Techno: "In Asia any team can win against any team"

TheMongolz head into the Asia RMR as the biggest favorites, but Techno doesn't believe they will have it that easy.

The MongolZ arrive at the Asia RMR taking place in Shanghai, China, as by far the highest-ranked team, sitting in 20th place ever since their semi-finals finish at ESL Challenger Atlanta at the end of 2023.

The team has already had an eventful 2024. They played in various regional qualifiers, won eXTREMESLAND over some of the same teams they're about to meet at the Asia RMR, and took part in IEM Katowice Play-in, where they went out early after a win over FURIA and narrow losses to two teams which eventually made it to the playoffs, Spirit and ENCE.

The MongolZ now head into the Major qualifier, and HLTV sat down with Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold of their campaign. The 18-year-old discussed the Mongolians' chances of making what would be his and Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren's fourth consecutive Major and their preparation ahead of the RMR.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Asia RMR
26/02/2024	The MongolZ 03:00 MAG	Match

We're meeting again at Asia RMR, one year after the one in Ulaanbaatar. The last time you were ranked similarly with other RMR spot contenders and qualified second, but this time you're far in front of other teams ranked #20 in the world. Do you feel like a favorite at this event?

Of course, statistically, we're the best team in Asia right now, both in ESL and HLTV ranking we’re #20. I don’t think we’re far in front of other teams, because in Asia any team can win any team, and the rankings don’t reflect that.

RMR is a very important event because it decides if you make it to the Major and have stickers. Do you feel more of an excitement or stress?

For the team, we feel both. We mainly feel excited about this event, but a little bit stressed as well.

I want to ask you about your recent performance. In Atlanta, you won over Complexity twice. How did it feel to win against an American team in America, considering Complexity was also the favorite to win the event?

Before Atlanta, we had really good practice in Mongolia. We had a lot of travel issues, flight reschedules, but we managed to make it to Atlanta. The first game against Complexity was very hard, it was a new team, an American team in America. But we still managed to win against them. We weren’t surprised, we just played our game.

Recently, you also won eXTREMESLAND 2023 here in Shanghai. How did it feel to play when the crowd was cheering for your opponent? Did that add any extra pressure?

When we play at a tournament, we only care about focusing on the game, not outside of the game. And that’s it. We don’t feel any extra pressure.

In both of these events, Senzu was the driving force for your success. Considering he's only 17 years old, what can you say about him and his future as a player?

A long time ago, I have played with Senzu, it was my first team. He’s a very good player individually, I think he has a very bright future.

Another relatively recent addition to your team, mzinho, had worse stats than Senzu while also being a young player at 17 years old. Does he still need more time to improve his performance? Or is already doing well, but stats don’t fully show that?

I’m confident that all players on our roster can play well, but sometimes you have a bad day. And mzinho has more bad days now, but he can play good.

Your team overall is quite young, the average age of your players is 19.5 years old which is very low. This leads me to ask what role your coach, maaRaa, has, especially when it comes to growing young players. How important is he to your process?

Of course, for every team the IGL and the coach are very important roles. For our team, it’s the same. maaRaa is the main decision-maker, but bLitz is also important.

Going into Asia RMR, how did you prepare and how much time did you spend on it?

After Katowice, we had a bootcamp in Serbia. We spent about two weeks at it. I think it’s a good amount of time for practice.

While playing praccs against European teams, did you manage to win against any big teams?

We don’t really care about winning or losing in practice, we only care about what they do against us and what we did against them. That’s all we care about.

Regarding your opponents, besides the TheMongolz, who do you think has the highest chance to qualify for the Major and why?

TYLOO and Grayhound might have a bigger chance maybe. TYLOO had a bootcamp in Serbia last month, the same as we did. dexter recently joined Grayhound, so we don’t know how they will perform.

What do you think of ATOX? It is also a Mongolian team. Do you think they have a chance here? And do you think they have the potential to be closer to your level in the future?

At this RMR, ATOX might qualify because, as I said, in Asia any team can win against any team. But they also have more potential. In the future, they can play on a similar level as us.