STYKO: "I can see there are bandaids being thrown around in this team"

The Slovakian rifler discussed similarities he sees between Monte and his previous squad, Apeks.

Monte marched into IEM Dallas with two new players after signing Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk and incorporating Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss as a stand-in just two weeks ago. After a slew of online matches, the team headed straight to Texas with limited practice time under their belts.

Unfortunately for Monte, their refurbished lineup fell just short of victories over Vitality and Falcons, exiting IEM Dallas in 13-16th place.

Shortly after their elimination at the hands of Falcons, STYKO shared some comments regarding his transition from Apeks to Monte, his reunion with Ukrainian coach Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov, and how he hopes to curb issues on the team similar to those that he encountered on Apeks.

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First of all, commiserations on the loss, that obviously has you guys out of the tournament a little bit early. Since you're a freshly-assembled lineup, what were the expectations even heading into this event?

[laughs] That's a good question; I don't think we've ever discussed it, honestly. But, obviously, expectations were to win a game because it's very important for us that we kind of fight for an ESL Cologne invite spot, and I know we're on the verge of making it. That's basically goal number one for the start of next season.

With us, despite having close games against Vitality and Falcons, we will receive zero [ESL points], and that's a huge blow to our chances, because I think Cologne invites will be out very soon. We don't have any other way to gain [points], so this might be a heavy blow for Cologne.

You just departed Apeks not too long ago, but it seemed from the language in your video that you weren't quite sure when you would be back on your feet. You ultimately joined Monte pretty quickly, can you tell me about that process?

The thing is I wanted to take a few weeks, maybe months, of break because I did not expect anyone to change roster in the middle of the season. But then less than 24 hours after I had released the video, I was approached by Monte.

I felt like it was a team that, first of all, I can fit in and I can also develop in because I am getting to play new roles — some of them, at least. I obviously have previous experience with lmbt, and I generally think the guys are shooting really hard.

Firepower, I think it's an upgrade over what we had in Apeks, and also they get to play a lot of events, and I want to experience something new. That's why I kinda went for the maybe hasty decision, some might say, but for me, it was a no-brainer.

Of course, I could have waited until the season ended and then hoped for some reshuffles where my name would come up, but I'm actually really proud of myself that my name came up so quickly in an international team.

It clearly shows me that not all orgs and players and coaches are looking at stats only, but they also know what I'm bringing, and that had to be big factor when lmbt approached me because he knows what I will bring to the team and what they need, and hopefully, they can elevate their game.

You brought up new roles; in that same video, you also mentioned receiving the short end of the stick when it came to roles. When it comes to the new roles on Monte, do you mean new relative to what you did on Apeks, or entirely new roles for you?

I think some of them are completely new. On the CT side, on some maps, I'm an anchor, and on some maps, I'm a rotator. On the T side, on some maps, I'm in the middle of the pack, and on some maps, I'm a lurker. All of these positions have one thing in common for me in this team specifically, and that is being in the supportive role.

On some maps, it's better to be a support from a lurker/anchor position. On some maps, you need to be in the middle of the pack. That's basically it. I'm floating doing whatever is needed, but it has this supportive element to my gameplay that I've always been kind of known for. In Apeks, I couldn't really show it, and when I was showing it, it hurt my gameplay because, on some maps, it's just really, really difficult to pull it off.

You touched on lmbt a little bit, and it's been quite a few years since you worked with him. Although you've only been here for a little bit, what is it like working with him again? Is it more of the same from mousesports, or has he clearly developed over the past few years?

Well, kind of both. First of all, he has surely developed. There's no denying that. But also his way of working, some might say it's special, but I already know it because it was my first real coach experience that I had in tier-one Counter-Strike, and it worked. We were winning with mousesports, battling for the top five in the world. For that, he's kind of the same, but obviously tactical depth, even working with the players, I think it evolved.

He has his own way or style, and some people might hate it from the bottom of their hearts, but for me, it kind of works. I need a little bit of a strict, authoritative coach. That helps me develop. At the same time, we get to talk about macro CS or micro CS, and we kind of ping-pong ideas off each other. With lmbt, that is very easy, for me at least.

When you say a special kind of coaching, what do you mean? Can you elaborate?

It's really hard to say, honestly. I don't want to go too much into the details. I really cannot say. It's really hard for me to explain because it's nothing like I've experienced in any other coaches I've ever played for. It's very hard to really put it into words.

Another thing you talked about with Apeks is lots of bandaid solutions, and that there weren't any real efforts to make long-term fixes. Do you think lmbt and the other players on Monte have a longer-term approach that resolves this?

Actually, no. I can also see that there are some bandaids being thrown around in this team, and I'm hoping to speak out about it in the future, maybe the very near future. I wanted to do it here at IEM Dallas when we're all present because we never really saw each other face to face, and it's really easy to deal with these issues personally.

I want to definitely bring it up before we leave because I think it might work in a month, but eventually, it will come back, and these problems will haunt us.

I actually see similarities with Apeks; at some times, things are swept under the rug. It's better that we talk about it openly. We're adults, we all want to win. We showed it even here, we lost three maps, but they were winnable, and we could have won against one of the best teams in the world with limited practice and a stand-in, so obviously we're on the right way, but we need to be on the righter way.

You say limited practice. You guys have been grinding officials basically as soon you got to Monte, and you've been leaning into the recent Dust2 update. In addition to the Vertigo changes, what are your thoughts on these updates?

I'm happy with any change, honestly. I'm the guy that embraces the changes. People will complain on Twitter about map pool or whatever, but at the end of the day, that complaint is literally worth nothing. Instead of writing that tweet, you need to load up the server and work. I don't have any opinion about it because it's just how it is laid in front of me, and I take it very realistically.

But, with limited practice, it's true, with officials we couldn't really practice. We've had one practice day prior to this whole tournament. Basically, our practices are streamed because they're officials.

That's the only way that we really get to spend server time with each other and actually put things to work, and sometimes we screw things up heavily because it's the first time we're running it. We literally just dry run it in an empty server, and then 30 minutes later, we might do it in an official. Obviously, things happen.

So from here on out, the focus is, now that you have some time, to fix the mistakes from Dallas and your online matches?

I mean, it's a blessing in disguise that I got approached in the middle of the season because now we're actually going to work on the mistakes, and the season is going to end. The player's break is coming, and we still have loads of officials coming up.

Some of the tournaments we didn't accept yet, or aren't public yet, but we will have ESL Challenger, and that's a load of matches, and then we have the BLAST qualifier. These kinds of things will make us ineffective in practice anyway.

We're really not in a position to be a team that practices two months before every event. We're just going to grind officials, and that's what we have to accept. I think, in a way, the officials are the best way to practice.