When you want to win, you don't want to lose: Giants pipsoN exclusive Strafe Interview VCT EMEA

At the end of Week 2 of VCT EMEA, KOI took on Giants Gaming in an epic domestic rivalry clash. After an intense two map series, Giants emerged as the victors. After the win, Strafe Esports was fortunate enough to speak with Giants' head coach Daniil "pipsoN" Meshcheryakov. In this exclusive post-game 1-1 interview, Giants "pipsoN" opens up about the teams' struggles, focuses going forwards and biggest strengths of the roster.

Hi, congratulations on your win against KOI. That was quite a dominant game for you guys, especially on Lotus. And of course, you guys played insanely well on Ascent. It looked like they quite had it, but then of course you guys managed to close it out. It terms of your matchups, you guys were 0-2 down coming into Week 2. But you had the two toughest matchups in Week 1 against Fnatic and NA’VI. So how do you guys feel this week compared to last week?

It's good, it feels good. It feels good to finally win. Of course, in that NA'VI game, I think we played pretty good. I think we could have won in that second map of Split. We lost that 2v1 clutch which, it was 13-12 at the time. That first overtime, we had some confidence to get the win, and yeah that schedule was pretty pretty rough. We're playing like Fnatic, NA'VI, and KOI first three games. We have to start here but we didn't. It is what is it, and we just have to get back on track, that's still the plan.

 

I wanted to ask you guys about you match against NA’VI last week as well. Because that was a very close match as you said, and it seemed like you guys managed to push overtime on Map 1 and Map 2. And that felt like the longest series of all time. And then on Map 3, it looked from the outside point of view like you guys ran out of a bit of steam towards the end of Pearl. What happened exactly, if you don't mind me asking?

I think we didn’t deserve to win Pearl, due to us losing 4 eco-rounds. We basically lost on one Pearl, 4 eco-rounds, once to sheriffs, we lost another time to four sheriffs and a ‘cNed’ OP. And we lost because we were overcomplicating stuff a bit. And then we won the pistol defense and then lost to the full eco. I think when you lose four eco-rounds on one map, you don’t deserve to win.

And worse thing is, if we would have won these four eco-rounds, the game would have been completely different. Not only the score, but even if you just count the score, it was 13-7. If you count plus four rounds, which we should have won technically, because we were f***ing up against ecos, even 3 of them. Like okay, one of them, that’s completely normal. It’s not the only reason but it’s an indicative reason why we lost.

There were rounds that we were losing in the eco, while we have no money, their bank accounts are boosted insanely because they just pick up the guns. So theoretically, the game was close, even if the score doesn’t show like that, but due to us losing four economy rounds, we never deserved to win that map as a Best of One, and the last map is always a Best of One.

 

I see, that was a rough last game to watch. In terms of this EMEA season, for this current version of Giants, what has been your biggest challenges as a coach so far this season? And also, what would you say is/are the strongest aspects of this Giants roster?

The biggest challenge was making sure we would play the same way as we played in practice, because there were games where we did not play the same, due to not every player, not everyone has a lot of experience onstage. So that was the biggest thing, the big focus we were talking about. Like we were talking about ‘just play the game, don’t focus on something specific, make sure that we play the game just like we practice.’ This is because our practice results are really really good. That was the biggest challenge, but we managed to do it, against NA’VI and against KOI. We did not do it against Fnatic, because we were afraid, we were just hiding around, executing on 20 seconds, 10 seconds. They would always have the read, and so we deserved to get smashed there.

I also think the biggest strengths of our current roster is that first of all, we were working a lot on fundamentals, So, I think our fundamentals are pretty pretty on point, that’s the first thing. And the second thing is that when we play, I think people are really really strong on this roster. We saw “Fit1nho” performing, we saw “hoody” performing, we saw “Cloud” performing, everyone performing basically. I think this is a really really big strength for us, we have the players that can perform individually.

 

Leaning on that strength, you guys had a really amazing bounce-back game against KOI. You guys had an especially dominant game on Lotus. What was running through your head before and during the map? In your opinion, what was the biggest factor for such a dominant showing?

