Krad: "Through all the RMR we felt so shaky"

AMKAL might have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in Bucharest, but they leave with an overriding feeling of joy having qualified for the Major.

AMKAL were not one of the favored teams coming into the PGL Major Copenhagen Europe RMR, arriving in Bucharest as one of the five worst-ranked teams and as a relatively new line up. An opening loss to Enterprise did little to instil confidence in the squad.

The Russians faced a topsy-turvy route through the rest of their RMR campaign with plenty of nail-biting maps, overtime wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas and Falcons being the pick of the bunch. Eventually, AMKAL battled their way to qualification with a 3-2 record, sealing the deal with a win over 9 Pandas.

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AMKAL book PGL Major ticket after 9 Pandas win

Having just grabbed a spot at the Major, Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko stopped for a quick interview with HLTV to discuss his teams chaotic journey and what they need to do to be in top shape for the tournament itself.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR A
14/02/2024	AMKAL Finished 9:13 Enterprise	Match
14/02/2024	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 20:22 AMKAL	Match
15/02/2024	fnatic Finished 13:11 AMKAL	Match
16/02/2024	AMKAL Finished 2:1 Falcons	Match
17/02/2024	9 Pandas Finished 1:2 AMKAL	Match

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Congratulations. How are you feeling?

Thank you. I feel so incredible, I don't know. I feel like I gave everything I had and it paid off, I'm really happy right now.

It was a very up and down journey for you guys, and you had lots of really intense maps. What were the emotions like as you were going through the RMR?

These emotions were so shaky. On the first day we lost to Enterprise, then almost lost to a come back from NIP, and we felt really bad because we played bad and almost went 0-2. Then after the Falcons win we started believing more. Through all the RMR we felt so shaky. One day we feel good, one day we think "fuck, we are fucking bots." It was because we were not so prepared, so we're going to prepare right now before the Major and I hope we're going to be more confident and more consistent as a team.

Like you say, you've not been together for very long as a team. Did you think you could qualify when you came to this RMR?

Yeah, 100% I was sure that we could because we played together before. We have the core from 1WIN, I know them, I played with Forester and NickelBack so I know what they can do and how they're thinking. Of course when we played our first qualifications through to other tournaments we saw how ICY was performing, that he is playing really good under pressure, and I was thinking that we 100% can do it through RMR and make the Major.

What do you think you guys need to work on to improve for the Major? You said you were a bit shaky sometimes, so what do you need to do to get better?

I think we need to rebuild our defaults on some maps to make some rounds a little bit different, so that everyone will feel better in these rounds. I think we need to play more, play these rounds and play these defaults to know ourselves, each other, and how we can be confident in these rounds.

You and Forester have played together for a really long time now, basically most of your career. Do you guys try to play together, or has it just worked out that way?

I'm not sure we are trying (laughs), but I know what he's capable of and he knows what I'm capable of. When Boombl4 went to Cloud9, Forester wanted me to come to 1WIN because he knew that I would fit perfectly in these roles, that I can do maybe what Boombl4 can do. It happened in the end but not in 1WIN, in AMKAL instead, so thank you to AMKAL for that!