ash interview: Newfound fame, "commitment from both parties" in GamerLegion and trophy ambitions

As his stature grows, the British coach is dreaming bigger. "I just want to win trophies," he told HLTV.

It has been 24 hours since GamerLegion were eliminated from IEM Melbourne, a 2-0 humbling by Falcons in a stage match that barely lasted one hour and 15 minutes, but Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye is still in a good mood. According to him, the squad took the loss in stride, another important step in their development as a top team.

"It was probably one of the easiest losses we've had mentally," the British coach told HLTV, attributing the team's lack of experience playing in front of a crowd for the performance. "This was something we anticipated would probably happen since we had four players playing the first time on the stage."

The result did little to take away from GamerLegion's impressive tournament run, one that saw them breeze past 3DMAX and survive elimination series against Complexity and FaZe of all teams.

It alleviated the pain of not qualifying for the Major and added to the excitement surrounding ash, who has earned a reputation as a miracle worker in the scene for consistently producing teams that can punch above their weight.

But it wasn't always like this. Even after guiding an underdog GamerLegion team to the grand final of the Paris Major in 2023, ash still wasn't highly rated by many. But the public sentiment has changed over the past 12 months, and his name is now often brought up when the community discusses potential fixes for struggling teams.

" It's really strange, to be honest," ash says of his newfound fame, which, in his opinion, has more to do with his YouTube channel than his success on the server.

"I think Counter-Strike is still quite a bit behind other sports, and fans also don't really understand what a coach does.  But I think because they have insight of me, they understand what I'm doing, but not what others are doing. So they assume that, the more you know, obviously you are just better outright, which is obviously false in itself."

Just an hour before the quarter-final match against Falcons, it was announced that ash had signed a new contract with GamerLegion, his second extension in just a year. The announcement came at a time when several top teams, HLTV learned, were circling.

"I think that it was more of a commitment from both parties towards the project," ash explained. "And at the end of the day, I've enjoyed it a lot here so far, and they gave me my first chance. And I respect that a lot. And it just made sense for me to make this commitment now, when other teams are chasing around, and show that I'm here and I want to be here as well.

"We're trying to build our own tier-one team, and I'm going to try and do everything I can to make that happen."

The big challenge now lies with the GamerLegion organization and whether it can provide ash with the necessary tools to build a title contender. They have been powerless to prevent players like Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan, Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek and Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev from leaving in the past - something that will have to change for them to be more than just upset material.

"At the end of the day, I want to win trophies. I want to be competitive, and it's up to everyone now to prove that we're able to hit those goals and do it together."

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Have you had time to process what happened against Falcons? Because it was a very one-sided series.

 I think this was probably a lack of experience, and this was something we anticipated would probably happen since we had four players playing the first time on the stage. So, mentally, we tried our best to prepare for it, but it was probably an inevitability that we would struggle here in front of our first big crowd. So we probably took this in straight away afterwards. It's probably one of the easiest losses we've had mentally, to be honest, because we sat down and we knew that it was likely to happen against those guys in particular. Like, Magisk has got all those Majors, the other guys have played so many stage games. It was kind of what we expected, but not really what we hoped, at the same time.

How would you analyse your tournament run as a whole? Coming here and beating teams like FaZe, even 3DMAX, I'd say there are a lot more positives than negatives, don't you think?

 Yeah, definitely. It was a great tournament. After the MRQ went as badly as it did, this was a big opportunity for us to bounce back. This was like a redemption tournament for us to show that what we've done in the last few months wasn't a fluke. So obviously, we're super happy with that. And I think the performances have been really solid. The comeback against FaZe, the demolition of 3DMAX, I think we played really good Counter-Strike.

Coming here and reaching the quarter-finals, but especially beating FaZe in an elimination game - a team that is always so good under pressure -, would you say that alleviates some of the pain from not making the Major?

 I'd say it does, to be honest, it does. We really needed something to hold onto it after the Major, to be honest. Honestly, we felt really down. And if we just came here and just made playoffs on the back of beating teams we should beat, I think that wouldn't have felt as good. But to get another top 10 victory under our belts, which was something we really lacked, was super special.

And also to do it against the comeback kings and come back ourselves as a really young team… It was great, and being able to play the playoffs in front of the crowd is something we really wanted to do, and what the guys had been missing out on in their careers, the big stages. I'm really happy we did it, and, again, to do it like this was really special, I think.

Even for REZ. It had been a while since he had last played in an arena.

He's feeling now that he has a new phase to his career coming. I think he's feeling confident. He just needs to get the stage experience again with his confidence. That's the one thing he's lacking at the moment.

I wanted to ask about your contract extension, which was announced yesterday. You had signed a new contract just a year ago. Why sign a new deal now? Was there a specific reason for that?

