k1to: "In a lot of situations kakafu was saying 'You're not in BIG anymore, just peek'"

The German player spoke to HLTV about his move to OG, the team's early days and making it through the IEM Cologne Play-in.

Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne, the only German player left standing at IEM Cologne ahead of the group stage, took some time to talk to HLTV after he and his new OG teammates claimed a 2-0 victory over Apeks in their play-in decider match.

The 24-year-old talked about his move to the international squad after three years in BIG, some of the differences between the two teams, his first impressions in his new squad, and his hopes for the remainder of the tournament on the shores of the Rhine.

How's life after BIG treating you?

After BIG i was expecting offers, but not like the one from OG. When it got announced that I was benched in BIG I got a lot of offers, not as good as OG, but also really good offers, so I was really happy. When OG came I was really happy and I knew I would join this team, so I'm happy to be here.

Tell me a bit about your time in BIG, especially towards the end. You were sent down to the academy, then back. What was that period like for you?

The first years in BIG were amazing, but the longer we played together the more problems we had. I think it's also normal if you play such a long time together. We were also living a lot of time together, so there were some problems in the team and it was better for both sides that we split up.

Now making it through the IEM Cologne play-in, how important is this for you? You're the last German at your home event.

I'm really happy, this is my favorite tournament every year, I really want to go to playoffs one day — maybe it's this time. But I'm really happy that we made this step. Now we have a best-of-one again and if you win the best-of-one you're so close to the arena. This best-of-one is so important for us now and we'll give it our best. [note: the first round will be best-of-three]

Tell me about this OG coming together. What are your first impressions of this group?

The first impressions of this team are really good, I think we have a good mix of crazy people and calm people. We have two young players and three more experienced ones, I think that's really good, that was lacking in the old OG roster. I think they were the youngest team out there, so that's why they wanted to make a change.

What do you think they saw in you? What are you bringing to the table in this team?

I think like coordinating mid-rounds, they needed a second voice behind nexa because no one did it in the old roster. Especially on CT sides, that's why they always struggled on CT. Now, like today, we had a great CT side. Also yesterday, we played good CT sides. I think that went much better than before for OG and I think that's what they brought me in for.

German CS is known to be very structured. How is it for you to make the transition to a team that's a bit different to what you've been used to for these past years?

It's nice for me to have more freedom, I would say, but I also need to get used to it. There's a lot of situations in which kakafu was saying 'You're not in BIG anymore, just peek' in clutches and stuff. I need to get used to this, but I'm very happy to play in an international roster now and I can see this side of CS.

You were under tabseN for a long time, who is a tenured veteran in-game leader. Now you're with nexa, who has been an in-game leader for a long time now, but he kind of ended up in that position and he has a more free style of calling. What do you make of this transition?

As I said, he gives you a lot of freedom, and he's also very open to input you give him. Like if you have a round you want to play he never says no to it because he believes in you. I'm not saying tabseN didn't do it because it wasn't like this, but you just feel that you have more freedom in this team.

When a team goes through such a big restructuring it's always a bit hard to know where you're going to land. When the season was starting what did you talk about that you wanted to achieve?

Basically we started practice one day before BLAST because everyone was on holiday and no one knew what the team would look like until the end, so we didn't have a lot of practice. As a coach you try to implement the stuff you had in the old lineup, but it's totally different players.

You don't have flameZ running around 360 headshotting everyone in all of these rushes, so we're working on trying different stuff which fits us better, maybe, but it's taking a lot of time. It's a completely new team, but I'm happy that we improved from BLAST and that we're advancing into the groups.

Now that you've made it through the play-in, what do you think this OG can achieve? Where do you land in this constellation of teams that will be competing for a spot in the LANXESS?

I think the best-of-one is really important and sets the way we end up in the tournament. If you lose that best-of-one you have to win like three best-of-threes in a row and it's really hard against these teams. Obviously we're a new team, we need some more time, so I'm really looking forward to playing that best-of-one and winning it.

How have expectations and reality matched up from before you joined OG to now? Did you think you'd make it through the play-in? Do you think you're ready to compete against the bigger teams?

Before this tournament I think everyone thought that we'd make it through the play-in. At BLAST we played two of the best teams in the world, G2 and FaZe, in the first games. It was rough with no practice. Then we played BIG, I think we should have won against BIG, that was a bad match by us.

Coming into this tournament we thought we could make it and now we did. If you get the wins like today and yesterday you gain confidence and I think that will help us play better CS.

How much potential do you see in this team? You say you're not quite there yet, but do you think there's some potential?

Yes, there's huge potential. For example regali, he has a huge skill ceiling. He just needs to get more confident in officials to not second-guess himself and play his own game. I think he will be a really, really good player in the future.