Freddie “GrimyRannar” Pritchard was able to catch up with the Finest Israeli superstar, Guy “anarkez” Trachtman, who boasted incredible results across the tournament, catching players off guard and becoming a fan favourite. This Pinnacle Cup event was the perfect opportunity for Finest to put themselves on the map and they took that opportunity.
Firstly how was your experience at the event?
I am feeling pretty good, it is our first event together, the first big LAN for some players. I think we had a good result but definitely think we could have taken the last map of Heroic but in the end, it is our first LAN and we just need to do better next time.
Especially looking at you and that you are from Israel, is it important for the Israeli scene to see a player like you on this big stage?
For sure, I mean for Israel we already have flameZ and Spinx on the top level, and I want to get to their level. This is my mindset but also wanting to help my team get tier one.
Do you feel like you exceeded your expectations by making playoffs in this event?
Kind of, of course our expectations should always be to win, we are happy with this but we definitely would have been looking to win.
Looking at your ping and you have mentioned that you play with quite high ping, are you more confident playing on LAN with the lower ping?
Oh for sure, it is the best feeling in the world I must say, five ping, 20 ping is just a different level and different skill level that I can reach. 60 Ping is really rough and there is a big difference.
Looking at Finest as an org – have they been helpful this event and has that made big difference for your first LAN?
Of course they have been supportive, 100%. The support we get from Finest is big from every side.
Regarding the roster and your performances at this LAN, with the second highest rating coming into the playoffs stage, do you feel like you have a bit of pressure to step up when sometimes your other team mates struggle a bit?
I do not think that I have pressure, and I do not think that my team have any pressure either. Sometimes we just need to focus more and to play at our highest level, more focus and we are going to be good.
Looking at that first Imperial game, and how you had to climb back from 13-3, would that be down to you guys not being focused or was inexperience showing?
I think we had a slow start because of our inexperience, on the stage we where not playing well at all either, we needed to get comfortable and with playing against EG we showed that.
You guys are definitely a hype team, do you find it helps you in the game to have people on the same stage hyping each other up, or do you get too excited and get carried away at times?
100%, I think that when you are hype you are helping your teammates get into the game, sometimes they have a bad game so you can cheer them up. There are times where over hype is bad, but for me personally having hype is so so important and it has been helping me a lot in the game.
How does it feel to also get revenge on Imperial to secure yourself place on the stage?
Oh it feels amazing, everyone wanted it so it was really amazing and everyone felt super happy after that
Looking at your guys playing on the stage, someone like shokz has never played at a LAN like this before, and some of you this is the first time playing in front of crowd like this. Were some of you nervous coming into today specifically?
I wasn’t nervous, I am not sure about the others. I felt surprisingly comfortable, I did not think about it that much. This is my first big stage playing against a top 10 team and I felt amazing, even at home.
Looking into the future, do you guys have higher expectations for yourself after this event?
For sure we want to get the invites, we want to play against the best teams in the world and get more experience. I want to be playing against a top 10 team every week. And for us qualifying for the major is the biggest step, all our views align and we want to be playing in Brazil.
