m0NESY: "I want to win this tournament for jks"

In an interview ahead of the IEM Sydney semi-finals, G2's AWPer spoke about the team's flawless group stage campaign and the sniper meta in CS2.

In a result that Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen called surprising due to his team having just a week's worth of practice in Counter-Strike 2 and a lack of confidence, G2 went through the IEM Sydney group stage undefeated.

The Samurai took down Grayhound, Complexity, and ENCE on the way to the semi-finals without losing a map, and now are set to match up against Complexity again in front of a packed out Sydney crowd on Saturday.

The success came in no small part thanks to Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, who looked as good as ever and is currently the highest-rated player of the tournament (1.44 after five maps).

In an interview with HLTV, the Russian talked about his performance so far and whether it ties into the changing meta around the AWP in Counter-Strike 2, as well as his ultimate wish to win the Sydney tournament for his Australian teammate, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage.

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Can you talk me through the group stage, what your expectations were and how you ended up?

Overall, coming to this tournament we didn't have any expectations as a team, and personally I usually don't have any expectations when I'm coming to a tournament, I just want to enjoy the game and see how it goes. Coming to the tournament we also talked as a team about expectations, and we just came to the point that we don't have any because of the new game. Everyone needs to get used to it, and we also didn't have a lot of time to prepare.

Individually, though, you've been playing the game a lot, and there are a lot of stream clips are as well. How does it feel for you and how motivated are you feeling with the new game individually?

I'm motivated, but I don't need motivation, I just need more discipline in the game. I'm young and obviously I have fire in my eyes to play this game a lot, I don't need [any more] motivation, just more discipline, what things I need to focus on, and it will give me good results.

But yeah, I played the game a lot. As soon as we finished the BLAST Showdown I just started focusing on CS2 a lot, playing the game, finding a lot of small things with the nades and smokes. The game feels okay for me, but sometimes it feels off in terms of movement. I don't like how the movement is going in CS2 now.

Can you expand on needing more discipline a little bit more?

Coming to the game I need more discipline about how I should prioritize my time, how much I need to play and how much I need to work on myself, watching demos for example, or working with the team together and watching something together with the team. I don't do it too much, I just play, and it helps.

During the match, maybe [more discipline] in advantage situations, basic stuff. Everyone knows the basics, but sometimes they forget about them.

In terms of CS2, you're a lot more aggressive now, you have a lot more opening kills. Is that a conscious decision based on the game has changed, or what led to you being more aggressive during the group stage here?

I think I was doing it even before. I have a lot of space in the team, and I can do a lot of things. Everyone can do a lot of things in our team, but when CS2 came out... I don't know how to say it, but it's a new game and a new opportunity and I don't want to miss it. I know how aggressive I can be, and I'm just using this opportunity to get an advantage for our team. Maybe I was more aggressive at this tournament than before, I feel I'm doing the same as I was doing in CS:GO, but right now it's working better for me.

A lot of people have talked about the AWP and said it feels harder, especially with the way the players move right now. How are you feeling about that?

I played more with the rifle now, and I think I have like 60 or 58% headshot with a rifle. Nemanja [hunter-] showed me after we played the last map, and I was laughing that I have a 58% headshot rate.

About the AWP, I'm gonna give you an example, we played against ENCE and dycha killed me maybe three times with an AK when I was holding him with an AWP. It's pretty tough to kill the guy with an AWP when you're holding him, and he can just wide-peek you and kill you if he's putting his crosshair in the right placement. Holding with the AWP is more inconsistent, maybe, but if you're playing aggressive like I was doing it works better for you than just holding with the AWP. It's better to search with the AWP than to stay and hold.

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m0NESY's aggression, pistol rounds in MR12, and other stats from Sydney so far

So it was a conscious decision because you need to get more aggressive with it nowadays.

Yeah, I would say.

HooXi mentioned he was surprised by the results and the fact that you went undefeated with the lack of practice. Were you surprised at all?

I wasn't surprised, obviously. I just knew that we would come to this tournament and that we would have good chances, and that we'll show ourselves really good. I didn't have expectations, but always when I come to the tournament I have a really good feeling that we're gonna play good. It's all on ourselves.

You're now on an off day because you advanced straight to the semis. How are you feeling about the potential of going up against BetBoom or Complexity? [Editor's note: The interview took place before Complexity beat BetBoom]

I feel good. We already faced Complexity many times, we played them at BLAST, we played against them recently at this tournament. Facing against them, I feel like they will fix their mistakes and play better.

Date	Matches
IEM Sydney 2023
21/10/2023	G2 07:30 Complexity	Match

I really want to face BetBoom just because they're a CIS team and I would like to play against them. I just want to face them.

Coming into this event as the first CS2 event, how are you feeling about going up on stage and playing in Sydney, and that being the culmination of this whole first CS2 event?

I'm really looking to win this tournament. I really want to win this tournament especially with Justin, because it's his home, and I just know how it feels for the player who is playing in the country where he was born. I want to win this tournament for him, I remember this moment as the first tournament winners of Sydney. We need to wait for this moment, we need to play and focus on the next games, but I would just love to do it.

Playing in Sydney, this is an amazing city. I've never been here, it's my first time, and after I arrived here I fixed my sleeping schedule, I didn't have jetlag or something, I was just waking up five days in a row at 8 and falling asleep at 10-11. I think it went well for me, I was feeling really good and looking at least like a human.