I think that it was more of a commitment from both parties towards the project. And at the end of the day, I've enjoyed it a lot here so far, and they gave me my first chance. And I respect that a lot. And it just made sense for me to make this commitment now, when other teams are chasing around and show that I'm here and I want to be here as well.

And obviously there's a financial incentive for me as well. It just felt like this makes the most sense right now. And GamerLegion have always been super supportive. So rather than fishing around or waiting for something else, it felt like this was a great opportunity for me to show my loyalty and for them to meet kind of what I'm asking.  And in the end, that's kind of just what we went for. We're trying to build our own tier-one team, and I'm going to try and do everything I can to make that happen.

We heard that some top teams were inquiring about your services. You probably don't want to go into detail about that or drop names, but I wanted to know if you can explain why you decided to make this commitment. Was it also because you think that with GamerLegion you have more control over the roster and also a bigger voice in terms of the future of the project?

I don't think so, really. I would be absolutely fine for someone else to take responsibility and do it as long as I had some sort of say into it. I think most coaches and most teams have that say at least the, 'Here are a few players, go pick one.' I think it would be nice, to be honest, not to be involved in that all the time, but it feels like I have a skillset there that makes the most sense. So it's not like a reason for me to want to stay. I don't feel like I need to have control. If anything, I'd rather pass it on to someone who I believe has more knowledge. And, as a coach, I think what I do kind of well is if I think someone is good at something, I try to get them to do as much of that as possible. So I wouldn't say that was a key reason for me to stay.

I would say that even after the Paris Major run, a lot of people didn't rate you very highly. But I would say that, over the past 12 months, the public perception has changed quite a bit, to the point where, when a top team is struggling, like G2 or Liquid, and maybe they want to change the coach, a lot of people instantly say, 'Oh, maybe they should pick up ash.' I wanted to get your thoughts on this. What has it been like to have such a turnaround in the way that people look at you?

 It's really strange, to be honest. I attribute it almost exclusively to the YouTube channel, really. It felt like even when we made the Major, it came after the YouTube channel, the Shanghai one. It's a bit strange in that aspect. I think Counter-Strike is still quite a bit behind other sports, and fans also don't really understand what a coach does.  But I think because they have insight of me, they understand what I'm doing, but not what others are doing. So they assume that, you know, the more you know, obviously you are just better outright, which is obviously false in itself.

But I think organizations are still very behind, and I think that they still don't want to make transfers, they still don't want to pay for coaches. And I think in football there's a big revolution, where you have to get a manager and you kind of buy into his ideas and the structuring of everything and the team.

 And I think still now the organizations put too much emphasis on themselves and just putting a coach in there to make things seem happier and the players seem happier when the coach can do so much more if you get the right person. So from that point of view, I don't think that there are many coaching transfers at all, unless it's just running the contract down.  So it makes it difficult as a coach sometimes, unless you just run your contract down, and obviously you don't want to do anything like that and risk your whole lifestyle and everything.

But all the content you put out and all the shows you appear on, all that helps boost your profile. Is that a conscious effort on your part to get yourself out there?

Of course. Of course it is. I've said this before, even to the CEO of GamerLegion, like, whilst everything is going great, that's what you're judged on. You're just judged on the results and at some point things aren't going to go so well, right? And at the end of the day, I feel like I have had a part in these big accomplishments, the Paris final, the rebuilding rosters, the other Majors. If something does go wrong, you want to make sure people do remember you and your name is still out there. Otherwise, you can just go from everything to nothing, and it might not even be your fault and might get blamed for things.

So I think I do add value to things, so I like to show what I do. And also I love to watch these things. When I was younger as well, and when I was a coach starting out, I didn't know where to go when I was learning like one step at a time.  I'm not scared If people want to take my advice on things, I believe that I have more to offer than what I just show anyway. So I like to try and do something for the community as wel. It keeps my name out. It gives me something to do. I'm happy with the way it goes. I'm not worried that people are going to think poorly of me or anything. I'm not looking for a big move or anything. It's just something I enjoy doing.

 I was looking at the video that GamerLegion posted yesterday, and you were saying that back when you joined them, you reached out to the CEO and you suggested you could work for them for free as sort of a trial. Back then, you were still starting out as a coach. How have you evolved over the years, in terms of your analytical side of things but also man management?

I  think that when I first started, I was purely analytical, to be honest. Everything was just data, numbers, I was not really thinking about anything else. You put players in positions and you kind of make them work. And I think I've worked super, super hard on my man management, which has changed a lot. And now, like I said, I think one of the biggest strengths is listening to people and trying to make a decision. And you can't do it by yourself. And what I've learned the most is that you have to get good people around you, in the team or the staff or wherever it is, even social media or whatever. And you've got to figure out what their strengths are and you've got to play to their strengths. And I didn't have this skill maybe even a year ago.

