KaiR0N- on tier one: "I knew it wasn't going to be as hard as people think"

HLTV.org sat down with Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin not long after Outsiders were sent packing from IEM Katowice.

KaiR0N- made the jump to Outsiders in early January, coming into the team as a replacement for David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan. Expectations were high, the Russian youngster had twice been named by Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali as his bold prediction and the 19-year-old had been tearing up the academy circuit during his time with Spirit Academy.

KaiR0N- was then immediately thrown into the deep end, with IEM Katowice, the first Big Event of 2023, being his debut tournament in an Outsiders jersey. The youngster performed admirably as the Russian ensemble made it all the way to the playoffs before being dispatched of by Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals.

HLTV.org caught up with KaiR0N- shortly after the team's elimination from the Polish event, where the Russian spoke about joining Jame and company's ranks, how he feels he has adapted after being thrust straight into tier-one, as well as his own personal expectations moving forward.

I wanted to start with your path to Outsiders. You started with Spirit Academy, and that's where most people would come across your name for the first time. Can you tell me about the decision to leave the academy circuit and deciding to play with more established teams?

It wasn't a decision to leave the academy league as a whole. It was just because we didn't have a proper IGL. S0tF1k was moved to a coach spot and I didn't want to play with some inexperienced players in the IGL spot, because we would waste so much time learning something new and, as I know myself, I would be kind of angry about that. So, I decided just to leave that team. I was about to be in BIG Academy, but something went wrong, so it wasn't just a decision to leave the academy circuit.

Tell me about being part German and part Russian. That means you have a lot of different opportunities, is there any preference? Why did you want to go to the German scene for a time?

Well, of course, because I was born in Germany, this would be great if we could get some German superteam that could dominate in the pro scene. But, actually, I didn't have such an opportunity to get into one, so, for now, I basically didn't have an opportunity, but if I would have one, I would go for a German team, I guess.

Tell me about the offer from Outsiders, at what point did it come and what did it mean to you?

It meant a lot for me, and it came at the end of December last year. I didn't really expect that, I was about to build a team with NickelBack, Boombl4. As you heard, the rumors were right. We were about to find a fifth player and go into being a full-time team. Then, it [the offer] suddenly came and I said, 'I'm sorry guys, I will have to leave you because of this offer.'

You just saw that as a better opportunity?

Yeah, it was a better opportunity actually, just in everything. You can instantly be in the tier-one scene, you can instantly play in some great tournaments that you already have a spot in, so you don't have to play in as many qualifiers at home and stuff. But, the best thing is that you already can prove yourself in the tier-one scene, so if something goes wrong, you'll be known for some plays in tier-one.

What did you think about the team? Did you know any of the players, anybody in person? Did it just come out of nowhere?

It kind of came out of nowhere actually. I've played with fame, like FACEITs, but a long time ago since he was in SG, not even in K23. But it wasn't his decision for sure, it was the coach's and Jame's decision, like dastan's and Jame's. Actually, it came out of nowhere I guess, it would sound more like that.

What did you think about their playstyle? I'm sure you saw them play a lot and understood what that team is about. Obviously, there is this whole meme about them being a saving team and all that stuff, what did you think about them before you joined them?

I actually thought that this is a great playstyle. This is always a playstyle you don't like when the team plays against you, because they can always be stacking out of nowhere, they can push you somewhere where you don't expect because usually they're not pushing it and of course, they're playing many full buys because of those saves. They are keeping their economy well even though they are losing, it could be like, I remember one game on Vertigo against NIP, we did lose the half 14-1 but we played two ecos on the CT side, like complete ecos. The first after the pistol and one more inside the game, and all the rest we had full buys just because of the saves.

How was it adapting to all this? You're the guy who is going to be in front a lot of the time, was it easy to find your place in the team?

I wouldn't say it's easy, we still have a lot of job to do. Even in my development personally, I'm kind of an inexperienced player here, so I have to just play more, adapt to the tier-one level. We've not played against the top-five teams in the world in the group stage, so the only pure tier-one game was yesterday [versus NAVI], which I kind of lost myself on the second map. I still feel that I just need some time to adapt fully, but when I do, it's going to be great, I think.

How would you describe where your place is? We had that qikert interview where he said 'he just goes in first and makes a lot of headshots,' or something along those lines. Is it really that simple? How much freedom do you have in where you go?

I do have freedom. If I want to do some risky moves and I usually ask if I can do them. If Jame says that I can, then I'm doing it basically, and when it goes to the site execute, I'm going first, that's normal for me. I'm used to it and I like it because the most important [thing] is to get the first kill when I execute the site. When we are like 4vs3 on the site, so when you get the first trade, that's going to be 80% of winning this round. That's really important, and I really like my job, that's great.

Did you feel comfortable in that? Are there any nerves or uncertainty about not knowing what the right thing is at the moment or are you just comfortable in the game to kind of make the plays that you want?