I mean, first of all, I think our Lotus is pretty pretty good. At the same time, we changed the comp compared to the Brazil game, which was the only game they could see. The way we played in Brazil was also completely different because we played the comp they played now. We knew what the strengths of that comp were, because we did it before, and what were the weaknesses.

At the same time, we also had a briefing vids on the way they would attack and the way they would control the map, so for most of the game we felt that we had the read, and most of the time, if they would do an execute on C, we can read it, they will stack heavy so we have a B execute, “Cloud” is throwing his smoke…I think we just had a lot of good reads on them. At the same time, we also understand their approach on the attack side of their team. Based on that, we just made our reads and made a game plan, that’s why we picked it.

Ascent was of course much harder, they are a really good team, and they can always come back and stuff like that, but we still had a lead. However, one of the things we need to go back and have a look later is that it is unusual for us to have such a big lead that we need to close out the game. Like some teams, during my past experience, although not in this game but in another, I’ve seen it appear as a problem where you are one small step away, and you are starting to think that you have already won, making simple mistakes.

Not only just simple mistakes, but also making big mistakes, where you’re trying to finish the game fast, starting to just strat, strat, strat. And then at one point you are already losing. So this is the step I need to take a look at, if it happens again or not, because we should have closed this game out much earlier. KOI played well and they had a good comeback, but we should have closed out the game sooner.

 

I see. Your experience has seen you as the coach for Giants originally, before you moved to G2, and now you’re back in Giants again. How does it feel to coach this roster this time on Giants and how do you feel about your experience, what’s different about this time compared to the last time you were their coach?

I mean, there’s not a huge difference because the team that we picked up when I was on Giants before, we had really really good results. I remember we knocked out Fnatic in the closed qualifiers for the Riot tournament, and we got 3rd-4th place at Redbull. Also we were in the group with Fnatic and FPX back then (the current NA’VI) and we did pretty pretty good.

I still, I worked with “Fit1nho” and “hoody” back in the days of Giants, and then I worked with “hoody” and “nukkye” on G2, and right now they are all here. Like, it’s no different challenge for me, due to 2-3 players that I have already worked with and the new additions of “rhyme” and “Cloud”, so there’s not such a big difference for me. I was really happy to come back to Giants, I spoke with the “Mayne” about the G2 situation, that I would like to come back to Giants, that’s it.

 

I see. Leaning back on your previous statement, would you consider Fnatic to be your biggest challenge in this EMEA season? As the strongest team you’re afraid of? Or is it just because it was the first game you guys played in, and therefore you guys were coming in sort of cold?

It was mostly because it was the first game we played, like it’s not about the first game, we had the same issue versus NRG if people remember the Icebox game. Versus Fnatic it was pretty much the same, it was pretty much us being afraid. Like for example, NRG had Killjoy, KAYO, Viper, Sage…it means that if you’re not baiting out the utilities, you won’t be able to come into the bombsite, because there will be five or six molotovs there.

If you ask me, we were not that confident and we were being afraid. Not even being afraid actually, I think it was more like according to the prep results, players have the mentality that I want to win, and when you want to win, you don’t want to lose, and when you don’t want to lose, you are starting to become afraid of making mistakes. When you are starting to become afraid of making mistakes, you are making a mistake, because you are not taking opportunities, you are not taking chances, you stop playing the game. You are starting to do everything super slow.

Slow playstyle is good, I don’t mean that slow playstyle is bad, my point is that when you are doing overslow, the enemy can read out the info, they still understand what you are doing, and the stuff like that will not work. When you are playing super calm, that does not happen. So I wouldn’t say that Fnatic is our biggest rivals, it’s just we want us to be us.

 

Regarding "rhyme, prior to joining Giants, he was a relatively lesser-known name in the scene. He’s mainly travelled around and joined quite a number of teams, including NIP and Gen.G. Despite that he’s been looking really good, and Giants’ calling has been really good as well (at least from an outsider’s perspective). What has your experience been so far working with him as an IGL and what has his impact been as an IGL?