 And I think it's something that's evolving more and more over time. It's just been a learning process. Every day, I try to get a little bit better, learn something tactically, and reflect on myself quite a lot. I think that's really important. And when you get older, it's easier to do and try to mold your personality as well. It's just about growing in every aspect, and coaching is no different. So I'm just trying to work hard like I would as a player when I was trying to go pro.

A lot of people look at you as a David Moyes-type of coach, someone who has earned a big move after doing great things with a smaller team. But sometimes, those coaches cannot replicate that success when they join a bigger team. What is your view on that? Because when you join a bigger team, you have a lot more eyes on you and you have to deal with big egos.

 I think it's about gaining respect from people. You have to have patience as well. Like with David Moyes, it has kind of proved that the club is more of the problem rather than him being the problem, and he's ended up having a career that is probably better than any of the managers since then at Manchester United.

So I don't think I have this problem. For example, if I did move to a different team, I probably wouldn't have that respect straight away, but I believe that I already know how to deal with this anyway. I'll bring in a new player with a bigger ego, for example, even someone like REZ, a more well-known player, star player sort of thing. I  know that you don't just instantly gain their respect; you have to earn it and you earn it slowly. It comes from a lot of work, individual things, seeing how what you can add to the team and being a coach, you don't instantly show what you can do anyway.

I know that if I joined a team right now and we didn't get results instantly, or if we did, it really wouldn't have anything to do with me in the short term. Maybe I could add some things, but ultimately, it takes some time to get all your ideas into that for people to buy into it and just show trust and everything. And I see this every time a new player joins, it takes a while. And eventually they buy into it and they start to grow close, and you build a relationship and then to start to express themselves more.  And I think that's all you can do at every level and everything. And if it comes to managing egos and things, then it comes down to the personality, I think, rather than the accomplishments of what a coach had in the past.

 Over the years, you have gone through many rebuilds, some of them by choice, others not so much. Are you worried that by missing the Major, it will be hard for GamerLegion to hold on to a player like REZ or PR?

 I wouldn't say I'm worried about it, but it's something that I'm aware of, obviously. If I lived in worry, I'd be too stressed all the time to do my job at a decent level. It could happen, of course, and if it happens, we'd have to say, 'Maybe the Major did have an impact.' You can't really know until it happens. I've talked in depth with our CEO, and the idea is to build the best team we can. And in the past, we've sold players when they really wanted to go.

And if an offer comes in and is huge and we put it way past their value, then we can sell. But for now, if we're able to financially cover the team, I think there's a lot of trust there from management. They want to build a really good team, and hopefully, from this week, we'll be the top 10 team for the first time since the Paris run. And I think now we have more confidence in someone like myself as well. Before, we could say it could be on others, and now we can say this is something maybe we can sustain long term.

With the Major no longer on the horizon, you have Astana and Dallas coming up. I wanted to ask about your goals for these two tournaments and beyond. What do you think the team can achieve in 2025?

We talked about it in our own meetings, and we're looking to try and be a consistent playoff team if possible. And it's going to be difficult and sometimes it's maybe going to be out of our hands, based on the teams we're playing against if we're not able to cover our shortcomings. And like I said to the guys the other day as well, we've been together for three months now, and tactically we're still nowhere near where we should be. And in terms of reacting, in terms of knowing how to play with teammates, it's still nowhere near good enough when we watch it back. We all think we have a lot of good ideas and everything. I think in the last year we've proved that we can be competitive no matter what stage of the team we're at.  

I think we're very good at finding how to be competitive without just taking forever to do so. So can we find the next evolution of the team? And hopefully for us now, that means more stages like we saw here, just getting over the nerves, actually showing a proper stage performance next time, getting to playoffs more consistently, and being a team that can always win games against the top 10. I think we've proved so far that we can beat all the teams around 11 and below pretty consistently right now. So keeping that going.

You are one of the most sought-after coaches in the scene, I would say. What career goals have you set? What is it you want to achieve, whether that's in GamerLegion or elsewhere?

 I just want to win trophies. That's all I want to do, try to win trophies and get to more finals. Show I'm able to do it. I think the question mark on me at the moment seems to be that I can't do it with bigger players. And hopefully one day we create our own biggest players and we show that it's nonsense really, and that it's not a problem.

But do you think GamerLegion can put together the resources to provide you with that?

This is the challenge I've also put to GamerLegion, we've just kicked everything into gear, now everything needs to be perfect. We need to trust all the staff as much as possible, and if we want to turn into a tier-one team, we [need to] turn into a tier-one organization as well, right? And they provide the funding to make this the place our players want to stay at. I think in the team, we do a great job of doing that, and it's not an easy task in esports to make an organization sustainable and run long term. I would love to do it here, and I'd love to be here for the rest of my career, really, if it's possible. But at the end of the day, I want to win trophies. I want to be competitive, and it's up to everyone now to prove that we're able to hit those goals and do it together.