m0NESY: "I don't want to wait for my teammates to die, I want to make a difference"

The 18-year-old is making his aggressive style work in CS2 and has established himself as a top-three player.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov has evolved from a high-potential wonderkid into a bonafide superstar. His rise has only become more prominent since the release of CS2, evolving into G2's key piece with a 1.30 rating on the new version.

After missing out on IEM Rio entirely and failing in groups of the BLAST.tv Paris Major, PGL Copenhagen is now set to be the Russian sniper's debut playoff appearance at a Major.

"Even though I've won like three tournaments. Major playoffs, for me, was something not more important, but important because I've never been there and I wanted to," m0NESY tells HLTV.

He also took the time to explain his aggressive AWPing style in depth, noting inspiration from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and a desire to make his AWP count for more than just trades and saves.

The result is an uber-confident sniper, ready to climb CS2's first and highest summit: "I've got my mini-goal done, now we can win the Major."

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Here with m0NESY, you just had another pop off map, as normal these days, how are you feeling after that?

I'm feeling really calm and relaxed. I think it was one of the best series, best-of-threes, that I ever played in terms of energy, emotions, just everything. Obviously not including grand finals, just BO3s in group stages, but it was really amazing. We fought until the end. We kept believing in ourselves, even though we were lost map one, and they were snowballing us to 11-11 and stuff.

I've got to ask about the crash. 11-11, the B retake. What was it like from your camp? When you won the map TaZ shouted over at VP, did you try and take full advantage of the mental edge?

It was crazy. We wanted to save, but HooXi said, 'let's save, but see if we kill one guy and then we can retake.' We killed him, [laughs], and went for the retake. I don't know what helped us but sometimes it happens, this stuff. Someone can crash, or PC crash, or whatever. After that map, I knew on the third map we were gonna snowball them, like we were gonna smash them with full motivation. Usually, when you lose the first map and win the second map, the third one is easier because you have more energy and more emotions. I just knew we were going to smash them. I didn't want to get away from this opportunity to make playoffs.

On that decider, a big part of why you could snowball was yourself. You were 14-2 at some point during that 8-0 streak, just talk me through how that went for you.

We were winning a lot of rounds in a row. In this game, on Anubis, I was moving a lot and just trusting my gut feeling. I don't know how but sometimes I just knew where they were going to hit, from where they were going to come. I was just trusting my feelings. I wasn't in positions where I should have been.

For example, I rotated towards B, I trusted my feeling, and they were doing a B pop. Every round was the same. But after we lost four rounds, they were really unlucky rounds, I don't want to speak about them. We definitely deserved to win.

For CS2 more generally, AWPers have found it a bit tougher. We've not spoken to you since IEM Sydney when you sort of started, or continued, this aggressive AWPing style. What do you think about that now?

I think a lot of AWPers found excuses to not play with AWP maybe, somehow it made them play worse with AWP. But it didn't really affect me, I knew that if I was going to practice more than in CS:GO, more AWP, I can be the best AWPer in the scene. And I wanted to be. I didn't care that I switched to CS2 and people said the AWP is not as good as in GO. Maybe, I just spent more time practicing and training AWP.

I have a really aggressive playstyle. I think I got that, not like motivation, but when I watched s1mple and any other AWPer, I was comparing him to other AWPers and he is really confident in his AWP. He knows how to control the AWP, in situations where you can peek where you have an advantage. I was trying to kind of do the same, but you just need to have really good confidence with AWP.

You don't need to be behind your teammates and wait for them to die. You need to make a difference. That's what I'm following. I want to make a difference in the game. I don't want to wait for my teammates to die, I want to go and make a difference, go rush, play aggressive, and be active with the AWP. I don't just want to hold. I don't want to save. I want to try and get more clutches, because I feel like I can make the difference in this game. That's what is really fuelling my motivation.

It is a noticeable aggression from you compared to other AWPers. Do you think that's part of why, rating wise at least, you've established yourself as a top three player? For most people, it's you, ZywOo, and donk, at least. Is that fuelling this?

For sure, aggression in this game is better, it's overpowered compared to GO. At the start of CS2, wide-peeking and how donk was running out, it was really hard to kill the guy. Right now it's also the same, but in this game it really matters who is going to shoot faster. If you have a really good reaction time and you're going to shoot faster than your opponent you will kill him. Same goes for the AWP as well, I know that I can shoot faster than any opponent, with the AWP I'm going to click the mouse faster, that's my confidence, and it's playing on me really well. The aggression, you just need to know how to control it. You can be over-confident and make stupid decisions because of it, you need to have a pretty good balance.

With G2 in CS2, the story has been your rise to the top rating-wise, but also huNter-'s drop off, nexa for jks, similar ratings but different role and star impact expected of them, a few questions around NiKo as well. Do you feel more of an onus on you, a bit more pressure?

No, I don't feel pressure at all. I trust my teammates, even though... When we play practice everything is different, everyone is dominating, everyone is shooting really well, everything is happening. During officials I don't really feel that people are playing worse, I trust my teammates. I know they're playing really well. Maybe some shit can happen, someone can have a bad game and you need to go cheer them up and be a good teammate to them. Everyone can have a bad game, everyone can struggle. Me too, I'm not a god, you know, that plays well all the time. We're all human.

Back to the positives, it's your first Major playoffs which is a crazy thought. How excited are you for that?

I'm really excited. BanKs was interviewing me [on stream], asking the same question, and I didn't know what to say. I was really happy, I really wanted it so much. I was always looking forward to playing in playoffs, even though I've won like three tournaments. Major playoffs, for me, was something not more important, but important because I've never been there and I wanted to. I've got my mini-goal done, now we can win the Major.

You said that on broadcast, that you'll win the Major. Will you repeat that now?

Of course, we're going to fucking win the Major. But, you need a lot of patience to win a Major during the playoffs. You need to work really hard. We have a lot of days to prepare for our next opponent.