degster: "There are no reasons to play the game if you don't believe that you can be the best"

degster is pleased that HEROIC's work before BB Dacha Belgrade is now paying off, and has set his sights high.

Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and HEROIC have had to endure a tricky start to their partnership, after the Russian AWPer was denied visas for IEM Dallas, BLAST Fall Groups, and the start of IEM Cologne.

The squad did find time to practice together before BetBoom Dacha Belgrade, "the first time we had a full time working together" according to degster, but that work is only paying off one event later as HEROIC made it to the top twelve of ESL Pro League by beating Virtus.pro.

With MIBR and M80 as possible opponents, HEROIC are now in the driving seat to reach top four, end their slump, and record their best result since signing degster in May.

He swung by HLTV's microphone to talk about HEROIC's level, MIBR and M80 as potential opponents, and his issues with CS2's movement.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
18/09/2024	MIBR 13:00 HEROIC	Match

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Congratulations, what are your thoughts after that series?

Thank you, first of all. The series was good by us, it was good communication, good teamplay, and I'm happy that we did it.

It looked liked you had a really clear game plan against Virtus.pro, especially on Dust2 where you were always proactive, always searching for information. Was that a preparation thing, or just the way you ended up playing the game?

It's more that's how we manage it during the rounds, by communicating and looking at the situation, you know? One situation to each, basically.

Overall, how do you think HEROIC have been playing at this tournament? How would you rate your level?

To give a number is really hard to say, because first match we started with Snap Tap problems, then we were playing I think a good game against Sangal but we gave them a comeback. The comeback from Sangal was a bit rough for us, but it's fine. Then we bounced back when we played against NIP.

After all of this stuff happened it was a bit difficult for us, especially with Snap Tap, it was not the best thing. It's the first time ever in my career I come to a tier-one tournament and I see that I am losing the first map because of something like this. Because of these things it is not easy to say. I would like to have played FaZe after the NIP game, for example, but we didn't have the option to do that.

Overall we are doing a good job. We started in Serbia in August, played the IEM Rio qualifications and then played BetBoom, which didn't go our way. But when we came here all the work that we did in Belgrade started to show up, and we are building on it. I am really happy that we are improving. To rate us with a number is going to be unfair until we at least finish the tournament. You can come to me later (laughs).

Next up you have MIBR. Do you have any thoughts on them as an opponent?

To be honest, no. Right now my main focus was against Virtus.pro, and I'm still not refreshed (laughs). I think we've played against MIBR, I'm not sure if they've changed roster, but I played against them in my first official game on HEROIC. We will need to look at them, what they do, what they've improved and stuff like that, and be prepared for them. I always take any game in a tournament step by step, and I don't focus on other things before the first step is done.

Does that mean you're not looking to the future? Because you've got MIBR now and if you beat them you have M80, so it looks like a pretty good run to try and get to the semi-finals. Are you just not thinking about that?

Of course, I look at my bracket, but I don't want to disrespect anyone in the tournament. MIBR and M80 did a good job, and the thing is, I don't expect any game to be easy. That's why I am just saying to myself always to just look step by step, that's the best way in my eyes to look at your games and look at tournaments, don't overthink that you need to be somewhere.

Of course, you have goals, like it would be great to be in the playoffs of EPL, yeah we did this goal and it was good we managed it after all of the stuff that happened with us. But after that, you just need to see who you play against and show your best possible game each day against any opponent, and see where it's going to bring you.

Just to talk about your time in HEROIC in general, you've been on the team for a while now, but had some visa issues which hurt the team and its development. How are you feeling on HEROIC now? Do you feel like you've settled in?

If you're asking how do I feel, I feel great. I appreciate everyone who is in the team and the organization, I've met a lot of beautiful people and I am happy to be here, I am happy to be able to try achieve something with these people. We are getting to know each other much better and it's great, because every personality is so nice, all of them are very kind and good people and all of them are professionals.

I do believe that we are working in our way, we are on the right way in my eyes at least, and I hope we are gonna do the job that we need to do, and we are going to keep our focus. This is the most important thing, to keep going with our way, don't change it up, and just believe in us.

Like you said, you've had quite a busy month or two. You had BetBoom Dacha, you had to play the Rio qualifiers from BetBoom Dacha, and your level has been a little bit inconsistent throughout. What do you think the problems have been for HEROIC, why have you been a bit inconsistent?

Against Eternal Fire they just played a better Anubis, I remember it. We know that it's their good map and they did a good job in my eyes. In the first game at BetBoom [against paiN] I do think that we played really well, I can't really blame us, but we lost some crucial rounds, like two pistol rounds that were 1v3 or 1v4 on Dust2. Even the last round, I still remember it, as CT side with 20s on Dust2, they have no map control, then one guy rushes out short and hits a headshot on me, CS2 things in my eyes to be honest.

That's why they need to fix movement, because just imagine: if that was CS:GO, 80% or 90% of the time it's a kill for the AWPer, and then if they don't have any util, it's a multi-kill for the AWPer. In CS:GO you wish someone would go like that, but nobody comes (laughs), they are like "no no, we don't want to come here." So we lost that map. The next map was Nuke, and here we improved a lot from that game.

What can I say? BetBoom was rough, but how I always describe it is "what's there to improve?" BetBoom gave us some things to improve, and I think that we did it to be honest. Here at EPL we have seen the steps that we took, which is why I am saying I like the way we are going. Maybe it was rough at the start, but we are getting into it. When we met at BetBoom I think it was basically the first time we had a full time working together, without any breaks, without any problems as you were talking about.

Where do you think HEROIC's top level is then, in your eyes? You say you're on the right path, but where do you see the top level?

I do believe that we can be No. 1. I do believe in my eyes there are no reasons to play the game and be in the team if you don't believe that you can be the best. What are the reasons then to spend all of your time traveling the world, you don't see your family, just to be somewhere mediocre? No, it's not what I believe in at least.