magixx: "donk can match ZywOo, but kyousuke might dominate him"

Ahead of BLAST Rivals Season 1, magixx talked about his high expectations for kyousuke, Spirit's downtime since their last tournament, and the current form of Vitality.

Spirit have experienced a long stretch of downtime since their last tournament outing, having skipped IEM Melbourne due to health issues. In that time plenty has happened, with Falcons emerging as a potential title contender and Vitality cementing their status as the team of the year thus far.

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Complexity replace Spirit at IEM Melbourne due to health issues *

"I'm not sure if that felt like a missed opportunity," Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev muses when thinking on Spirit missing the chance to stop Vitality's Grand Slam run. "It's gonna happen at some point, maybe we can beat them, maybe someone else is going to beat them."

Therefore, Spirit come into BLAST Rivals Season 1 with plenty of rest and practice time under their belts, and the chance to stake their claim as the team that can knock Vitality off their perch. "We have been playing close with them with the way we play," magixx states. "I think it's probably more about the close situations in the game, and how we want to add some things from what we prefer, or what we see."

In a lengthy interview with HLTV ahead of his team's BLAST Rivals campaign, magixx spoke about Spirit's time off, his opinion of Vitality and Falcons, the potential of academy star Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin, and his own form in 2025.

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Media: Falcons set sights on kyousuke

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You guys chose to stay at home for the last month or so, you chose to skip some tournaments to have a little bit of time off. How did you choose to spend that time?

It doesn't happen, the decision to skip the tournament, due to wishing so. It happened due to health issues, and the decision from the organization was made that it would be better to keep the players… I mean there is risk when we are travelling, so the decision was made by the organization, and that's why we did not play in Australia.

How did you spend that time, in that month or so that you had, to address whatever issues you had?

There's definitely some time when Melbourne is ongoing, and it was towards the end of the month. We probably started at 20-something, around that time we started playing. There were a lot of things to work on, because before that we had Pro League, then Copenhagen groups of Lisbon, and then Lisbon playoffs. These were two events close to each other and there was no time in-between, because we travelled from Sweden to Copenhagen, and then to Lisbon. So there was still a lot of stuff to watch, so it goes the same way as usual: you are playing officials, you are getting some material to watch, and then are working on it. Then you are just playing practice at some point, and maybe adding some new stuff.

You said that you started playing on the 20th?

It might have been earlier, I'm not sure.

Do you have that much time off? Because I think Lisbon ended somewhere at the end of the last month.

It might have been less, might have been more, I'm not sure. But around or so, in terms of a couple of days to each side, because I remember I've been playing FACEIT before that.

So you had like two weeks off after Lisbon?

I cannot count that yet, I don't know. But while we couldn't practice, I was playing FACEIT.

The ESL Grand Slam just came to an end. How was it watching Vitality finish it without you there? Because you were one of the teams that had close series against them, so did it feel like maybe a missed opportunity to stop them in Melbourne?

They are basically the team that everyone wants to beat at this very moment, and I'm not sure if that felt like a missed opportunity. It's gonna happen at some point, maybe we can beat them, maybe someone else is going to beat them. From what we saw in the final, which was a banger, especially the fifth map, I was sure that Falcons was going to close it out. They were leading 7-1 at some point on T side of Nuke, then 11-5 or so, then ZywOo clutches. It's just Vitality at this moment when they are hitting their shots and having this momentum.

Vitality have lost a few maps to some teams, to us and to Falcons, not sure if MOUZ did the same. Oh actually, the groups they have played in Copenhagen after Pro League, I think both maps were 11-8 lead by MOUZ, but on Dust2, if I remember correctly, it was a force-buy by Vitality that they won, and they took that momentum and closed the map. It's getting closer, and everyone wants to beat them.

It might work the same way as it probably happened with NAVI when they were pretty good in the second half of last year. When the team is on top everyone is watching them, and everyone knows what they want to do and what to expect from them.

