dastan: "Jame gives his maximum, he lives with us on the bootcamp despite being married"

The Kazakh coach was full of praise for PARIVISION's IGL.

PARIVISION's results have given them an outside shot at the Budapest Major, with Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's troops requiring a good result at the ongoing Majestic LanDaLan 3 in Moscow.

The team's coach Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev says the team isn't focusing on the VRS ranking, however, as they are simply trying to gather experience for the future.

"There isn’t heavy pressure, since our chances of qualifying for the Major are small, and we don’t think too much about it. We just try to win as many matches as possible," he told HLTV after his team made the semi-final after a flawless group-stage campaign.

He also spoke about Jame's rare AWP-IGL combo, PARIVISION's young roster, and Virtus.pro's recent changes in the lengthy interview.

Editor's note: This interview was conducted in Russian and translated by HLTV staff.

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dastan, you made the LanDaLan playoffs. What are your impressions of your performance at this tournament?

For the level I want the team to play at, we don't yet play well yet. It’s visible from the practices, from the last officials, and from the last tournament in Budapest. I can say that the younger players don’t yet have enough experience on maps that have been in the pool for a long time. So, to perform better, they need to play many official matches. But considering that they are young, they are playing well.

Still, in modern Counter-Strike you need to be very strong mechanically. So there are always moments where we can shoot better and understand situations better. Overall, the feelings are good, a win is a win, but there are always places where we can improve. In general, I constantly criticize them and keep them disciplined.

And regarding your performance, does it encourage you for the upcoming playoff matches, or do you see reasons for concern or extra work?

Probably there are no super big concerns. There isn’t heavy pressure, since our chances of qualifying for the Major are small, and we don’t think too much about it. We just try to win as many matches as possible. Still, there is always some concern, because we have gaps in our play that cannot be fixed quickly. It takes months, even years of playing.

To fix that, we need to play a lot of LANs. So the more LAN tournaments we play, the more experience the guys should gain. Overall, I want us to form some kind of core that looks at the game in the same way, a backbone with which we can play for a long time.

According to some calculations, you had the chance of making the Major around a couple percent. You said you try not to think about it. Is that more like a deliberate tactic not to give in to pressure, or do you really just look at that chance and think: well, that’s almost zero anyway?

I think it’s just an objective evaluation of our chances, because it’s too small a percentage. And we just try to win, and I try to take off unnecessary pressure from the guys, especially external pressure. I personally create internal pressure by constantly criticizing them.

Perhaps I can tell this to everyone who will read this on HLTV: I live with the guys, demand a lot from them, and sometimes I can even be very strict in my wording. Because I understand that this is a very important moment in their careers, and I don’t want them to miss their chance to prove themselves.

How tough was that loss in Budapest, considering how much depended on it in terms of the Major?

In terms of chances, that defeat was of course the most painful. But I can’t say I was extremely upset, because when I objectively assess our level, I don’t think we play consistently enough to beat teams regularly. We play much better online, because we have good conditions. We’re based in Belgrade, I’m with the guys nearby, and in many moments we read situations better, we shoot better, and we understand what’s happening around us more clearly.

But of course, it was a missed chance. I understand that for the guys it was their first Schengen trip, and their first trip abroad overall. For me, being on the scene for many years, of course I wanted to go to the Major. It’s important both for me and for the organization. But I understand that for 18-year-olds, sometimes these defeats are necessary.

The main thing is that they learn from them. Of course, we were upset, but life goes on. Especially now, with two Majors per year, it’s more important to qualify for more LANs, and the Major will come. The VRS system now is that you just need to perform well at a tier 1 event. So that’s how it is.

You say that you are comfortable playing online, while many bring up its problems. Is it really comfortable for you to play online, or is it just relatively easier compared to others – but still hard?

I think the most frustrating thing is that the system can give fewer points to a lower-ranked team even if they beat a higher-ranked one. This makes some teams avoid playing certain online tournaments, because if you lose, you lose a lot of points. For example, in the last CCT tournament, I think BetBoom reached the final, lost, and still lost points – definitely more than they earned.

So now some teams are afraid to play these CCT tournaments. I think it shouldn’t be like that. I hope the ecosystem will give more chances to tier 2 teams to play tier 1 tournaments. I hope organizers will give more qualifiers for teams, because otherwise it’s very hard to break through.

A clear example is the Challenger. At the moment, you need to play four Challengers, and then only four winners compete for one slot at Pro League. Of course, that’s life, and you have to fight through. It’s just incredibly hard to knock out the first top 16 teams, because they constantly get points, and it’s hard to climb in. If you look at the top 10, probably no new teams have broken in and played consistently. Maybe the last example was The Mongolz. But even their path took years to stabilize there.

