hades: "I wouldn't call myself a proper captain just yet"

hades has been Monte's in-game leader since July after first trying out the role in 9INE late last year, but is still getting to grips with the role.

Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz has had a tumultuous 2024. He began by returning to former organization ENCE and leading the Polish-majority squad's charge to playoffs at IEM Katowice, securing an EVP in the process.

But after results fell off, he was benched in May and eventually found a new home as Monte's in-game leader.

Under the Ukrainian organization's banner, he was able to link up with ex-9INE duo Kamil "⁠KEi⁠" Pietkun and coach Piotr "⁠nawrot⁠" Nawrocki and now returns to Katowice for ESL Challenger in a Polish-speaking lineup.

Date	Matches
ESL Challenger Katowice 2024
25/10/2024	Monte 14:45 paiN	Match

Adapting to the captaincy will not be easy, but hades is enjoying the chance. "It's something I kinda like," he explains to HLTV.

"I wouldn't really call myself a proper captain just yet, I would just say I'm an IGL because I lack in the captain qualities. I try my best, I sometimes do the captain style, but then I don't have this type of captain mentality just yet, I'm still working on myself in this direction."

---

This tournament, while for a lot of other people it will be a stepping stone, for Monte it seems like it's going to be a pretty big deal.

Yeah. It's the last big tournament of the year, so if we manage to do well in this, it sets us up for the new year and it sets everyone up because it's all about the Valve ranking next year, right? We wanna do as best as we can.

Just how important is it to do well?

It's really important because our online results have been pretty shaky recently. Now we had like two weeks of practice, so we wanna show that the practice is paying off and do well at this tournament.

Usually you've been grinding, but this time you've actually had some lead time. You're saying that's a good thing, then, to have time off from the online grind and more for practice?

Yeah, I think we started fixing a lot of mistakes and added some new stuff, so we'll be less readable, hopefully (laughs). We needed those couple of weeks to relax a bit, fix some stuff and add new stuff.

You're actually the lowest-ranked team here, but this arguably means more to you compared to everyone else at the tournament. How do you see your chances of doing well?

I think we're gonna do pretty good on LAN. We're a team which is pretty emotional, so I feel like we can hype each other up really well. Also it doesn't affect us because we don't have as much pressure as the other teams. I think it's a good tournament for us.

Monte has gone through a bit of a renaissance over the past couple months. You joined, immediately became the IGL, then the team shifted to a four-man Polish core shortly after that. Becoming a captain, why did you make that decision?

Towards the end of my period in 9INE I was trying out IGLing. I kinda liked it, so it was something I wanted to continue with or try again in the future. When I got an offer in Monte I was able to try again, so I was like, why not? It's something I kinda like. I wouldn't really call myself a proper captain just yet, I would just say I'm an IGL because I lack in the captain qualities. I try my best, I sometimes do the captain style, but then I don't have this type of captain mentality just yet, I'm still working on myself in this direction. I think so far it's going pretty well.

It's been a couple of months now, how are you coming to grips with it? Are you taking inspiration from other IGLs you played with, or from other AWPing IGLs that are in the space?

I try to take inspiration from every IGL I've played under, mynio, Snappi, gla1ve. I tried to take bits I like the most and try to implement it into our own game. Sometimes it's pretty good and sometimes it's a little bit inconsistent, but then I also have nawrot with me, who is also an IGL from the past, so he also helps me out a lot, tells me, 'we could have played this a bit different, you should have fought like this,' or 'you should have done this round after this round.' It just makes me think a bit more in-game. It's not easy for me, but I have really good people around me to learn from.

What do you think have been the biggest difficulties in that, with the consistency part of it and becoming more of a captain?

Mainly when it's mid-rounds, for example, and sometimes I have players who like to do their own bit. I always let them do their own bit, but sometimes they can just get on top of me. When that happens we just get too chaotic, so we just need to work on that mostly.

I watched one of your videos from shortly after the change to a four-man Polish core happened, and there was still a lot of English in the communication. How has it been since then?

It feels like it's improving all the time. We almost always speak Polish, but then if it's something which is not from the playbook but from the head, then we say it in English to make sure DemQQ understands. In general he understands like 80-90% of everything, and if he doesn't know something then he just asks instantly and we just say it in English. It's a bit of a mishmash, but so far it's going alright.

Does it feel more like an international team now or is it more of a Polish team?

More of a Polish team at the moment, I would say.

What kind of in-game leader are you, do you give a lot of space or are you more strict?

For me, it's a bit of both. If someone wants to do their own thing in the map I'll support them, but if no one is saying anything I say my plan for the round. When I need to be strict I'm trying to be strict, and it seems to be working. I'm just trying to take feedback from everyone, if everyone's happy, if they have enough space, if they can do their own thing. I'm trying to have space for everyone.

Heading into the following year, this is your chance to prove yourself to jump into those invite spots, which is almost all that's going to matter with relatively few qualifier spots. How do you feel about that, being one of the teams that are somewhere on the edge of that? Are you scared a bit about what's coming up next year?

It's mixed emotions because there will be so many tournaments, so many LANs with new tournament organizers, PGL, StarLadder, so it will also give more opportunities to those tier-two teams. Tier-one teams won't attend every LAN event, at least I think that's what's gonna happen, so I think if we start off well we'll get those invites. But otherwise it's just gonna be back to the grind in tier two and hoping to win as many games online as we can to hopefully get a closed qualifier spot or some LAN. Everyone's pretty excited for the change, actually.