m0NESY on finding his form: "Something was off for me when I joined Falcons and also when I was in G2"

The superstar sniper highlighted a lack of stability over the year, changing teams, and taking time to find his voice on this Falcons roster as reasons for his form struggles.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov was resplendent in Stockholm, earning himself his first MVP medal of the year after guiding Falcons to the final and ending the event with a 1.38 rating, +5.50% round swing, and 1.12 kills per round win.

It's a medal that will sting to look back at in the cabinet, though, after they were wiped by Vitality 3-0 in the title decider, losing out in several clutches and letting several advantages slip.

"We didn't manage to play better CS after the first map," m0NESY told HLTV after the final. "We were making a lot of mistakes today and the communication wasn't on point, and I thought maybe after the first map, Inferno, it's not the best map for us, but after that we could recover and show a better result on the second one.

"But it didn't happen for some reason."

'The Flash' spoke about adjustments he and Falcons made that helped enable his return to his level and discussed his losing MVP, saying he was happy with his form prior to the final.

"But in the grand final, I missed a lot of shots in situations where I could have made a difference," he said. "Maybe I'm a bit harsh on myself, but I always have high standards for these situations that I can close even myself, where it's like 1v3 or 1v2.

"My form was good this tournament, not bad, but that's what I've been practicing for, just to be better as a player, as a teammate."

You can listen to the interview here.

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Ilya, commiserations on the loss. Can you tell me what's going through your mind after that?

Just taking all the three games we played, we didn't manage to play better CS after the first map. We were making a lot of mistakes today and the communication wasn't on point, and I thought maybe after the first map, Inferno, it's not the best map for us, but after that we could recover and show a better result on the second one.

But it didn't happen for some reason. I think we were just off today, not the CS we wanted to show in the grand final because, in my opinion, the whole tournament was great from us.

Is there anything you can point to that would have made today so different from the last couple?

I think all the clutches that we lost, situations, but also it's team-dependent. For example, we have some read and we're not doing the proper setup or not playing off of each other in the setup that we are expecting them [to come into], we're just not ready for some reason. I think it all comes down to the comms. There are a lot of other details, but it's mostly team details.

Advantages and pistols have really cost you a lot of maps and ultimately it cost you in this final as well. Going out of this tournament, how are you gonna adjust around that, what's the plan going forward to try to resolve that?

Pistol is just whatever... I think it's a joke. No, no, maybe unlucky, 1 out of 12 before the semi-final we had, I think? Maybe it's funny to see, but either we're shooting bad with pistols, but I don't think so, because I think all our players, TeSeS, kyxsan, everyone, we all shoot good at pistols.

And strats are also good, even when we hit anti-strat and we know their setup, we just cannot kill them for some reason. Maybe it's just unlucky, but it cannot be unlucky, maybe something is happening that I cannot explain.

Advantage situations and clutches you can explain: There just needs to be better connection between the players, in my opinion. All the players in our team are aggressive, everyone can go first, everyone can be active, but sometimes we need to play a bit more passive and behind in order to win those situations and clutches.

Touching on your own form here, it's a losing MVP, which I'm sure hurts. Can you tell me about that feeling?

It's my first time I got the MVP when we lost the tournament. In the grand final, maybe I can say the whole tournament except the grand final I played... not bad, maybe even good.

But in the grand final, I missed a lot of shots in situations where I could have made a difference. Maybe I'm a bit harsh on myself, but I always have high standards for these situations that I can close even myself, where it's like 1v3 or 1v2. My form was good this tournament, not bad, but that's what I've been practicing for, just to be better as a player, as a teammate.

Tell me about practicing for that a little bit. NiKo mentioned that for a period, once kyousuke came into the team, you felt like you didn't have as much space and couldn't take that initiative as much as you used to. He said that's something you had a conversation about and you've changed. Can you tell me about that approach and how that's worked out for you?

Over time for me, when there's not a lot of stability and you're changing players, I also changed teams this year... This year was just not stable. I really like when you chase stability in the team and you're getting comfortable with players, and you understand players more. I don't know, something was off for me when I joined Falcons and also when I was in G2.

I talked with Danny after FISSURE and I also talked with kyxsan. The way I sometimes do some stuff, I want to have a bigger voice in mid-rounds and also on the T sides because it's gonna benefit me more. I know a lot of things that I can do with the AWP and can help the team as well, that's what I was doing always in G2 in the past. That's what I learned how to play as well, so I'm not always behind and supporting with nades and I go clutch after.

I'm not gonna always clutch, my teammates can die and I cannot do anything after. So instead of that I try to always, let's say, go for entries, make initiative rounds where I can get some space with the AWP, and being an AWPer that is going and making a difference than staying behind, supporting my teammates, seeing them dying, or they're winning the round, it's good, but when they die it's an uncomfortable feeling. Mostly I think it's just more freedom and more voice on the team on T side. On CT side it was always good. We have good balance between all the players.

I know it's hard to look for a silver lining in a loss, but in terms of your form, do you feel like you've found it now as the kind of level that you're gonna be able to carry into the rest of the year?

I'm gonna continue becoming better as a player. I don't like when someone's saying like, 'Are you back?' I just didn't show my good CS this year, maybe some tournaments, but most of them were just awful, but I'm pretty sure I can be better than the last year I showed.

Any parting words? When we walked off for this interview, you asked who decided who the MVP was. Any final words you wanna leave us with?

It was just a funny joke. I was just surprised because, against us, flameZ for example, or ZywOo and mezii, they showed insane CS, and they deserved credit as well. I thought one of them would be the MVP, but it's fine.

Some words... I don't have any words. Just thanks to fans, thank you to my parents, to my brother, to my grandmother for supporting me, also to my friends, close friends who were watching from home. Love them all and they've been supporting me throughout the whole year. It's time to become better. Time to become better.