nexa: "regali will be key to this roster"

The Serbian in-game leader commented on his return to competition and the process behind OG's new roster structure.

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković stepped down from competition in February, remaining on the sidelines for the majority of the spring season. He's now ready to step back on the server for BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 at the helm of a brand-new OG lineup in which AWPer Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău will be key.

The new roster will start off their tournament run with a match against FaZe at 18:30 to kick off the action in Group C. nexa sat down with HLTV ahead of their fixture to talk about his return to competitive play, the team's composition, and regali's role in the squad.

Audio version: If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed below, head over here to listen to the interview.

First things first: you took a little bit of a break, so how does it feel to be back?

It feels good to be back obviously, I missed competing, I missed travelling and being at events in environments like this.

What did you get up to during your time off?

I just took time off to take care of myself basically. Work on my health, my mental health and physical health as well, and just basically looking after myself.

What are your thoughts on this new roster? You have come back to a pretty revamped lineup, what are your initial thoughts?

Obviously the team has potential I believe. I met the guys really recently, we just started working together so we will see how it goes.

Did you have any input on roster as the in-game leader?

Yeah I had a bit of input, there were some names that we could try out and we had some interviews with multiple players. We decided to go with the players that we got.

What made the players that you have gone for stand out for you, players like FASHR and k1to?

I think, for me at least and the coaching staff as well, it's about having more voices in the team, having people that can speak and adapt and help out in every department of the game. Especially on the CT sides. The two guys that we got, based on the interviews and the things we knew about them, seemed like they would be a good fit.

Is that something you lacked on previous lineups, did you maybe not have enough people speaking up and contributing?

Yeah in the previous lineups it was a bit difficult, I think flameZ was the only one helping out by talking, and everyone else was just there and listening and trying to follow.

There are definitely some doubts in the community with this roster, mainly surrounding the issue of firepower. Do you think there's any basis in that?

It depends how you look at it, right? I think FASHR, previously, in fnatic, didn't play the roles that he played in his teams before he came to tier one, so right now that's also one of the reasons why we got him. He's basically replacing flameZ in the roles that he played, and previously when he played in ECSTATIC and his teams before he was putting up pretty good numbers, so if we can manage to get that from him and get him back to where he was before he joined fnatic, we will not have really big problems with firepower.

How important do you think regali will be in that regard, on paper he is the most impressive in terms of firepower?

I think he will be key to this roster for sure. I think he has, for a young kid, a really good stature, he's really calm and composed and he speaks really well, his communication is really on point. He brings a lot to the table even though he is very young.

In general for this roster, what do you see as the ceiling? What targets are you looking to hit as a team?

We haven't really set any goals yet, we just recently started practicing and working together, we only met each other a couple of days ago. Right now there are no goals, we are just in the getting to know each other period.

I think OG as an organization have maybe not hit the heights they might have been expecting, do you think this roster can get over that hump, go deep in some tournaments and maybe even look to take a trophy?

I think the way the coaching staff and myself work together, and the idea of how we want to approach and play the game, could work really well with the players that we have right now. I think maybe we are going to at least hit a peak that was better than the previous lineups.

Do you think it might take a little bit of time? Obviously you have a young guy in regali who doesn't have the most experience at tier one, and you are bringing a lot of different parts from different cultures, k1to playing previously in German teams for example

Yeah for sure, I think for any roster that has been created, or made a lot of changes and brought multiple players in, it will take some time for players to adjust to the system and for all the players to adjust to each other as well.

What are the goals for this BLAST group stage then? Is it the case of a pretty new team who haven't had a lot of time together looking to work your way into form?

We're definitely just trying out some maps, seeing what fits best for us, and as I said we haven't really set any specific goals so far.

Looking a little bit further in the future, obviously we don't know when it would be released but CS2 is on the horizon. Did CS2 at all play any factor in planning out this roster, does it have any impact on your planning and prep for the future?

No not really since we don't know when it's actually going to be released, so we are just going off what we know right now, and that is that the upcoming tournaments will be played on CS:GO. It didn't really have any impact on us.

My final question is this: you have always had a reputation as a pretty good fragging in-game leader, you put up decent numbers as a caller, how are you feeling personally? Having taken a bit of time away from the game, do you still think your individual game is going to be up to that level?

I'm unsure. I've been on a break for a couple of months and I wasn't really playing CS that much, but the last couple of weeks I've been getting back into it, playing FACEIT, deathmatch, whatever I could get my hands on. We'll see, I haven't really had a chance to test myself yet.