Qikert: "About the CIS shuffle? I think it's dark and full of secrets"

Aleksei "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev spoke to HLTV.org after Outsiders dismantled Complexity on day two in Antwerp.

Outsiders now hold a 2-1 record at PGL Major Antwerp after securing victory over Complexity in their third round matchup, putting them just one win away from securing a spot in the Legends Stage.

The team started the tournament on shaky footing after almost dropping a substantial lead to MIBR and faltering in a map against ENCE, but managed to recover by claiming a rather one-sided win over Complexity.

After the match, we caught up with Qikert, who shared some of the struggles the team experienced in their early matches against MIBR and ENCE. He also spoke to the impending CIS shuffle that will likely follow the conclusion of the PGL Major, stating that he wasn't sure if the effects of the changes would be good for the scene as a whole.

Let's start with the match you played against Complexity. The first half was decent, you came back from a deficit and ended up winning it, and then ran away with the score in the second half. How'd it feel from your side?

It was kind of a crazy match because we literally knew what they were doing every time, like in the moment, but we still lost our rounds and it felt really bad during the game because these rounds were against bad economy, and it was really important to close them but we didn't.

Still, we ended the half 8-7, we won the pistol, Jame's clutch was really important as well. Some lucky rounds too, we won a force-buy and won.

Was there something specific about their style that made them so easy to read for you?

I think it was just because of the map. Overpass is just a huge map where you can easily read your opponents, and it's really hard to hide your rotations as Terrorists, even for us, it's really hard to not get read.

Today you came in with this win, but yesterday was kinda shaky, you almost lost to a comeback from MIBR and then got crushed by ENCE 6-16. Walk me through the those matches, why'd you start off well but then end up falling off?

Against MIBR, I think it was our classic Outsiders game, like paid by rounds *laughs*. I think it was just the first game, we did a lot of crucial mistakes, but still it was also a really good game because we were playing like a team. We were always focused, ready to win, and it went good, we just did some mistakes.

Against ENCE, we were leading like 5-4 or 5-5, we had like $10,000 economy each, and somehow we just lost our rounds. It was a lot of clutches, like three or four clutches when we were in advantages, and we didn't close it out. We lost the first half 5-10, won the pistol round, and everything ends when we lost the force round, they did a B rush three times and we got wrecked.

Generally you have a lot of these close matches, the whole 'paid by the round' meme, but usually you're able to close them out. More recently you had some struggles, losing to ENCE here but also at the RMR with some maps you lost that you typically wouldn't. What's going on with those results, is it just the current circumstances with the team or are there some issues going on?

I don't think there are a lot of issues, I think we just didn't find our form yet and it's really hard when you're losing, you're always overthinking about this and you want to get better, better and better, but something is not working. It gets in your head and it's kind of hard to get in shape, get in good form, you just need to win important matches and I think everything is going to be good.

Before this event, there was an interview that came out from YEKINDAR where he said that he was exploring his options, that he might be going elsewhere after this Major. There's rumors of teams breaking apart and there could be a CIS shuffle, what're your thoughts on that happening after the Major?

About the CIS shuffle? I think it's dark and full of secrets. Like, I don't know, in my opinion there's going to be a huge CIS shuffle which the effect on scene, I'm not sure if it's good, but there will be a lot of good new rosters.

YEKINDAR has a lot of impact for this team specifically, so if you're left without him in that shuffle, what would you have to do to fill that gap?

There are two ways. We have to get an experienced player who is learning really fast, gets in the team really fast and progresses really quick.

Or, we're getting a young talent, teaching him, growing him, and I'm taking roles from YEKINDAR if something bad happens for our roster. But I hope everything is going to be good and we'll keep our five.

Is there any team, either in this stage or if you make it to the Legends Stage that will give you more trouble than the rest?

I need to think... actually, every team here except ENCE is not in their best form, they're getting their form like us, game by game, so we're going to see it during matches.