ArtFr0st: "We could've gone really deep into the tournament, but bad vibes affected us too much"

The Russian AWPer says BetBoom squandered a chance for a good result.

BetBoom came into PGL Masters Bucharest with an outside chance for a playoff spot, but the Russian squad could only muster one victory against a Klimentii "⁠kl1m⁠" Krivosheev-less MIBR.

In an exit interview, Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov admitted that the team struggled with out-of-the-server issues that prevented them from playing at the top of the game.

"We couldn’t even play at 30%. Every individual was a little bit affected, more or less, by this, and couldn’t perform even at 50% of his individual level," he told HLTV after the deciding loss against Gentle Mates.

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I'm here with ArtFr0sT from BetBoom. You just lost a very tight Nuke against the GentleMates and are now out of the PGL Masters Bucharest 2025. How did the game go through your eyes?

The plan we created when we were preparing made us pretty confident about the game. Their playstyle is actually good for us, but the first map was kind of shaky. They always had a guy that took the back and we just couldn’t use the lurks. They outplayed us heavily on the T side, and our plan didn’t work as we thought it would. It was just a really unlucky CT side and we couldn’t do much on the T side.

Then, on the second map, Mirage, the preparation was also good. We felt pretty comfortable. The T side was really good for us, just a couple of unlucky clutches. It could’ve been even better. CT side, once again, they did everything as Ts that we expected. Just a couple of unlucky rounds made the score close at the end. On Nuke, I don’t know.

A really good start, but then we did some random plays Outside, which cost us those few rounds on the CT side that we could’ve had. It should’ve been a 9-3 half, or even 10-2. We just threw it a little at the end, and it’s pretty random, and pretty hard to play on the T side, the way we play, because of a lack of practice. Those CT side rounds that we threw cost us the game, in my opinion.

Across the entire tournament, it felt like you guys would either dominate or get dominated. Nuke’s two halves were a great example of it, but it happened across series too, where you would win and lose maps in a pretty convincing fashion. Why is that happening?

I think we just weren't as good a team at this tournament as we should be. We had a lot of arguments here and there, some bad emotions, I would say. The vibes weren't as good as they usually are, and as good as they should be. We were not at our best point as a team. This was actually the main problem in this tournament, we were just not feeling it as a team.

You could see it in the game when we were playing, there was some bad teamplay, but also outside of the game. I think this is the main reason we didn’t have this consistency throughout this tournament. In my opinion, we could’ve gone really deep into the tournament, but those bad vibes affected us too much. We couldn’t even play at 30%. Every individual was a little bit affected, more or less, by this, and couldn’t perform even at 50% of his individual level. This is the main reason that we did badly, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, you won’t be at the Major, but as you said, you have higher expectations of yourselves and want to become a better team after the recent changes. This tournament was your first international LAN event with d1Ledez. How has playing with him been going?

Of course, I will even say that the way that we're playing on this team reminds me of the way we played on Spirit. It's because I have two star players, meaning I don’t have to do aggressive plays all the time or drop 40 kills. I have two star players whom I can support and we will win the game as a team. But, as I said, this tournament was just unlucky for us as a team.

This is my feeling. d1Ledez is a really strong player individually, he has some lack of base Counter-Strike, like something you would learn in an academy. He didn’t have an academy team or something like this, so he has things that he’s missed before, this is his main flaw. Individually, he’s insane. If we fix those team problems, the future is bright for this team.