PR: "We can even win this tournament"

PR is confident despite coming off a difficult finish at EPL Season 22.

After pushing through Stage 1 of ESL Pro League Season 22 with a 3-1 record in their debut outing with new AWPer Milan "⁠hypex⁠" Polowiec, GamerLegion got dealt a difficult hand in the second stage, departing 0-3 after losses to Vitality, MOUZ, and The MongolZ.

The international side are now shifting gears as they prepare for the CS Asia Championships 2025. Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson's troops have their sights trained on a deep run, as the Chinese event features just one top-ten side in the form of 3DMAX, giving GamerLegion a fighting chance for the title.

Ahead of his team's CAC run, Czech rifler Oldřich "⁠PR⁠" Nový spoke with HLTV regarding GamerLegion's result at EPL, his feelings about his #3 overall placing in the HLTV Prospect Report, and the differences between hypex and Jeremy "⁠Kursy⁠" Gast.

Or you can listen to the episode here.

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Here with PR, at CAC, just after EPL. Solid start during Stage 1, but a difficult result during Stage 2. How do you rate the EPL result overall?

The first stage, the play-in, I think that was good. We lost against Inner Circle, but also, together with hypex, we are playing two weeks now. I think it's fine, and then we just unfortunately meet the best three teams in the world. The amount of practice we got [was] not the best.

I think we are motivated now even more to play, because we know we are playing some teams on our level, and we can even win this tournament, or anyone else. I think, at least for me, it gave me some hope that we can finally win.

What do you think is the big thing separating you from those big teams like MOUZ and MongolZ? Is it just the lack of time with hypex, or is there something else you think needs work?

I think for sure, the time with hypex. One week is nothing compared to them. Then obviously, they are better players than us, so we need some experience, and more time overall.

Before hypex you had kursy. What has it been like playing with hypex, and how is he different from Kursy?

I think he's more supportive, I think we've got more space now. hypex also wants to make moves, but I think there's some sort of balance. Kursy had his own playstyle, and it just didn't fit us. I feel like he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders, which is unfortunate, because I like him a lot. hypex now, I feel like we are doing good with him.

We just played the best three teams, now we are going to show a better game. I think we had pressure also, because we played the best teams, and we knew we needed to make it competitive somehow. I think we will show a better game.

You mentioned earlier that you guys could go all the way here, with there not being many big teams. Is the goal for this event just to take it all?

I don't think we have any set goal. I think we are playing without expectations right now. But me personally, I feel like anyone can win this tournament, even us. I don't even know who else is here from the top teams...

3DMAX, FaZe, Liquid...

FaZe, paiN, Liquid... I think it's way easier to win than other tournaments.

How do you feel about that Liquid opening match?

I don't feel anything special. It's BO1, so we need to be ready from the start, but I don't treat it in some special way.

On the HLTV Prospect Report, you were up at #3. Did that surprise you at all? How did it make you feel?

I didn't focus at all on the Rookie of the Year stuff and stuff like this. Of course, it made me happy. To be honest, I don't know if I expected that, but I knew I was on one of the higher positions, even though I feel like there are players that get more hype than me. I don't care about that as much. It made me happy, but I'm not focusing on it.