Of course, you have to adapt to the team structure. There are some plays that I can make and the team knows that I can do it, but generally I also have to adapt to the structure because some maps that I didn't play before, for example Inferno, I didn't play it for like the past year. My team also banned it first, so I had to learn a lot about this map, and still I have to do something to make myself more comfortable on the positions that I play and in the team.

Can you tell me a bit more about the experience in Katowice? You mentioned the second map against NAVI, but obviously other than that your performance was really stable, you were there on pretty much every single map outside of that. Did you expect to perform at this level already at your first attempt at playing at the tier-one level?

I knew that it's going to be not that hard as people think about it. Most people, when they come to tier-one scene, they overthink themselves, they think that 'oh well, I need some time to adapt, I need something to learn' and it's true, but still if you're just going to play your game, nobody is ready for you to do the things you do.

Second of all, if you're confident in yourself and in your place, and if you kind of understand how the team plays against you, how the tier-one CS looks like, and you understand where the hole in their defense is and you understand what to expect from them when they play T side. Just believe in yourself and your expectations and don't think it's so hard, so difficult for people to adapt to the tier-one level, that's kind of not true, I guess.

Does that sort of preparation about knowing what to expect and all that stuff come from you? Do you watch a lot of games, watch a lot of demos, are you that type of a player who does a lot of research and prepares for matches or does it come from team preparation and what dastan or Jame or the team tells you what to expect?

It's all summarizing, I guess. If you play a lot of games before on the tier-three level, there are some expectations from you that teams will do on your level. If you watch some tier-one demos, there are second level of expectations and stuff... It's all summarising and it goes to your brain suddenly, so you feel like what they're going to do.

Not so much preparation?

I guess not so much.

I wanted to talk about the arena game a little bit. You mentioned the performance on the second map, are you hard on yourself in that aspect in that you couldn't perform to the same level as before?

Yes of course. It's what I expect from myself. I understand that I can perform. I understand that it's not so difficult to do it. I understand that some people expected some more from me, and I expected some more from myself as well. I did some crucial mistakes that led to us lose, so basically it was on me on the second map.

I guess that's one of the losses that brings experience, but still. Even without it, even without the experience, you just have to understand that you have to close those games easily. We were leading, in front of them, in my opinion, in many rounds, but they one some crucial 3v5 two times, once on B, once on A, so I guess that's completely our loss. They did a great job to recover themselves from those 3v5s, but still, if we would play a little bit more patient, it would have been our map for sure.

You were talking in the pre-game about what it means to be on stage and how much pressure you're feeling. It seemed like you didn't necessarily care, at least from what you were saying, did it feel like that on the stage? Were you feeling any nerves or was it just any other game?

It was just a game first of all. You don't have to feel any pressure. But, I felt a little bit angry. just about the fans all cheering against us. Most of them were for NAVI, but some of them were just all against us. It felt kind of uncool, but still, it was just a game and we had to get this pressure off ourselves and prove that we can win against the whole arena there. If we would play our CS, that would be great. I also didn't feel any pressure, we just [needed to] take this negative energy to win this game, that's how it works. Nothing changed.

You're back to practice already, preparing for Pro League. What's the goal short term here for yourself individually, is there something you're aiming to improve specifically? What are you looking to achieve in the near future?

In the near future, I'm looking to understand my positions more because on some maps that I didn't play, on some maps it changed. So I have to go deeper into them. I have more expectations that I should, for example on Inferno, that I didn't play at all, and on some other maps. The short-term goal for the team, I guess is just to get out of EPL groups, that's a goal for everyone who plays it. For me, it's just to perform even better than I should have played. I understand that I am quite okay, but I have to make it to a great level.

What do you think is going to get you there? Do you have anything specific that you're looking at in your game, whether in terms of how you approach your T sides or whatever it is? Do you have anything in your mind that you have spotted in your game as something that needs to be adjusted?

Yes. Sometimes it's about decision-making, but it's mostly about the experience and the team, the whole structure and expectations. Something is uncool when I unfocus on the game when I'm trying to call something and sometimes it's unnecessary and I'm trying to call what to do on my zone, I would say, and I'm focused on myself. It's fine, it happens, it's also about experience, I just have to play more and have to work with the team and it's going to be better for sure. It's nothing specific, I guess.

Did you have any conversation with your team regarding how much voice you can have in the team? You know you're in a role that YEKINDAR played before you, at least similar to that. That's a high-impact role, you'll have a lot of information. Is there a lot of expectation on you to be vocal?

Yes, I guess. This is really just my team expecting me to be vocal, to call something, especially on my expectations in the zone. For example, on Anubis, I play Connector, so I need to focus on my zone, I need to understand how the guy against me plays and I need to get some information and deliver my expectations to my IGL so he will make the right decision here. But I don't have to be over-vocal, I don't have to say everything every round, what to call, what to throw, people know themselves. So, I have to call sometimes, but not be over-vocal.