sdy: "Overall I was already mid-round calling a lot before we switched the roles"

Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev spoke to us about taking up the IGL role for Monte in place of Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk.

Monte fumbled their start in Paris as they dropped a 14-10 lead on Ancient to FaZe in their opening match, conceding the map 14-16 to end up in the 0-1 pool. The Ukrainian-majority roster bounced back in their ensuing match against Fluxo, dismantling the Brazilian side with a strong CT side performance on Overpass before eventually closing out their lead, 16-8.

After the victory, HLTV spoke to sdy to discuss the team's first two games, as well as get insight into the announcement of him taking over the IGL role and what sort of effect Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov's absence has had on the team.

You just took down Fluxo in your second match, it was pretty dominant at the start but you let a couple rounds slip toward the end before you closed it out. Can you walk me through that?

We just had a great game plan, thank you to our coach and our analyst. They did a great job to prepare us for what we need to do, and we started doing it step by step, winning rounds, and it was kind of predictable what they were doing as well. Also, we did very great T side compared to what we did before, because before our normal T side is 6-7, and we all win on T, normally.

Perhaps some flashbacks to your game against FaZe from earlier where you had a lead and it slipped away. This time you closed it out, but against FaZe it didn't go so well — what was the feeling like walking away from that?

Yeah, I can tell you the difference between these two games. In the first game it was all the same, problem was only that FaZe players, for example ropz did multi-kills, rain did multi-kills, and it was too much. In this game we had great reads as well, as in the first one, but we refragged better, we execute our rounds better, we just did everything better by one step, and of course FaZe's individuals are a bit on another level. That's the reason I think.

Did the pressure get to you at all in the first game, or have you not felt any pressure since getting here?

Yeah of course it's pressure, it's Major, but I think the guys can deal with it pretty well. Same with me. We're just trying to focus on our things.

Ahead of the FaZe game, Monte announced that you had taken over the IGL from Woro2k. Can you tell me what went into that decision, what caused that swap?

Swap caused because Woro wanted to focus more on individual plays, especially at the start of rounds because he's an AWPer. Overall I was already mid-round calling a lot before we switched the roles, and now I'm just executing the coach's game plan and trying to micro-control guys in some weird situations, basically. Nothing changed, we're just playing as we play.

Has that role been comfortable for you so far?

It's a bit harder to play your own game, but because of micromanagement I think. But overall it's fine for me, I can deal with it.

Earlier you thanked your analyst and coach for helping you a bit. lmbt couldn't be here, has his absence affected you much so far?

Yeah, it's affecting because he is a key part of the team, but overall he is still doing his job from the home. It's basically game plan, he didn't talk too much when we play even online, he talked only on pauses, so we took these pauses to just relax and feel good, nothing special.

Going into tomorrow you have a 1-1 record, so still no best-of-threes for you yet. How do you feel about going into your match tomorrow still playing a BO1?

I'm feeling kinda confident, we just need to do the same as we did today. Nothing to change, prepare for the game, do our best round-by-round and everything will be good.