r3salt: "I just want a good PC for my home, so I need to win some prize money"

Evgeny "⁠r3salt⁠" Frolov sat down with HLTV after his LAN debut at CCT Central Europe Malta Finals.

FORZE came into the 2023 season after another rebuild, bringing in r3salt and Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko, who provide a blend of youth and experience. The team played solely online tournaments to start the year and is now making its LAN debut with the new roster in Malta.

FORZE are set to simultaneously play in the RMR closed qualifier while attending the Maltese event, as are their first rivals in the tournament, HONORIS. After making quick work of the Poles, r3salt and company are now set to clash with the winners of Eternal Fire vs. Bad News Eagles in the Group A winners' match before meeting HEET in the European RMR closed qualifier later in the day.

r3salt spoke with HLTV after their opening match about his debut on LAN, the difference between his previous team VP.Prodigy and FORZE, alongside his goals for the year.

So first of all, congrats on the victory. How does it feel to win your first LAN match with ForZe?

I feel comfortable because of a weak enemy in the first match. I like it, it's free rating like this and I'm playing with good teammates, who are also really good friends of mine. We spend a lot of time together like going on walks and things like that. With all of this, it's okay, nice hotel, but the servers and PC are not so good.

So you didn't feel any nerves coming into the game?

I think not, my teammates asked me two days ago if I feel nervous because of the next match on LAN, and I told them no. After a month we will play against NAVI in ESL Pro League and I'm feeling more nervous about that, so they advised me to not think about who we play against, I think that will help. Or not. (laughs)

You came into ForZe from VP.Prodigy, which played at a lower level. What do you think is the biggest difference between your previous team and ForZe?

I think the tactics here are much deeper and more complex than in VP.Prodigy and my new teammates are stronger as well, I think. Yeah, but in my previous team my coach, Flash_1, is an amazing coach and captain. I respect him a lot and can only say good things about him.

The closed RMR qualifiers are also going on at the same time as CCT Finals. How will you manage to play both events?

CCT helped us so we can start our games earlier, so we are done with this game and then play the BO3 one. Then we play Closed Qualifier from our practice room. So we are in for a long and good training day, I like it.

What are your goals for this year? What do you want to achieve?

I want to have my own stickers, of course. It's a good goal, I think. And for the team, I think we all want to qualify for the Major and maybe reach the playoffs there. Also, I really want to beat NAVI at EPL, that would be really shocking. Other than that, just to farm lower-tier tournaments, I think that our team is good enough for that. I just want a good PC for my home, so I need to win some prize money. (laughs)