TaZ: "Hope to stay on the right path"

As part of our pre-WCG coverage, we sat down with Frag eXecutors veteran Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas and discussed the upcoming event in Los Angeles.

The Polish team have been paired with Chinese heavyweights TyLoo and Hongkonger side Duskbin for the event, which kicks off on Thursday.

After several trophyless months, Frag eXecutors finally enjoyed success, at eStars Seoul last month, with a 2-1 win over WeMade FOX.

Can the former AGAiN team keep the pace and win their third title in the history of the competition? In this interview, Wojtas talks about his team's current situation, the feeling of winning eStars, and also Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski's influence over the past few months.

As one of the two most successful Counter-Strike teams in WCG history, do you see your team winning the treble?

I’m no prophet, so I can’t tell, It’s a dream that I would love to come true, but when you look at all the opposition, it’s going to be hell of a ride to achieve it.

You have been drawn in the same group as TyLoo, a team you have faced many times in the past, and Duskbin. What is your opinion about these two sides?

I honestly don’t know much about Duskbin, so we are not going to underestimate them and we will play with full concentration. As for TyLoo, they are in great shape nowadays, so it’s going to be a very hard game and hopefully with some luck we will be able to start our tournament well.

How has your team been preparing for this tournament?

We had a small break after eStars Seoul, so we have been practicing for about a month now. There is nothing out of ordinary in our preparations, fixing tactics, adding tactics, playing a lot of practice matches and play as much as we can individually.

With fnatic out of the tournament, who do you consider to be your biggest threats for the the WCG title?

EG, mTw, Na’Vi, SK, Lions, F2B, complexity.br, MYM, WeMade and TyLoo. These teams are as dangerous as fnatic would be.

Frag eXecutors suffered a default loss to The Elder Gods in the SEC qualifier, a result which ruled your team out of the main tournament. Do you still think that TeG made it so that you could not play the match?

I don’t want to comment on this matter anymore, it’s not important what I think. I just don’t like the fact that some teams go on vacations before tournaments, and then attend them – for me it’s lack of professionalism.

At GameGune, your team came from the Upper Bracket but lost twice in the Grand Final to see fnatic come out on top. Do you think your team felt the pressure and crumbled?

I don’t think so, we had three close games vs fnatic during this tournament, and all maps could’ve gone either way, in my opinion. Overall, we were happy to get into the final after seven or more months. This loss just gave us even more motivation to practice and get better, because we knew that we were going in right direction, but that we were not yet in the spot where it would feel like we deserved to win.

One month later, you came out on top at eStars Seoul. What was it like to finally win a big international tournament after so many many months?

Haha, a relief? It felt like we finally knew where to put all the pieces in our team again… I just hope that we will be able to stay on the right path and win some more events, and win vs mTw or SK, I really would like to play against them to know if we are getting better.

Pasha came under scrutiny in the first months as an FX player. Do you think he has finally stepped up his game to the level you expected from him?

Pasha still has a lot to show, he’s getting better every month. I think that we are still to witness his full potential.

Did you ever consider replacing pasha?

There was one time when I had such a mindset, but then I realized that it was not pasha who was underperforming, but the rest of the team. The whole team needed to put great deal of effort in order to succeed. It’s important for players to always respect each other and focus on their roles in the team, if the balance is disturbed, failure awaits.

After this tournament, your team will attend DSRack #3. Are there any other events you hope to participate in before the end of the year?

I don’t know if we are attending DSRack #3, we would love to, but it’s up to our organization to decide if we’ll go there. I’m looking forward to DreamHack, Arbalet Cups, hope for WEM to come up, as in every year, and all the other tournament, maybe some IEM stop in Europe?

Related interviews:

Video: Pre-WCG with ave & Sunde
Friis: "We will end up in top 3"
FalleN: "We are really confident"