta before the event starts. It’s pretty much a golden opportunity for me to be back in the NA/EU server after such a long time of being in Asia. The practice quality in NA/EU is better because they’re always the trendsetter in terms of meta and gameplay.

What are your expectations for this event?

To qualify for the main stage.

ImbaTV will host in July the first big VALORANT tournament in China. How do you think that it will affect the Chinese CS:GO scene? Where do you see 'your' scene going?

I haven’t seen many Chinese CSGO players switch to VALORANT so far. Most CrossFire and Overwatch players are seen switching to VALORANT. I’m still very passionate about CSGO and I want to stay in this scene for as long as I can and go as far as I can go.

Your last tournament, Perfect World League Season 1, was almost two months ago, and you won it by beating TYLOO. How important was it for your team to win that Major qualifying tournament? Is going to the Major one of your biggest goals for 2021?

Every defeat has served its purpose in the past, every victory brings us one step closer to the Major. Yes, certainly.