STYKO: "I am really proud of the team already and no matter what happens, we have to just enjoy the BO3s"

The Slovakian veteran spoke about Apeks needing to use the joy of competing at the RMR as they try to turn a 1-2 start around.

Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński's team were relegated to the 1-2 pool at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A following back-to-back losses to FaZe and Bad News Eagles in the Swiss group stage after an opening victory over GamerLegion. They are now one slip up away from elimination, needing to win two consecutive best-of-three series to reach the last Major in CS:GO history.

Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk is no stranger to Major qualifiers, having attended several throughout his nearly ten-year career in CS:GO. He attended the first-ever offline qualifier for a Major at DreamHack Winter 2013 - BYOC Qualifier, barely missing out on a ticket to the main event after losing to Reason in the semi-final. Now on the verge of elimination following Apeks' loss to Bad News Eagles, the Slovakian veteran took some time to speak about his team's complicated boot camp, their mindset, and the upcoming best-of-three matches.

I wanted to talk about you being back at a LAN of the stature of an RMR, It's been a while since you've been grinding to be back. How does it feel to be sucking in the atmosphere here?

It's kind of crazy when I think about it. I was part of the first Major and I was just one map away from qualifying there. Now it's the last CS:GO Major and we're are a map or two away from qualifying, so it's definitely crazy how the career took a turn with the ups and downs, but I am really happy to be here, especially after COVID. Not being a partner team is definitely a grind, but I think we can be proud of what we are achieving here at Apeks and we're slowly clawing our way back into the top 30 and tier two. This is our goal, and that's why we are here, to show it.

Before the RMR started you guys were not rated so highly and now you are playing overtime against BNE, who are becoming Major specialists in the past two or three cycles. How is it for you guys? You just came out of a loss, so it's always hard, but you are playing at a competitive level against teams that are doing this on a regular basis now.

These teams can definitely get a little bit of an advantage in experience, because we have three rookies on the team that have never been to the Major and this is their last opportunity in CS:GO. Experience is definitely there for them, but I think people don't really see how good we are.

Our past results can be taken with a pinch of salt, I would say, because there was a lot of grinding and having officials every day. You stagnate when it comes to evolving yourself as a team and your playbook/stratbook and whatever, so people after these two games against FaZe and BNE will stop underestimating us and see we can play decent Counter-Strike.

Today it's really hard to say who was better in the server. Someone has to win and someone has to lose, this time it was us. Maybe it was unlucky, maybe it was fair, but we're here to battle it out in best-of-threes now.

That's a good segue into BO3s. How do you feel about changing to series play now, after getting those best-of-ones behind you? Is that something you are looking forward to or dreading?

I was hoping we could do more damage in best-of-ones, I was even hoping for a 2-1 or 2-0 start, but BO3s are still comfortable for us. Looking at the map pool, we play all seven maps, so it can be a big advantage in these situations. We have a very good map pool, we worked on it anyway, our CT and T sides, it's going to be good in the BO3s. It all depends on who we meet, but I feel comfortable pretty much against anyone here — even top teams and top dogs like FaZe and NAVI showed already some shaky gameplay before so there's no pressure on us. We can always surprise and that's how we have to handle it.

You mentioned you are playing with a few rookies. One I am interested in hearing your input on is kyxsan, who just came from Bluejays, which was a North Macedonian team that was kind of trying to make their way up and always seemed like they were about to break into playing events such as an RMR, but they never quite made it. How is it having a rookies who is also a leader? How is he adapting, calling, and the energy he brings?

We took really good care of him and integrating him because we had extensive trial periods towards the end of the year. We tried out many many people, like five or six different in-game leaders, and he was the standout player both in individual performances, calling-wise, understanding of the game, and also leadership skills. He works well with our coach kuben and he has a good relationship with him.

I only have positive things to say about him and I don't feel any pressure in his calling, I don't feel any stagnation, and he's always looking for ways to make the team better. He's hungry and a super hard-working guy, I can go on and on, the guy is insane for his age and the little experience that he has. I am proud of having him on my team and lead me.

I read that you guys had a bit of a tough boot camp coming here, can you tell me what was it that happened and whether it shook your confidence a little bit?

The boot camp was definitely a rough one. I don't remember us playing this badly, but you know, we are good at shaking it all off when it comes to practice results. It was also a combination of us trying to reinvent our playbook a little bit and experiment with new things to not get anti-stratted here at the RMR because in online cups we felt anti-stratted. Especially against MOUZ, we really felt like tier one was going to catch us this way and here at the RMR there were going to be top teams, and we have to change otherwise we stand no chance.

That loss against MOUZ taught us a lot, so we were trying a lot of different things, that's why it was a little bit rowdy when it comes to results. We had a really good talk about us being here and having the excitement and hunger, and everything will be fine. Believing in our system and in the calls that kyxsan is doing and that everything will be fine. I think it was really important for us to shake everything off and be ready to perform here.

After that talk and your results, how are you feeling about going into that final stage of the RMR with the BO3s and so on? Are you guys reinvigorated, hurting from close losses, or what's the atmosphere like?

I can only speak for myself and it's minutes after we lost against BNE, so emotions are still high so I don't want to say anything that I would regret later, but I am already proud of the team: The way we are talking, behaving, socializing, playing, and communicating. All these things are at an all-time high for our team and we finally found it, it's like a secret gold mine that we now have the potential and if we can maintain this, I think we can be a super scary team to play against. However, consistency is something all teams strive for, and we have to find it as well in the aspects that I just mentioned.

It's impossible to find it. Every team is different and every individual is different so we are trying to get closer and closer to it. For now, I am really proud of the team already and no matter what happens, we have to just enjoy the BO3s because if you are not enjoying the game, then there's no point in being here and we deserve to be eliminated. I am expecting some good laughs and some good jokes, but also good gameplay.