Magnojez: "When S0tF1k said he saw big potential in me, it was a huge morale boost"

BetBoom's newcomer spoke about his progress from K23 and Spirit Academy to now, and how S0tF1k helped turn his mentality around.

Kirill "⁠Magnojez⁠" Rodnov was chosen by Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov as his Bold Prediction for 2024 after the Russian rifler impressed on K23 and as a replacement for Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets on Spirit Academy in 2023, averaging a 1.36 rating over 38 maps for the latter over the final months of the year.

His potential was put to the test in March when he got the call-up to replace Danil "⁠danistzz⁠" Roslyakov on BetBoom after the team failed to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen, and thus far he has lived up to expectations by averaging a 1.18 rating over 111 maps.

Adapting to tier-one is never easy, however, and Magnojez's statistics drop off on LAN and as the level of his opponents increases. In-game, however, he looks comfortable on BetBoom, and at YaLLa Compass he was the consistent force behind wins over BIG, Eternal Fire, and fnatic that helped put his team through to playoffs.

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FURIA top Group B as YaLLa Compass moves to playoffs

The 19-year-old spoke to HLTV about making the playoffs in Abu Dhabi, his thoughts on BetBoom, and what his journey to the team has been like, with Magnojez crediting Spirit Academy coach Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko for helping turn his mentality around after he was benched from K23 last year.

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Congratulations on making the playoffs of YaLLa Compass 2024. What are your impressions from the group stage?

The games were quite ordinary. Only the FURIA match didn’t go well, nothing to say about it really. Just BO1, MR12, you lose a couple of rounds, it’s 1-5, and you start to feel uncomfortable. It snowballs, and it’s 1-13 in the end.

Against Eternal Fire we made a good comeback. We had a plan, kept to it, and didn’t lose to ourselves. The rest of the matches were nothing special.

You lost big against FURIA on Nuke. Are you ready to take revenge against them in playoffs, and on Nuke specifically?

I’m not a fan of making loud statements [laughs]. Our Nuke is quite good actually, we had preparation before the event. We’ve added some new stuff, but we just didn’t manage to get to the half where we could surprise FURIA.

Against Complexity it actually helped us, probably it was even better this way. But FURIA is an opponent that we clearly are capable of winning against.

Before the match against Eternal Fire started, you already knew that you advanced. This game could only affect your playoffs seeding, and it will depend on an outcome in a different match. Did that affect your approach to the match?

To be honest, I didn’t even think if we went through or not, I just sat and played. As for our team, I can say that Eternal Fire is a main rival for them as far as I understand, because they lost to them often before I joined the team.

So there was some desire to win against Eternal Fire, even though they’re in poor form now. But it doesn’t really matter for us, we just approached it like a regular game. We made a normal analysis and just enjoyed the game.

I also wanted to ask you about your career before BetBoom. You played for Spirit Academy, but before joining them you had already played for K23. How did it happen and what did the academy give you?

After K23, I had a tough period because I had poor results. I think it was because I went to the next level too early, I didn’t have some basics and therefore played badly. We also switched positions all the time, but it doesn’t really matter.

After I got benched in K23, I got invited to Spirit Academy and talked to S0tF1k. He said he saw big potential in me. It was a huge morale boost because I had some issues with my mentality: “I play bad, I play bad.”

Dima [S0tF1k] helped me to return to feeling normal and gave me some basics because he’s an academy coach. He can help teach how to play — without creativity because it isn’t needed when you’re in an academy. And then you reach the next level with full knowledge of how to play the right game. After that, you become an artist and introduce creativity.

When playing for Spirit Academy, I would say your name was often mentioned as a possible reinforcement for top teams in the Russian-speaking region. Have you had any offers besides BetBoom?

I had offers from both CIS and Europe. I had two priority options: BetBoom and one other team. I received several invites, went for trials everywhere, and I wasn’t really choosing [from any of those]. Then I got an invite from BetBoom. We played together for two days, after that I was offered a contract, and I agreed. The decision was made quite fast.

What are your overall impressions from playing for BetBoom? Does it feel different because you now play in a top team?

I don’t really have anything to compare it with, because when you play in the academy, you learn the basics, as I said earlier. Just play some small tournaments, you don’t endure any pressure, you just play and learn some base-level communication and teamwork.

So when you reach another level, it’s a big leap, but I was ready for it. It wasn’t a surprise for me, I had an idea of how people play here. I talked a lot with everyone on the team but zorte, so I knew what to expect. It was very easy to adapt.

Some players on the team seem to be more emotional than you, was it hard to adapt in that sense?

I wouldn’t say our players are very emotional. Just like in every team, we have moments when some players show their emotions, not necessarily negative ones. I don’t think we have issues in that regard. I’m pretty emotional as well, just like KaiR0N- and nafany, but I try to control my emotions just like them. We’re working on that quite a lot and I think we’re doing pretty good.

Lastly, what are your expectations from the playoffs? Which team would you like to meet the most?

I think our goal is to reach the top three at least. We didn’t have a lot of preparation, but even with that, we’re capable of winning this event. As for an opponent, I played against all teams but TheMongolZ. It would probably be interesting to meet them and see how they play. As far as I could see, they have strong shooters and cool ideas, it would be interesting to play against them.