I knew ‘rhyme’ from the beta, when he was playing on NIP, he was playing there for quite a long time, and after that he went to NA. And then, he came back. I think ‘rhyme’ is a really really good leader. On role, he has a lot of leadership abilities that was the main priority for us when picking up the IGL. And we wanted someone who had the leadership mentality, so in the game, he is the leader. So, he is acting as the leader, we trust him, even though we’re working with him on the role, improving him as an IGL, just making it so he doesn’t have a bad experience of being an IGL. But he definitely has the qualities of a good IGL.

 

Since Week 1, you have been utilizing 'Cloud' on Gekko. I wanted to ask in general, what do you think about Gekko and in terms of the usage of Gekko, will he be a sustainable agent? Many teams consider Gekko to be a counter-able agent, since he is considered to have a very telegraphed playstyle that is very easy to counter once you know exactly what you’re going to be doing with it.

I don’t really agree with that, because I think people think about Gekko as the only ‘wingman’ ability, that he will plant the bomb. Which is not true, because for example today, I think you saw that you could potentially do a lot of things with Gekko. Like for example, on retakes, using wingman as a stun so they cannot escape the Molotov. I think Gekko is strong, but he isn’t like overpowered. He’s strong on maps, but in specific areas. Like where you utilize Gekko is key. In my POV, there are a few maps where Gekko is strong, and like there are a few maps where Gekko is strong, and there are a few other maps where Gekko is not that good.

 

You guys managed to close it out in 2-0 fashion this week. But what are the biggest things you guys are going to be working on for next week’s matchup?

I will not tell everything, but obviously we still need to work on a lot of stuff, starting with communication, starting with the understanding of certain scenarios, and starting with the understanding of how to play out certain scenarios when the opponent is doing a sort of plays. So that’s for example some stuff was noticeable on Ascent, that we are reacting to it quite slow, because I didn’t see the game yet, but I expect when they started on the comeback, ‘Wolfen’ started on A-long most of the time because we didn’t pressure long early, and he was kind of getting A control pretty early, it turned out they played triple B.

Whenever we go towards A, it was usually early rounds. If I was not mistaken, ‘starxo’ was playing KAYO and he would just do the knife and then they would stack triple A. So basically, as our understanding goes, ‘Wolfen’ is just locking down long and they will be super strong on B and super strong on B split, and super strong on short because of that. We have to play the rounds differently, and we have to play slow and pressure him on the long angle, take the control and stuff like that.

But we’re realising it only super late and during the game I had no timeouts anymore and during the game players realized in the end when they started to do the comeback, so we called the last round, was to fake a rush, because when we did it one time and faked the rush when they were starting double A-site, we took the opportunity to walk on short, kill them and secure the round. But these situations, you realize them much faster outside the game, so the enemy will not be able to abuse the way of playing.

 

As a coach and as a representative of Giants Gaming, who do you consider the biggest challenge in the EMEA VCT right now? Who do you consider to be the strongest?

It’s real rough for me to answer, due to I think that even this season shows that everyone is here to game. Like we lose to NA’VI, and then NA’VI lose to KOI, and now we beat KOI. It’s super weird, especially when taking into account pracs. I will say right now there is a certain team that is very dominating in pracs. Of course, there will still be teams that are super good, like Fnatic, with the returning of ‘Alfajer.’ Even they were struggling sometimes against for example, last week’s team, which was close 11-13. For example, BBL, it was close game, but still I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like there is one team which is a level above the other teams.

 

As a small follow-up to your response, where would you rank yourself, as Giants?

I think it depends on a lot of different factors. I would rank us between the 3 to 6, but it really depends on a lot of different stuff. Whether we will play, whether we will improve, how will the other teams play, and a lot of different factors.

 

Final thing, do you have anything to say to the fans?

Yeah, I want to say thank you to all the fans for coming and supporting us in the game, actually we can hear it and like, we feel it. Especially me, due to me sitting like close to the fans. Especially when there is a big support, we can feel it, tables are moving and things like that. So thank you for coming and thank you for supporting. We really really appreciate it.

 

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Credits: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games // VCT LOCK//IN

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