Right off the bat, BLVKHVND found themselves in a tricky situation as they lost their first game against 24.8 Average, however, since then they have been on an upwards trajectory and are now sitting at the top of their group getting ready for the playoffs. Whilst they prepare for their first playoffs game, UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn was able to talk to Tim “TIMMO” Musters about mentally resetting after a tough game and what players at EPIC.LAN are his rivals.
How does it affect your mental game when you are meant to be favourites then you come out and lose your first map?
I think it shook everybody up a little bit, for me, it’s just a case of shaking it off, at the end of the day you have just got to focus on the next game. Getting tilted about the previous game won’t help you win the next one.
After that first game, was there anything that was said that got you back into it?
I did mention briefly that I thought our communication was the biggest issue, I think the fact that as people are aware, we had issues with some of our sleeping arrangements last night made people were very very tired for that first game. So I think the tiredness just highlighted our weaknesses, which again was mostly communication so I wanted to make sure everybody was awake and ready to communicate everything they were doing and ready to react to any situation.
You are new to this roster, have you found it hard to slot into their communication?
I don’t think I found it hard to slot in, it’s more of a case that I’ve noticed other people don’t communicate much. Specifically cause I’m entrying so I’m first to die so I notice in the late rounds and 2vX scenarios that people aren’t communicating when they are changing angles or saying what angles they are holding. That’s even more relevant on LAN because people aren’t able to hear exactly what’s going on and with the background noise it’s harder to be able to focus on exactly what’s going on without communication.
How do you want to do in this tournament?
We want to win it, we should be the favourites. It would be nice to have a second title, especially after winning one EPIC.LAN and getting kicked, hopefully I don’t get kicked after losing one (laughs).
What has to change for you guys to be the favourites to win?
Definitely just being awake, for the start. That’s definitely a big one. Making sure we are proactive, knowing that we are the favourites and playing like it, is one thing that we should doing. Mostly being awake in practice.
Looking around, what other teams are you, not nervous about, but wary about in the competition?
In terms of teams, there’s the ex-TLR/ Temperate roster but team for team on paper we should be a better team than them and we should be on a better trajectory than them. In terms of teams to actually worry about, I think it’s the emps kids mix, because they’ve got nothing to lose as a mix, they’re here to have fun. Meaning it’s going to be hard to read what they are doing when they don’t really care what they are doing quite as much. Unless it gets to the high pressure games, in which case it might be an even scenario.
Would you say it’s harder to play as an org compared to a mix?
I wouldn’t say it’s harder, it’s less predictable and as long as you play the fundamentals right then it shouldn’t matter.
In terms of mind games, you’ve won a LAN before, how susceptible would you say the team is to shittalking and that thought of thing?
I think people are susceptible to it in that they notice it and it can affect them but I don’t think my team let it affect them too much. I think they are good in that if they are tilted they still play well and that’s one thing I noticed when I first joined was that even if they are upset with their performance, they will perform to the best ability that they can.
Talking about that, some of your players are a lot louder usually, why haven’t we seen that aspect of them so far?
As far as I’m aware I didn’t really think our team was that loud to begin with, after playing against the core of BLVKHVND last EPIC whilst I was playing under lucent, I noticed that they were quite a quiet team. And I think that shows the steady mindset that everybody has, it’s quite stoic in that way. But I think we could bring a little bit more noise, I wouldn’t mind a little bit more noise.
Speaking of the noise, you yourself have had a bit of noise surrounding you outside of the server recently, do you have anything to say about that?
Not really, I mean it is what it is. At the end of the day I can only let my results and my performance speak for themselves, obviously, it is quite funny some of the memes, like I said winning one EPIC.LAN and getting kicked, dread to think what happens if I lose.
There’s a chance you could face off against Rhys, who you replaced, is that a match you are looking forward to and is there something you have to prove there?
Not really, I’m not really bothered about who we face unless it’s Nem, I love Nem. I don’t think they will be any grudge in any sort of matchup, I’m not really bothered about that stuff. At the end of the day, it’s all about the score at the top of the scoreboard.
Who would you like to face?
Like I said before it’s Nem, I’d love to face Nem. My old teammate of two years, I’d love to just be in the server with him again.