The difference between Vitality and NAVI, I think, is that NAVI is more of a tactical team and Vitality, historically speaking, were probably not that deep in terms of tactics. But they always had ZywOo, and you know it was pretty much based on the current form of the team, and of the players. So now they have huge firepower in every one of them, and the chemistry itself seems so good, and everyone is on point. You can't really beat it in terms of smart decisions if you can't out-aim them, because they have a lot of players to make a play.

I'm curious about what you just said with ZywOo. ZywOo just seems to be on a completely different level, but the only person that seems to be able to match him is donk, in terms of statistics...

No, there's one more…

Who?

kyousuke.

Ah of course…

Well yeah, donk can match him, but kyousuke might dominate him.

Do you actually think kyousuke can be better than donk?

Not sure, but he can dominate ZywOo.

I was just going to ask more in terms of: for donk, ZywOo is a big rival, so does seeing ZywOo come into this sort of form, picking up four MVP medals in a row, drive donk to do even better?

I didn't really look for it, but it's kind of the nature of players of such calibre, that probably yes, it probably helps the motivation. Everyone wants to win the tournaments, everyone wants to get the profits, the Grand Slam, whatever. When you are not getting it, it probably means that you have not done something right.

Is there anything you are learning from Vitality, or do you more look at how they are playing to understand how to beat them?

It's kind of difficult and deep topic. We definitely can learn some stuff from them, we can learn some tricks, like an example of someone playing a specific position and looking how the player wants to do something, and anyone can look into it. But on the other side, we can do the opposite, just try to counter it. It's going the same way always when the team is dominating at some point in CS, the same as NAVI: everyone is watching them, everyone is repeating them, and everyone is trying to counter them, trying to play a step ahead.

I personally think that, from our last game against Vitality, we can make the conclusion that we don't really have to steal or learn from them. We were close to beating them, we have been playing close with them with the way we play. I think it's probably more about the close situations in the game, and how we want to add some things from what we prefer, or what we see.

You are in the same group with Falcons. They seem very competitive, they were very close to winning the Melbourne final, so how big of a rival do you think they have become? Because so far the year has seemed like a three-horse race between you, Vitality and MOUZ. Do you think Falcons are now part of that elite?

For sure. G2 last year was a pain in the ass for us.

Could it become that with Falcons, do you think?

It could be, because these [m0NESY and NiKo] are the two most important players, the most important pieces of the G2 roster. But there are still three more players besides NiKo and m0NESY, so we will find out, if we win our game and they beat FaZe. They definitely seem like a title contender, especially because of them playing the first tournament with this roster, they only had a couple of days to practice. So it was no practice, just pure skill. It might have been some kind of a honeymoon, but they have great skill and great players, so with more time, they can work through the issues. With time going by they will get better, because they will get used to each other and they will be more ready.

Do you see something specific that you have improved on in the time you have been practicing since your last tournament?

We always might get better if I start killing more, it's pretty obvious, because I'm not killing that many people.

You've looked better since Shanghai, don't you think?

Sometimes, yeah. It probably kinda helps you to understand that you can move a mouse. This year I've felt a bit better playing the game, of course there were a couple of depressing maps, which I don't really want to remember but they are with me forever.

It seemed like you were taking things quite hard, I think the last map against Vitality, there was something you said on Telegram…

No, that was not painful. The painful one was against MOUZ on Ancient, I played super poorly and it was not such a good way to end the map. It was a decider with multiple overtimes and I sucked on B. Unlucky.

Do you take it hard, when you play that badly?

Sometimes yeah, sometimes not really. Sometimes I can watch the POV and take a look at situations and when I'm just getting wrecked, or I cannot really do anything, or I'm just running out with a Tec-9 somewhere, I can understand that I can't do shit there. In some way it's kinda depressing, but there are always different situations where you are losing duels, which is also somehow depressing. The games might be pretty different from each other, but…

But they both get to you?

Yeah, maybe.