nin9: "I think we'll do some damage, teams should not take us lightly"

IHC, who sometimes struggle with ping issues back home, showed their prowess on LAN at the Asia RMR in Bucharest.

IHC topped the PGL Major Antwerp's Asia RMR, beating the two historic favorites in the region, TYLOO and Renegades, on their way to punching their ticket for the event in Belgium. Not only did they top the group, they did so without dropping a map in the two series against the Chinese and Australian teams.

An emotional Yesuntumur "⁠nin9⁠" Gantulga stepped behind the microphone after defeating Renegades to talk about IHC, their run at the Asia RMR, the state of Counter-Strike in Mongolia, and what to expect from the team at the upcoming Major, as well as other curiosities such as them practicing against Europeans with high ping just for the possibility to scrimmage against better opposition.

You beat both of the favorites to qualify for the Major. When you guys came here, did you expect to have such a strong tournament and to be able to beat the best two teams to get the top seed?

We are always confident in ourselves when we play. I mean, we did not expect to beat them by this much, but we were ecstatic to beat them. Yeah, just like that. We just knew how to beat them.

You've played TYLOO a couple of times recently. You lost to them online at ESL Challenger Season 40, but had not played Renegades, so what's the difference between those matches? Tell me about the preparation that went into it.

Against TYLOO, with insane ping, we were the better team, but we just had a few ping issues from Mongolia so that kind of chimes in. On LAN we felt so confident in ourselves.

We actually did not know what to expect from Renegades and we just focused on ourselves. We tried to watch their demos but there were just a few games and we actually could not download them so we just said 'fuck it, let's play our own game.' [laughs]

Tell me a little bit about Mongolia, the country has always had CS and there has always been maybe one Mongolian team going to events here or there. What's the scene like these days?

Overall the past three years the Mongolian scene has grown. Generally, the Asian scene has been decreasing in teams and size, so I was kind of surprised to see our community growing. It makes me happy, and the new players keep coming and they are just better and better.

How about IHC itself, for people who do not follow the Asian scene so much and are going to see you now at the Major.

Well, the veterans of the team are basically kabal and I, but I don't really consider myself a veteran because I only started playing like four years ago. I mean, it's true that I have a little more experience than them and that helps with the team stuff during practice and how we want to play, what mistakes we should avoid, and stuff like that.

The other guys are just sick, you can just watch how they play and they are pretty sick with their aim and they have some really good raw potential. I just want to help them grow and be a better team. Our coach comes in as well, he's a very tactical coach and has some sick tactics and good reads during actual matches, so that helps.

Right now, we are actually a really decent team, we don't have an issue like in some teams where you can just say 'that's their weak point.' In my opinion, we don't have that in our team. Anyone can watch our demos and if they try to point out a mistake or a weak point, thinking ‘we should go there, we should exploit these weaknesses,’ I don't think we have that many.

We make mistakes during matches, but I don't think we make any that we cannot fix. I think we are going to be better and better from here on out.

What is it that you need? Are you going to get to spend some time in Europe, for example, bootcamping? What are you going to try and do to take that next step?

Yeah, of course, we need some more international exposure and experience. We actually practice against EU teams from Mongolia with 100-110 ping because we just want to play better opponents and have decent quality practice. That really helps, but if we can bootcamp in Europe that'll actually help a lot more. It was planned during summer I think.

I remember a Mongolian team went to Turkey, just out of nowhere, because they didn't need visas or something like that, and they just went there to play.

I think it's actually planned but I don't remember the dates.

Have you guys even talked about what you are going to do before the Major? Are you going to stay in Mongolia?

I am pretty sure we have to go back to get our visas, I am not sure about the dates so we'll have to travel back and then travel to Belgium. If we can get a little bit of practice that would be good.

You are the first Mongolian team that is going to be at a Major, so that's amazing. You already have made history in that sense, so what do you expect from the Major? What is it you want to get out of it?

We came here just hoping to go through. We were pretty confident but we didn't look that far ahead to the Major.

What about you, personally?

We're pretty confident in ourselves so I think we'll do some damage, teams should not take us lightly.

What does it mean to you, to make the Major? We have seen so much emotion these days when teams qualify, especially teams making it for the first time. What was the first thing that flooded your mind when you won the second match?

It was just pure emotion man, I am out of words. I can't describe it. I was so fucking happy and proud for the boys and we just did so so well. It was so good, I am so fucking happy, it is so good to be at the Major.

Since we've come together, this has been the most important thing for us, and we were practicing for that, basically. The RMR was the most important for us, making the Major. And being the first Mongolian team to do it, it just feels so good man. Now we just want to do better than that. We want more.