Perhaps not as widely respected as he should be, Jerry has rightly earned himself a reputation for consistently building strong squads in the Russian scene.

His latest roster, featuring the likes of zorte, shalfey, and r3salt, is exactly what you’d expect a Jerry FORZE roster to be: young, bags of potential, and the ability to absolutely flatten teams out of nowhere.

Our first true glimpse at the potential of this team came at ESL Pro League Season 17, where FORZE shone in a group consisting of teams such as NAVI, Liquid, and ENCE. They would advance from that group in first place, booking them an automatic quarter finals spot. Unfortunately, that quarter final would be a loss, but considering it was a 2-1 defeat against eventual winners FaZe, there was no room to deny the potential shown afterwards.

Now, here at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, FORZE opened their account with a disappointing collapse against Grayhound on Mirage. This wouldn’t knock them though, as in their next game their star zorte would shine to send Liquid into the 0-2 bracket with a 31-13 statline.

Picture by Michal Konkol

When we got the chance to sit down with Jerry, the first thing we wanted to know was how he manages to find these players, although his answer was conducive to that of a very humble leader. “ Let's start by going back a bit, it's not just me who's finding the talents.” he said.

“There is a lot of help from the side, first the coach, then the rest of the players, and of course the org helps me as well. There's a lot of structure that goes into finding a player, I can look at a player myself but there is side work like the manager from the organisation's side making a shortlist, and then after that the coach and I will look at the POV demos and decide if players are reacting well and understanding what they're doing on the map. Of course, we'll also judge individual skill as well, after all of that we'll get a feel for everyone's opinion and what the rest of the players think."

Turning cogs into a machine

Finding players is one thing, but actually turning five players into a team is a completely different one. It’s not unusual in Counter-Strike that seemingly great rosters form just to be disappointments, so how does Jerry tackle that issue?

“I understand that each team can succeed only when the players are open with each other, to reach that level I talk a lot with the players, sometimes about small things they do inside the game and why they do them, all of it goes towards getting connected with the players.” Jerry told BLAST.tv.

Picture by Michal Konkol

A people person, it’s very clear that Jerry is proud of the connections he makes with his players. Still relatively young himself at just 24 years of age, it’s an incredibly mature outlook on how to build a team.

This maturity is something that continues to shine through in our time with Jerry. His answers are thought-out, insightful, he leaves no stone unturned as he takes us through his leadership style, saying that “it’s not about being a boss.”

“I'm not really that kind of guy who will sit and tell everyone what to do as a figure of authority, I try to lead by example. I think that's the most important thing in an IGL, he should understand that he needs to be the example, the guy who all the players will look at and think ‘I should do the same.’”

As with ENCE following the arrival of NertZ, FORZE’s performances at the event were a big surprise to many CS:GO fans, and Jerry thinks that recreating that performance here is “really possible.”

“We had a preparation LAN before Pro League, it was the same at the Malta CCT Finals, we had general preparation for the LAN and then had the LAN. Now we have the Major but before that, the RMR, and before the RMR we had similar preparation and we repeated that again before Paris. We had a bootcamp, maybe not as many days as we wanted it to be but it was still good, and we've done a lot of individual work."

Jerry went on to say “the most important thing for our team is getting a good start” and while in the end they had something of a false start, considering their 12-3 lead against Grayhound, the subsequent win against Liquid could provide them with all the momentum they need to go further.

Liquid struggled to stop the FORZE machine - Michal Konkol

As he continues speaking, it’s at this point that Jerry puffs out his chest. He’s like a proud father after watching his son complete his hat-trick in a Sunday League game, and after that Liquid demolition job, it’s easy to see why.

“For someone like zorte who's a cold blooded hunter, when he feels it he plays like a beast, he's a young player so when he understands what he's capable of right from the beginning, it's great.”

It’s not just zorte he heaps the praise on, however. First he speaks on Krad, saying “he's a player who can play like me, not a standout on the server but he is the guy who is able to switch on to helping me with the calls.” He then moves onto shalfey - a player he describes as “stable” and who “makes mid-round calls when he finds the space.”

It’s clear from the performances so far that if Jerry’s band of merry men are to succeed in Paris, a lot of that may fall on the shoulders of zorte, who Jerry compares to s1mple.

“zorte has the special role, he’s a hybrid, like s1mple, he can be anywhere and everywhere. He can do a lot of things.”

As he continues, he then leans in slightly. There’s a mischievous grin that creeps across his face as we’re given an immediate sense of anticipation for what he’ll say next.

“Now, he’s training shotgun things. It's not a normal weapon in the pro scene, but I think in the future, and zorte knows it, and we now know it as a team, shotguns will be meta.”

Frankly, it’s a terrifying prospect. We don’t know to what degree he means that shotguns will become meta, perhaps just in the force buy or anti-eco capacity, perhaps more than that. All we know is that if anyone will have cracked the code. It will have been Jerry.

With the sneak peek into the future out of the way, Jerry brings us back to our question. Taking us back to the connections he builds with players, he makes sure no one is left out.

“I’m not saying the rest will be less important though, everyone has different and hard roles and if everyone can do their role at the best level, that will be the X factor. If zorte step up and gets 35 frags and we help him, not make him do it alone but we help him, me as the IGL, r3salt as the fragger, or shalfey with mid calls and me with some insane strategy that would help, everyone can be the X factor.”