seized on Major return: "In other teams I doubted it, but with this team I believed"

9 Pandas stood tall amidst the cutthroat competition of the Last Chance Qualifier.

Entering as the eighth-highest ranked squad of PGL Major Copenhagen EU RMR A, 9 Pandas stood out as a team that could slip through into the Major if they could showcase similar form to their tournament-winning PARI Please 2023 run. A direct qualification through the tournament's Swiss stage proved too tall a task for the Russian side, but the team's 2-3 record gave them a lifeline in the PGL Major Copenhagen EU Last Chance Qualifier.

After a hard-fought campaign in the decider event, which included a stunning victory over Astralis and a close deciding match versus GamerLegion, 9 Pandas laid claim to the 17th and final spot from Europe at PGL Major Copenhagen.

Following his team's monumental victory, in-game leader Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin spoke to HLTV regarding his feelings surrounding qualifying for a Major for the first time in over half a decade, how his team plays on LANs and against top teams, and if the rivalry versus fellow veteran Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski added anything to the all-important matchup.

If you do not see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the full interview here.

---

First things first, how are you feeling?

I can't believe it still, it feels amazing.

This is your first Major since 2018, what does it mean to you? How does it feel after so much time to make it back?

It feels so good, because this result means that our hard work paid off.

Did you ever doubt that you could do it and get back to the Majors, because it was quite a long time?

In other teams I doubted it, but with this team I believed. I knew that we just needed to gather some experience, some losses, and through them we would go to the next level.

On the server today you battled against Snax, and he's somebody that back in the day you used to battle against. Was this running through your mind, does it make it special to beat somebody from your past?

No, no, it was nothing special. I just saw on some post on HLTV that we both were last at a Major in 2018, but my last Major was at the start of the year and his was the second one. So I thought in my mind that it's my turn, I should take it this time.

It's been a little while since you've been playing these very, very top teams, a lot of the teams you were playing on couldn't play at this level. Was it tough to adjust to playing against these top tier teams again?

Actually it's not that tough. It's all about the experience for our team against these teams on LAN. We need to play more LANs, more games against top dogs and then we will understand how to play against them. It's mostly clutches, communication, and nothing special. We have good rounds, we have a great playbook, so it's all about our mindset.

Speaking about clutches, towards the end of that Nuke you had a really big lead and they started to pull it back. That Snax 1v2, what did that do to the mood in the team? Obviously you bounced back, but was it tough to deal with that?

I don't know, you need to ask about this for other players, but for me I was trying to not focus on it. My mind was on what to do now, how to win the round.

You won the PARI LAN a little while ago, do you think you guys are a LAN team? Do you think you step up your level on LAN?

Of course. We just need to play more LANs to gather this experience, and for sure we are playing better on LAN than online.

Your team beat the odds, you were one of the teams that nobody really favored to make it through, and then when you got into this Last Chance Qualifier nobody predicted you to make it through. Does it feel a little bit sweeter to prove everyone wrong?

Of course.