Keoz on Major invite: "I was chilling with my girlfriend in Dubai getting a bubble tea"

Keoz is hoping GamerLegion can "make a dream run" after replacing 9 Pandas at the eleventh hour.

GamerLegion were out.

The team failed in the EU RMR Last Chance Qualifier, halted at the final hurdle by 9 Pandas, and was counted out of PGL Major Copenhagen. "The dreams just fell apart when we lost to 9 Pandas," Nicolas "⁠Keoz⁠" Dgus tells HLTV.

But fate was not kind to Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin's men, who were ruled out of the Major after travel-related issues affected two 9 Pandas players and prevented the whole team from playing in Copenhagen. As the runners-up in the Last Chance Qualifier, GamerLegion were the natural successors, and the team around Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski got the call with less than 48 hours of notice to be on standby as a replacement before being confirmed the night before the start of the Major.

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Official: GamerLegion replace 9 Pandas at Copenhagen Major

"I was in Dubai [on vacation] when I learned about it," Keoz explained. "Every day that I wake up at this event, I'm like, 'Wait, I'm actually in Copenhagen right now' and I cannot believe it."

GamerLegion have made good on their last-second invite thus far, beating AMKAL and Legacy OCE on either side of a loss to SAW to sit just one best-of-three shy of making it to the next stage. Keoz spoke to HLTV about getting those wins and his team's last-minute arrival, saying that they are "trying to make a dream run."

If you can't see the SoundCloud embed above, you can find the audio version of the interview here.

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2-1, a pretty dominant win in that match. How are you feeling after the last-second invite and now being one win away from the next stage?

Every day that I wake up at this event, I'm like, 'Wait, I'm actually in Copenhagen right now' and I cannot believe it because the dreams just fell apart when we lost to 9 Pandas. Just getting that last-second invite, we have to give it our all right now to show what we're capable of and that we deserve that spot.

When you arrived here, we were told you had something like 12 hours of notice, is that right? What was the feeling like when you got invited up?

Personally, I was in Dubai when I learned about it. It was the afternoon, like 18:00, when I found out that it could be a possibility. Then later on in evening, PGL told us that we should fly to Copenhagen but that when we will arrive, they would still not be sure if we will play or not, so they could just send us back home. It was a fully stressful moment though, to maybe fly, then you still don't know until the last second, until it was official basically.

Tell me about being on vacation and getting that call, what were you doing while you were away?

I was just chilling with my girlfriend in Dubai. At the moment I received the message, I was getting a bubble tea, and then I was showing to my girlfriend, 'Oh look, it's so weird, I could maybe go to the Major now.' It was fully unbelievable.

Talking a little about playing here, volt is sitting in the middle, and at the EU RMR it sounded like he was calling and talking a little more. Is there some duties being split between him and Snax?

No, actually we just don't care about the positions, we do this for fun. The positions don't mean that he is giving more input, obviously everyone has input in the team.

When I was standing around you, it did seem like he was talking a bit more though. What are the voices like in the team with that?

I think, especially recently, the voices are really spread around according to our positions and what we do in them. We split it pretty well recently.

Whenever we're at events and we're taking videos of teams winning, usually we always go to you because you're always popping off and very loud at the end of matches. But you've been a bit quiet at this event, what's going on with that?

I'm not forcing myself to be the guy screaming all the time, I'm just doing it whenever I feel it. Sometimes I'm just not feeling it, it's different vibes, different moods, so I'm not going to force it just for the sake of the meme that I'm always doing it. I'm just being myself and that's it.

When you say that, do you mean that the vibe or the mood is a bit down in the team right now, or what do you mean?

No, I wouldn't say that the vibe is down, it's just... I don't know, it's pretty random whenever I feel like screaming. Maybe it depends on the opponents as well, without disrespecting them obviously, and also on how the game goes. If there are a lot of close rounds that we gain, then I will probably cheer more.

Going forward from this, you're playing best-of-threes now. You didn't know you were going to be here in the first place, but now you have two chances to get to the next stage. How do you feel about that?

The whole team is feeling pretty confident in this stage. This stage could be even easier than the RMR itself because there is less pressure, and overall teams have a less high level. We're just trying to make the dream run, like the team that was totally out, no one was counting because obviously we didn't qualify. Maybe we're here to make some damage and make a difference.

After Majors there is always a big shuffle, and a lot of the time that involves the teams that didn't make it through the RMRs and the qualifiers, they are usually the ones who are considering changes the earliest. After GamerLegion lost and you thought you were out, were there conversations that already started, did it make it weird coming here with that second chance?

I didn't really know what was going on exactly, if it was about to have some changes or not. Personally I wasn't sure at all for the future, but if we didn't get the invite I would probably have known in the next days.