m0NESY: "We shouldn't forget the experience from this event, and we should share it with HooXi"

The Russian AWPer notched the second MVP of his career after a fairy-tale run in Dallas.

Entering IEM Dallas with stand-in Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip in lieu of captain Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen, it would have been difficult to conceive G2 making a deep run in the Texas event.

The international side got their campaign off to a solid start, qualifying for the playoffs after surviving elimination matches against MOUZ and Liquid. Once in front of the crowd, G2 bested FaZe, 9z, and eventually Vitality to lay claim to their first event win since IEM Cologne 2023.

Spearheading G2's efforts in Dallas was young AWPer Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, whose 1.35 average rating across 16 maps played topped the American event's charts.

Shortly after his team's stunning victory over Vitality, m0NESY spoke with HLTV regarding the chaotic series, how the team improved and learned over the course of the event, and what the team will be looking to change once HooXi returns.

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m0NESY, congratulations on the win and the MVP. How are you feeling after that series?

To be honest, I feel so amazing. It's been a bit wild. I'm really exhausted and really tired after the game. We gave everything. Those games, we as a team gave everything we could to make it happen. I can confidently say that I gave my best because I am so tired first of all, no energy. I tried to scream after every round, even though we were losing on Anubis 5-11, I still believed that we could come back because I know how we can do it as a team.

You played against Vitality in the group stage and it was not this close at all. Why do you think things went differently? Was it the stage difference?

I don't think it's the stage difference, I think it's a bit of improvements since the last game against them. We made a lot of mistakes when we played against them the first time. We lost a lot of anti-ecos, and we lost rounds that could cost us the game, and we concluded what we needed to do better and what we should do better as a team. I think this grand final against them, we showed how we can actually play as a team, better than from when we played against them [before].

Can you tell me what it was like playing with the American crowd?

I was doing it, I was playing with the crowd, because I think that's just good emotions, good energy. They bring energy, and I tried to take this energy from the crowd and show it in the game. They also bring me confidence, they cheer for us, and that's amazing.

Another thing that I think was cool about this event, and something that you struggled with at other events, is that you held it together in tough situations. Why do you think you were able to keep things together this event?

I think it was really important what we did during this tournament. We had a talk after every single game. When we won, and when we lost against Vitality, we always had talks. Small talks, sometimes it was long talks. We just wanted to win. I had a desire to win this tournament really bad.

Answering your question, sometimes there is a difference when people forget they don't have to talk about the previous rounds that we lost, stupid rounds. We had it in this tournament, and we had less in the grand final; I think in the grand final we didn't even do it. I think you just need to forget about these rounds, and just look forward and focus on the next round.

G2 has had a tough season, but you have been performing very well individually. What is that feeling like?

I don't know, this tournament we played like, if you were to just open a demo and watch by yourself, you could see how we play better as a team. I don't know how to even say it, we actually played this tournament really well as a team. Obviously, we made some mistakes, when we peek against eco more, you want to kill them but then you lose those rounds. But as a team, flash plays, peek off me, stuff like that, we had really good team play, it's just insane.

Everyone stepped up after the Vitality game because, against Vitality, we played like shit. After that, we just stepped up. I don't want to say that I played really well this tournament, because I had a lot of struggles during the group stage, but we were winning just as a team.

A critical part of your team, HooXi, was not at this event. With this being your best result in quite some time, what lessons are you going to take for when HooXi is back?

I think this tournament we played a bit flexible, simple Counter-Strike, more basic, not really overthinking about how they're going to play or how we're going to anti-strat them or something like that. Obviously, when we're going to play with HooXi at BLAST, I'm pretty sure we will play well, but we shouldn't forget the experience we got from this tournament, and we should share it with him. It's tough to explain right now, but we're going to be fresh, and we're going to just play the same Counter-Strike, like we usually do.

So are you going to mix in some of that casual Counter-Strike?

Of course. I will go a lot for my feelings, everyone from our team will go more for what they feel in the game to do, then we're going to call. I think NiKo on T-side will also chime in and call with Rasmus together, because Nikola calling, he is good at calling. I am not joking, but he is actually good at calling. He doesn't really overthink, he is pretty straightforward. He knows what he wants to do, and even if it is a bad call, we're going to win.