lmbt: "The main goal is developing the players and finding those talents, those gems. It's pretty hard nowadays"

lmbt gives insight into his approach to developing the MOUZ academy roster, MOUZ NXT.

Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov is a man with a storied career in Counter-Strike, having been involved with a raft of teams across the years, including the likes of HellRaisers, FORZE and Monte.

Now lmbt finds himself guiding the next generation of talent on behalf of MOUZ NXT, returning to an organiztion for whom he coached the main team from 2016-2019, winning a number of trophies including IEM New York 2018.

"I was always in contact with MOUZ and cheering them on in my journey with different teams," he told HLTV in an interview conducted at Urban Riga Open. "When I was choosing between other teams, with VRS and stuff, it was a pretty obvious choice for me because I'm pretty old, I want some stability in my life."

At the helm of one of the most successful academies in the game and in the verge of commencing an Urban Riga Open campaign, lmbt sat down with HLTV to discuss how he came to return to MOUZ and his approach to developing the young talent under his tutelage.

Listen to the full interview here.

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How would you rate the energy level coming into this event?

Absolutely 100, because we didn't spend any energy there [at Birch Cup]. The boys got some experience with delays, small LAN stuff, so that's good despite the fact we lost. They're very excited about every game, online or LAN it doesn't matter, they can't have low energy because they are 17 or 18 years old (laughs).

You used to be the coach of the main lineup of MOUZ, now six years later you reunite with the organization. How did that happen?

It was actually pretty sudden I would say. I was always in contact with MOUZ and cheering them on in my journey with different teams, so we were always in touch basically, we never cut the ropes at any point, even when I was leaving. We came to this pretty fast. When I was choosing between other teams, with VRS and stuff, it was a pretty obvious choice for me because I'm pretty old, I want some stability in my life. I'm tired of jumping into new projects.

These people are very, very professional, when I joined MOUZ I saw every person I worked with before, there are like no new people in. It was very interesting. I chose this because I wanted always to work with young players actually, a year before already I wanted to start with that but it didn't happen unfortunately. Now I have a chance and that gives a lot of energy, because the boys are very energetic, very young, and they're getting to know something new every day like kids. Age-wise they can be my kids, theoretically (laughs). So it's very interesting and I am very excited.

There have been some changes in the lineup of MOUZ NXT, ay0k and Nikodeon have come in. Did you scout them?

No, not really. They were building this project for quite some time, xelex was there for quite a while and joey was there. When I came and ay0k and Nikodeon were just starting, their contracts were starting in a month when I came in. It was a brand new team and we had to find one more player, an IGL. We did quite a search I would say in quite a short time, and we had to go with something because the season was starting and we needed to qualify to ESEA Advanced, so it was a pretty fast decision. I had to play with them, and I know how to play CS obviously and played for quite some years, but it's a different level of aim. Overall, when you have a unit of young people who are kind of the same mentality, or same generation, it's very good to have.

We started off really well I would say this season. The team started to work only one-and-a-half months ago and right now, in officials, we are giving fights to mediocre VRS teams, let's say 50-100, every time, and we are beating some of those. Not only in pracs but in matches. It's going well, despite the fact of a very short time that we had, I believe we have accomplished what we wanted to this point.

Considering that this is the second lineup for the organization, you can't chase a Major spot. What is the goal for this LAN?

How many successful academies do you know, from your POV? From my POV it's only three: NAVI, and you know all the players from this academy in tier-one teams, MOUZ, who are in the main roster together with the coach, and Spirit. You are not only building a lineup to sell it in the end, like NAVI did because they had no choice, the team grew too much, you are developing players. That's the main goal.

You never know if they will get a place in the main roster or go to some bigger team first, so the main goal is developing the players and finding those talents, those gems. It's pretty hard nowadays I would say, because through FPL it doesn't work like this anymore, and other academies exist, smaller teams exist, and you can't just get a kid for free like before. Everyone has some agents or they are contracted with some smaller org or whatever, so it's not that easy.

The main goal is just to develop players and how it will end up for them, I don't know, my main goal is to give knowledge to them and prepare them to be a professional overall. Even things such as interviews, everything is a first time for them, so MOUZ is giving them all the facilities and everything such a club can get for them to become professionals. I think we are doing very good as a club for them.

You mention it's gotten harder to find new players. For you as a coach, is a LAN like this a place to keep an eye out for potential?

When you are in this scene you are always keeping an eye on the potential. You are watching all those 150 teams you are playing against, all this tier-two and three scene, you are watching it non-stop. These LANs, online events, people are you playing against. You never know when you will lose a player in an academy teams, when he will get promoted or bought out by a Falcons or HEROIC or whatever, so it's a very interesting process. You always have an eye or some sort of a list, let's say, which you are keeping an eye on.