ash: "If we want to be elite, we have to set elite standards"

GamerLegion's coach feels his squad spent most of ESL Pro League playing their "B game."

GamerLegion's young squad have impressed after yet another significant rebuild in the latest off-season, showing a good level of CS at all the tournaments they have played this year whilst taking a map off Spirit and series off the likes of MOUZ.

However, Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye's team have yet to put together a deep tournament run to show for their efforts, and they once again have fallen agonizingly short at ESL Pro League, getting to the brink of the playoffs only to lose to G2.

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"I think that maybe our expectations were too high for ourselves, to be honest," the British coach muses. "But I'm super disappointed."

With said painful loss against G2 behind him, ash spoke to HLTV about his team being on their "B-game" throughout ESL Pro League, how they let themselves down, and what they need to do to get to the next level.

Listen to the interview here.

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What are your thoughts on that series? Obviously disappointing.

Yeah, disappointing. I think that maybe our expectations were too high for ourselves to be honest, from how well we've done, but I'm super disappointed. I feel we had Inferno there and won, it's been so good for us, but slowly it's just been getting a little bit weaker this event. Player form has just been falling a little bit, and today we had to be at our best. We were so close to it I feel like.

The key round that changed the game was at 10-8, we were in position with a two-man advantage, and we just needed to relax, take a second and let them come to us, and win the round. I think there are moments where we have a little bit too much adrenaline in our bodies, and that lets us down.

How much of that is down to having a lot of young players?

I think it's mostly due to that, to be honest. We just don't have the killer instinct yet, the experience in knowing how to put a game to bed, and I'm sure once we go back and look at this, we will learn from this for the future and it will be better for us. In the moment now obviously it doesn't feel so good. We're having to go through it the hard way at the moment, which is suffer, fix our problems, and go again. We'll be motivated and I'm sure we'll be fixing them in no time.

How was the team feeling today? I saw REZ was wearing a mask, and heard rumblings that people aren't very well.

Yeah, it seems like a lot of people and teams are sick right now. Today unfortunately REZ was super super sick, and so was ztr. REZ even here, when they went to a third map before us, there's a bed in the event and he went and slept for about an hour (laughs), so it's far from ideal. I don't really think it's an excuse I would use, because it seems like other teams are sick as well, but it's far from ideal when it's probably the first game all tournament that it's affected us.

In general how would you rate GamerLegion's performance at this tournament? Because you still got a lot of wins, and came so close to the playoffs.

I'm a little bit disappointed overall, to be honest. I feel like we haven't shown our A game in any game to be honest, maybe halves. I think today on Inferno T side we were close, but we've seen repeated mistakes where we're forgetting to throw utility, forgetting to do little, basic things, and in that aspect I'm a bit disappointed. We had the individual performances, REZ and PR have been great, there's been flashes from the other guys, but it just feels like together we're not putting together a great performance that would beat a tier-one team. We've just seen flashes of it.

In practice it feels like now, for the first time, we had a very good level, and then we came here and constantly have been on our B game. Maybe the positive thing is our B game can get us almost through to playoffs, but I'm disappointed overall that we didn't show the best at any point, and therefore it hasn't looked as convincing as it could have done.

Thinking about taking that next step, does it just come with experience? Do they just need to get the reps in?

Not 'just' to be honest, there needs to be some mindset changes I think, we need some more confidence in the team that's going to stick there. We've really struggled with the momentum side, and breaking it, and this an experience thing for sure, but mentality-wise we have to be better. I think there's too many moments where we're shying away from things.

Yeah, this will come with experience, but the hard work is going to be the most important thing, and keeping an open mind. I just feel like we're neglecting it a little bit, we're constantly saying 'I think we should improve on this' and not really taking ownership on ourselves. It's not like it's poor or anything, but if we want to be elite, we have to set elite standards, and I think we're just below that level right now.