Maden: "We showed that we are capable of playing well on LAN"

Z10's rifler is working on rising his stock. "I've been playing much better individually than in Falcons, so I'll just keep grinding and see what happens in the future," he says.

Zero Tenacity were eliminated from DraculaN Season 2 by Passion UA in the lower bracket final, but Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković is positive about his team's showing at the LAN in Bucharest where they beat the likes of ECSTATIC and GenOne before falling to the former Complexity core in overtime on the decider map.

"I think we showed a great result here," Maden told HLTV after the match against Passion UA. "I feel like we are playing good Counter-Strike, and I think the main thing that we showed is that we are capable of playing well on LAN."

The Montenegrin also spoke about his stock as a player, which got devalued during his time in a struggling Falcons, but he hopes to build back up with showings like the one at DraculaN, where he finished with a 1.10 rating in the 14 maps he played.

You can watch the video interview here.

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Commiserations on the loss. Over the last couple of days, were there things that made you hopeful for the future?

To be honest, I think we showed a great result here. Obviously it's a tough loss now, with five match points, but they also had three which we saved. It was a very close game, and I feel like we are playing good Counter-Strike, and I think the main thing that we showed is that we are capable of playing well on LAN.

Also, nEMANHA, I think individually he also played really well and showed that he is not an onliner or some hacker or something, he is also playing well on LAN which he proved this tournament.

Were you surprised by the level of competitiveness throughout this LAN?

I think [this event] shows that everyone is on a good level nowadays, and maybe it shows that the game is a bit random, since everyone can beat everyone. But for us, I think we just showed what we were doing the past few months, and very soon we're going to be even better.

This is your first time on a Balkan team since 2019, when you were a teenager. How does it feel to be back on a team where you're speaking your native language?

When it comes to the energy and stuff, screaming in our language and stuff, it hypes me up. When it comes to the communication, I haven't played for so long, so for me it was a little bit harder to communicate in my language. A lot of my callouts were in English for me, but now it's getting better. In general, I feel very nice playing with people that are friends.

Do you feel like you've taken on more of a leadership role in this team?

To be honest, I don't consider myself as a leader. I think I'm helping them when it comes to the micro things in-game, because you get that from experience, but when it comes to the leading and stuff, I am not that guy. I am just a second voice, which I was always before also, but I think the leader is still nEMANHA; I think he has the biggest voice even if I am the most experienced guy. Outside that, I am helping them a lot.

This was your first LAN since standing in for HEROIC at BLAST Bounty. How are you adjusting to playing more online Counter-Strike?

For me, Counter-Strike was always a LAN thing. I've been playing the last few months online, but that's not my thing. My thing is playing LAN, and I think I've been playing very well this tournament except this last BO3, but sometimes you just have those games.

I tried my best, I tried to have good energy and stuff, but I haven't been playing my best the last BO3. Other than that, I felt that LAN energy, and this is what we are living for when we are playing CS.

Is it difficult going from tier one to taking a step back to focus on online tournaments?

Playing online CS is kinda hard, I would say, because everyone is expecting everything, and everyone is so good online. When you come to LAN, you can sometimes push somewhere, and they don't expect it, and it's a bonus thing.

For me, because we had a much better schedule when I played tier-one teams, now it's very hard playing three BO3s. Yesterday we played three BO3s, and it was so exhausting, because I cannot remember the last time I played three BO3s. It's hard, but we just need to grind now, and we need to get to the top.

Have you had the time to reflect on your experiences since departing Falcons?

To be honest, when I played in Falcons, I think everyone was grinding very much and giving their best, but the team just didn't click. Obviously, we tried changing some players, but it didn't help much. We couldn't click as a team, we had different visions.

Once you have this bad period for such a long time, you get a worse reputation as a player, and I haven't been getting many offers from teams. Now it's just time to grind again and build myself to the top. To be honest, I think I've been playing much better individually than in Falcons, so I'll just keep grinding and see what happens in the future.

What does the near future hold for you and Zero Tenacity?

We're just going to keep playing these LAN tournaments, and grind VRS ranking to get to the Major. I think we are capable of doing it, and we showed good team chemistry and plays this tournament. In a few months, I think we can be much better. We're just gonna keep grinding LANs, see how things go, and hopefully make it to the Major.