Jame: "No one on this team is safe, especially me"

The Russian in-game leader was transparent about his organization's ambitions and how the lineup is regarded heading into the end of the season.

IEM Rio 2024 has not been a walk in the park for Virtus.pro, who are making their way through the Group B lower bracket after a loss to The MongolZ in the best-of-one opener.

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and his men played their second match against 9z, a best-of-three series they started on the back foot after losing Ancient. A 10-2 lead at the half on Inferno only ended in the last round of regulation when the South American squad threatened a comeback, and VP could finally breathe after a one-sided affair on the Mirage decider.

Virtus.pro don't quite have it all figured out yet and are working on sharpening their game ahead of the Major. Everything will then be on the line, from the AWPing in-game leader's system to players' roles. "The biggest question is to our system of an AWPing IGL," Jame says. "This question bothers me all the time, I think about it a lot, but I try to get the most out of myself and the team."

Congrats on the win, not quite as comfortable on the first map but an easy win on the last. Can you tell me about that result and how you feel after bouncing back from the loss to The MongolZ yesterday?

I can feel that we have entered the tournament. The first game was tough, a nervous one, plus the game plan wasn’t right, so we couldn’t show what we practiced on. Today it’s better, though the first map was hard due to our communication and decision-making, but we showed up on the other maps, switched to the T-side, and displayed how we can trick our opponents and play.

9z almost came back on map two, you were up 10-2 and it ended 13-11, can you tell me what was going wrong there?

We gave away some unnecessary entries… there weren’t even any issues, we just couldn’t fully execute our ideas and were outplayed in certain situations two or three times. Overall, it was fine, we just couldn’t get our trades and secure an advantage.

Talking about your coach change, Xoma went out and PASHANOJ came in. There was this video circulating where the whole team didn't fist-bump or high-five Xoma at an event before the change, can you shed any light on that and on bringing PASHANOJ in as coach?

It was a funny situation. I was just thinking about something, and if you could find a full clip, I think you would see that I high-fived him. I realized what happened after a few seconds and high-fived him. I don’t know, people like to pull things out of thin air — it’s normal, it’s sport.

I have worked with PASHANOJ before, he was our analyst. We have a better connection since he’s been on the team longer, he helps me push my game. We will see how it will work at the Major, as our main goal is to qualify for the Major and go as deep as possible… or maybe even win it because we work with the goal of winning championships, but we haven’t managed to succeed yet.

One of the other things that has been visible with VP has been the style issues integrating electroNic, can you say how that is going now with some more practice and time?

We are testing many approaches. We have time to do it before the Major. There were many tournaments where we tested different systems, preparations, etc., but it’s settling down now. We are close to finding the game we want to play at the Major, where we will see if it works or not.

A tight schedule, a coaching change… first and foremost the schedule, we just couldn’t sit down and work on maps. Only outlines, so our game wasn’t cohesive. At certain points, we chose the wrong paths to develop maps, and only now we could make some role changes. You can see at this tournament that we are changing roles and trying to find the best solutions for our team.

When the last roster change was made, there was this interview with us from the VP CEO, who said, "The sky is the limit in terms of the transfer market" for the organization. It has also been talked about that you might give up IGLing or could be replaced. What is your perspective on that?

I think no one on this team is safe because Virtus.pro’s ambition is to be the best and compete with the strongest teams at the highest level. It’s tough to make changes in the middle of the season, and organizations act from Major to Major. After the Major, just like any other team, we will reevaluate because we have a lot of disputes in our system, our roles, and we question that after every Major and try to get the most out of the resources we have.

No one is safe, especially me. The biggest question is to our system of an AWPing IGL. This question bothers me all the time, I think about it a lot, but I try to get the most out of myself and the team.

Circling back to this tournament, you lost the best-of-one yesterday, won this best-of-three, but still two more best-of-threes to make playoffs with the next game against the loser of Astrals-HEROIC. What are your thoughts on this next match and the rest of the tournament?

I think we will only focus on the nearest match; the second one doesn’t matter to us right now. We just need to beat our first opponent, no matter who it will be, and then work from there, with the schedule and specific opponent we will have because we can’t predict it right now. We need to gather our strength. Tomorrow will be a tough day; the same happened at the EPL. We need to show everything we are capable of.