Overall, I’m not complaining. There are tournaments like LanDaLan, it would be great to have more of these. In general, I think the scene is developing in the right way.

In this version of the roster you rely on young players. You said they don’t know the maps very well. Does this make your work harder as a coach?

Working with young players is not easy, let's just say. But what helps is that I live with the guys at the team house since January, I think. The hardest thing for a coach is to change their thinking, their evaluation of moments, to shift their perception of Counter-Strike. Some players, because they stayed too long at the tier 3 - tier 2 level, understand in-game situations poorly. To improve this, they need to watch many demos and play more.

They never played against someone like s1mple, or ZywOo, or donk, or against teams at tier 1 level, where mistakes are punished much harsher. So I need to show them that even when they win a round, they still made mistakes that could have led to dangerous situations.

This “upgrade” is probably the hardest part. Still, I demand from the guys that they give their maximum. It’s not easy for them to change their mindset. I hope at least one of them will become a tier-1 player, because sometimes mistakes repeat and it can be tough.

In your roster, the only truly experienced player is Jame. But considering that, who are your second voices?

During Budapest, we slightly changed the coordination format. We are trying to make nota the secondary caller, to help Jame. In past teams, this role was done by YEKINDAR and FL1T. Now we want Emil [nota] to take that role. He doesn’t control the structure, but he has tools he can use. Of course, he is 18, so he doesn’t understand everything yet, but overall he is now helping to unload Jame.

So it’s not a captain role, but rather a coordinator role. We need this adjustment because our captain is also the AWPer. For me, this is a system where he creates space for everyone’s moves, so we don’t have a low rating captain on a rifle. But this puts load on the players in terms of game perception. Sometimes it's easier when you're in front with the rifle to call timings, adjust things, and overall to lead. So we compensate somehow.

I think Jame is one of the best not only captains but also teachers. He gives his maximum, he lives with us on the bootcamp despite being married. He's on our team because he has a huge influence on the young players. Under his leadership, they can really become tier 1 players. He has proven this more than once.

Your team’s AWP-IGL system is quite rare for the scene now. Do you see this as more of an advantage or a disadvantage?

We act according to the players we have. If there were free captains of a good level available, we might try to sign one. But overall, I don’t see it as a problem. Everything depends on the skilled players. Without stronger riflers and anchor players, it will be hard anyway.

So it doesn’t matter what kind of captain you have. I don't believe our main issue is coordination. What we really need is to grow at least one superstar player. So I don’t worry too much about whether it’s an AWPer-captain system. I think Jame could switch to rifle any moment if needed. But currently, there’s no available sniper who is both strong and affordable. So for now we stick with this system. But anything could happen.

You’ve been in this project for almost a year now. Do you feel like you’re stuck a little, or do you see steady progress?

I think there is progress. Even if we just look at rankings. Of course, we missed some key moments, like two Pro League finals, or the match for the slot in [Thunderpick] Malta, where the whole team got sick. I never talked about it before, but it happens. If we had won a few important games, we would have gotten more invites to LANs. But overall, the progress is there. It’s not very fast, probably medium.

The potential final could be BetBoom vs PARIVISION. What do you think about this matchup? Who will be the favorite?

Even though we beat BetBoom online last time, I think they will be the favorites. They have more players with LAN and Major experience. But individually, we are defenitely not weaker. I think we can beat them if we catch our wave. There’s not too much pressure on my guys. In fact, they are from a slightly different, younger generation. Probably, for BetBoom, it's more a "must" to win against us. That’s how I see it.

And the last question. What is your opinion about the recent changes in Virtus.pro? They decided to stop trying with electroNic as IGL and gave leadership to Perfecto. As a coach who worked a bit with electroNic, what do you think of this?

I don’t know the exact details of what’s happening there, so I can’t comment fully. But I think Virtus.pro have their own strategy. I believe it’s connected with bringing in academy players. For example, if tO0RO plays well, b1st might also replace ICY. It all depends on performance of FL1T and fame individually, and as a captain in reading the game.

But overall, right now they are more or less in top 20. But I don't believe their result match their ambitions. It’s not easy for them either, because there simply aren’t superstar players available to reinforce the team. Even if there are, they are very expensive. So they are working with what they have.

Their current results show that they’re not playing well. All I can do is watch and see how they progress. I wish them the best, because a part of me still supports them. I watch every match, I care about them. I even use VP players as examples for my own team, showing demos of FL1T, fame or even electroNic, as models of how to play.