jL: "Some superstars are skeptical about CS2 and not putting in as much work"

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius reckons some of the stars of the game will take time to adapt to the latest version.

The switch to CS2 will be a difficult transition for many, but it seems jL is at home in the new game after a rip-roaring 30-bomb from the Lithuanian carried Natus Vincere to victory over Apeks.

jL's assertive performance was so important for Natus Vincere as they were hit by the news Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev would have to miss the action in Sydney at very short notice, requiring coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy to take to the server for the first time in years.

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With an opening victory in his back pocket, jL sat down with HLTV to talk about his stellar performance, the monumental shift to the new version of the game, and his thoughts on Natus Vincere's stand-in situation.

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First CS2 official in the books, went pretty well for you. What was that like, getting to play it on LAN now?

CS2 feels way better on LAN, that's for sure. Feels a little more crisp, you hit the shots, it's just smoother all-in-all.

It looked pretty crisp for you, you ended with 30 kills. People thought 30-bombs would be less common in CS2 with MR12, but no problem for you?

It's not like I'm going to shoot 30 every single game [laughs], but yeah. I was really surprised I had these 30 kills, I didn't really notice it. The game was going super fast and it was super intense. I think at one point I saw I had 26, but other than that, I didn't see anything.

When we found out that s1mple wouldn't be here, you intially said that you would be AWPing. Not many AWPs whipped out from you this game, though, I saw that B1ad3 had the AWP and Scout in a few rounds. What happened there?

I think it's more of a feeling-type of thing, if I decided I wanted to AWP then I do have the room to do it, but this game I felt like there wasn't going to be an AWP needed because I wanted to have heavy mid-presence, as I had in this game. The game plan worked out just fine, no AWP needed, and if later down the line somewhere in the tournament we need an AWP, I'll pick it up and show them who's boss.

You started off really well on the CT side, you were up to somewhere around 20 kills by the end of the half. Was s1mple the problem then?

No, of course not, no no. CS2 is a new game, and I for sure put way more hours in CS2 on average than I did in CS:GO. I just think it's a good opportunity for me to not be catching up to CS:GO players, but to set my own path in CS2 and be either equal or better than anyone just because it's a new game and everyone has their way how to play the game, how to learn it.

If you truly think about how to be better in CS2 and understand the little intricacies and the mechanics of CS2, you'll be way better. Just set your own path because now you don't have many people to copy. Of course you can copy some settings, but that is the only thing you can copy. Just play your own game in CS2, try to find what works best for you.

Can you tell me a little more about setting that path? Obviously CS:GO has been around for a long time now, as you said CS2 is new, so can you explain to me how you like that experience so far?

I feel super good because right now we have no idols or no one to look up to. You can be the idol for yourself, set goals and achieve them by your own self, choose what works best for you, be the meta, and just be one step ahead.

You say "no idols," do you look at it as a complete reset in that case and not just an upgrade to the next game?

I think it's going to be a reset, of course. The game is a little different, of course we are going to have all the same superstar players, but I think they will struggle a little bit at the start just because it's not the same game, the mechanics are different, and I know some superstars are skeptical about the game and not putting in as much work as they should or they could. I think we're going to see a lot of superstars drop off a little until they can find their own groove.

You've been vocal about how much you're enjoying the game while s1mple, on the other hand, hasn't. He said a couple of times that he doesn't really love it so far, kind of like what you are talking about now. He wasn't here, I know you said in the pre-game interview that you only had a 24-hour notice or something, what was that like going into the server and having B1ad3 step in?

I was super disappointed, to be honest. Outside the game, you can see my disappointment and I'm not the same guy. I just prepared super hard for this tournament and it's just... painful that these unfortunate circumstances arose, and because I did see us winning IEM Sydney at this time.

I saw during the game towards the end, when it got a little bit closer, B1ad3 was talking a lot during one of the save situations. Can you give me some insight into what he was saying to help bring you back into that?

We were just talking about what was not working and what we should fix to make the game work, and it did. Of course us winning the Deagle round was not supposed to happen, I hit some crispy crisps in that round which also weren't supposed to happen.

B1ad3 can analyze the game even if he is playing the game, which is super hard to do for an in-game leader or any player, so props to him. I mean of course he wasn't focusing too much on his shooting but that's not his strength, and I think his knowledge brought us the victory.

Usually he takes timeouts and they're really well thought-out, but this time he was able to talk during the match as well. What was the difference like in that sense?

It becomes more of a discussion at this point because when you have tactical timeouts, there's 30 seconds, you cannot really discuss anything. When a coach takes a tactical timeout he is usually the guy that is talking, but in-game when we are saving weapons and there is not a lot of chaos, we can already be planning our next step ahead in real-time, so players can also chime in with what we are going to do.

I want to go back to what you were just saying, you said you were a bit disappointed, you prepared super hard for the tournament. Can you tell me more about your feelings in that sense?

I feel sad. I still think we can beat a lot of teams, I think we can make it to the playoffs, but in playoffs it's going to be harder teams, better opponents, better prepared. I don't think we're at 100%, even though we won our opening game, we could have got lucky, I could have played a life game. Individual players can never win tournaments, just because teamplay wins tournaments. Without a fifth player, a solid AWPer, it's going to be super hard to advance even to the semi-finals or finals.

Turning your attention to the next match now, you're going to be playing against MOUZ. They 13-2'd VERTEX, a very strong game from them. Any thoughts going into that matchup now?

Not really, no. They're also playing with a stand-in, of course their stand-in is mechanically better than B1ad3, but I still think we have the capability to beat them. It's going to be a best-of-three, they might pick a map we don't like and we might pick a map they don't like. It's all up to us, if we play 100% focused, hyped-up, analyzing the game step-by-step, this could be ours in the bag because for sure, the fact we're playing with a coach is going to get into their heads.