m0NESY: "I was very pissed after Katowice"

The young Russian AWPer told himself "I will sacrifice all my time to be better" after G2's dismal performance at IEM Katowice.

After a decent start to life without Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač in BLAST Bounty, G2 suffered a significant setback at IEM Katowice by exiting the event prior to the playoffs. Not only did the team struggle, but Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov performed below his usual level too, something that affected him prior to the team's run at ESL Pro League.

"I just couldn't kill anyone for some reason," m0NESY says. "I think I had something in my head, I don't know, it was not like before for some reason."

The experience left m0NESY angry, and made him determined to grind his way back into form ahead of G2's campaign at ESL Pro League. Whilst it wasn't exactly done in style, G2 managed to qualify for the playoffs in Stockholm, in no small part due to m0NESY's superlative performances.

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G2 seal final EPL playoff berth over GamerLegion

"Arriving here, I sit down behind my PC and I just feel like whatever move I'm gonna do, whoever I am going to peek, I am going to punish everyone."

m0NESY spoke with HLTV after beating GamerLegion to secure a playoff berth, giving his thoughts on G2's run at EPL thus far, the state of his team, and adapting to playing without NiKo.

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How does it feel to be in the playoffs?

Honestly it feels exciting. Time flies so fast, we just arrived a couple of days ago and we have already qualified, and honestly today as well, we just arrived and already finished the game, you know? I had this feeling when we played against SAW, for some reason time is flying very fast. I'm excited, my team is super happy, I think with the preparation and the work we did, we deserve to be in the playoffs. We like to throw some games and rounds (laughs), advantages and blah blah blah, but I think we deserve it.

Tell me about Inferno, because there were some thrown rounds on that map.

If you see G2 playing sometimes, we like… I don't know, it's just something we miss sometimes in our game, where we have to calm down, because the game is pretty fast, CS overall. You can always slow down, every second and millisecond is important in this game, it's not like for example DotA, where you can chill a little bit. You just need to understand in what situations you can calm down and relax your communication, because sometimes our games are going very tense, we have a lot of tension in TeamSpeak. Maybe in these situations we stress and throw away rounds.

How do you feel about G2's performance at Pro League so far overall? You made the playoffs, I'm sure that's a goal, but you didn't beat the best teams to get there.

I was waiting for this question just because we played against The MongolZ and NAVI. We respect and rate all the teams, not the same, but when we play we respect everyone. Against top, top teams, we only played The MongolZ and NAVI. Against The MongolZ, you saw everything, I have no comment, but against NAVI, I felt like when we joined the server, I could already feel that we were stressed for some reason.

I had this feeling before when we played in 2024 against them, and we had a crucial loss streak against them. At BLAST Fall Final, when we beat them in the grand final, I just said to myself 'fuck this shit, I'm gonna disrespect them, I'm going to do everything that I want, and that's it.'

I could feel like we were stressed, we were taking duels and losing them already before we took them, you know? That's the main factor why I think we lost against NAVI, and the second factor is just because they're good, they have a very good system and structure in their team. Against this kind of team, you have to play a bit different than against others, and I think we just showed too much respect. But I feel like the way we play, we can beat anyone, we just need to believe in ourselves and just be confident.

You say you can beat anyone, but how far away do you think you are from beating these teams regularly?

Oh this is a very difficult question. The way we started the season, from BLAST, we were very fresh, but we're still a bit not experienced as a team in terms of… since NiKo left, we do not have a lot of voices on CT, and I would say he was our main IGL on CT. So we lost a big player, a big voice, and we started struggling because of that. Our T side in this tournament is very good, but on CT you can see we struggle sometimes because we cannot find the key to some moment, some situation. We are working on that and making good progress. I don't know, it's hard to answer.

So how are you going about adapting to that? Who's trying to take over that kind of role?

We had a lot of time before ESL Pro League because we lost Katowice in the group stage, which was a big shame, but we had a lot of time to work on it, to see some progress in practice. We also had a bootcamp. I would say me, huNter- and malbsMd are calling a lot on CT, mostly it's huNter- and me.

Also you could see that I sit in the middle, and it doesn't mean anything, but since NiKo left the team, he taught me a lot about the basics in CS. How to move with the AWP, how to communicate and react in a lot of situations, and I try to step in and call a lot, have good communication in the team and make a lot of decisions mid-rounds, and take this responsibility on myself, if we're gonna lose or win. I think that's how AWPer should play always.

So to talk about that move in the seating position, is it because you are the star player and trying to take more responsibility? Does it just make it easier to sit in the middle, you can see everyone's screen a bit easier?

I can see everyone's screen, I am very vocal in mid-rounds because I feel like I have a lot of experience from past games, and my past as well. In the game, I feel like in mid-rounds and chaotic situations, I can be very helpful to my teammates. Overall I'm just being vocal recently, I try to help everyone with what I know.

I don't want to say I'm the star player on CT, but in some roles you don't have to be very vocal. Let's say Nuke Inside, you cannot say a lot of things, Ramp as well. On some maps I have the role where I have to be vocal, so it gives me overall confidence, and I just try to help my team with any information. That's everything that I learned to play CS, I'm not a robot, I just freestyle, you know?

I wanted to ask about your personal performance. IEM Katowice was obviously not a great tournament for you, but in this tournament it feels like you are back in prime form. Did you feel the need to redeem yourself after Katowice?

I was very pissed after Katowice. First of all just because we couldn't show our good team level, I didn't really care about individual stuff, I was just pissed because we couldn't show good as a team, we were just playing bad as a team. Second, we also couldn't how ourselves individually, me as well.

Talking about myself, I took it personally. After Katowice I just said 'fuck this shit, I will sacrifice all my time to be better,' because I was very pissed, very angry. That's my honest reaction to that. I just arrived at home, spent some time with family, but not a lot, and started grinding. I was adapting a bit in Katowice because I just couldn't kill anyone for some reason, I don't know what was in my head. I think I had something in my head, I don't know, it was not like before for some reason, I cannot explain it.

Arriving here, I just sit down behind my PC and I just feel like whatever move I'm gonna do, whoever I am going to peek, I am going to punish everyone. As a team we feel very strong, very comfortable as well.

Do you feel with NiKo going, you have a lot more responsibility on this team now? Not just to talk more, but the need to frag, he was a big player in that respect. You have that energy, when we see you on the player cams you are hyped up, it just seems you are taking more responsibility. Is that how it feels for you?

Yeah, I just want to, because I rate him as a… NiKo was like a teacher for me, I always said that. I always wanted to show to him, even when we played together, that I progressed, that I became better in my position and role, and tried to catch everything that he was saying to me. Since he left, sometimes you just play and want to show to him that you actually made good progress, you succeeded in terms of being a better player. Showing this energy, showing this confidence, hitting shots, making decisions.

You just want to see that, first of all for yourself, you became a better player. All the haters can be mad, but you just need to show it to yourself first. What's very important for me is that I can find myself in these hectic situations during the game, where big stress is coming, for example it's a big arena, playoffs, and stress is more than usual. You just know that if around you, you cannot find peace, you need to find peace in yourself, and that's what helps me to be better.