Although he was only signed a year ago to replace iM, volt now finds himself as the last man standing from the GamerLegion roster he initially joined.
Now the elder statesmen of the team both in age and tenure with the organisation, the former ITB man has emerged as a dependable star for the team and now finds himself as the most experienced member of a very young and exciting team.
Ahead of BLAST Premier Fall Groups, we spoke to volt about the many changes to the team, his experiences of playing with Snax, and his thoughts on how the first half of 2024 went.
It has been a bit hard because following every change it felt like we were taking a few steps back and had to start everything over again, either rotating positions in the team or teaching the new guy our strats and playstyle.
I didn’t switch many of my roles and kept the majority of the anchor/lurk positions but it meant that on CT sides my site partners changed a lot and it just halted progress due to having to build the synergy again.
Overall, it has been difficult to find consistency as a team because bringing a new player to the team with their own way of thinking about the game takes time to implement into the system. Meanwhile this opens gaps in our game and brings us out of sync.
Also, it has been tough to maintain high motivation after many roster changes because of the extra work that comes alongside and the feeling of not progressing but I have a lot of faith in the choices that Ash has picked for the team for each role and I trust that in the long run the team will click. As long as we become a better team from the changes, that is all that matters.
It’s definitely been a disappointing first half of the year. The roster changed multiple times since the Major so it’s hard to evaluate exactly how well we performed given the circumstances of having players joining/leaving before each tournament.
I don’t think it went very well for us and although we played at the Major, we technically didn’t qualify and were handed a massive opportunity after the depressing loss against 9Pandas.
Looking back, it was a bit unfortunate because the invitation came after Keoz was benched and the team was in the middle of a short break and a period of uncertainty with some of the guys looking to join other teams. It was just a ‘last dance’ for that roster and we tried to push as far as we could with no pressure and I think we had the chance to make it to the next stage but we were let down by our map pool.
At least recently it has been looking up since we’ve finally been able to reach some playoffs in some of the tournaments.
I’ve been one of the youngest in the majority of the lineups that I’ve played in so I don’t know if I’m just becoming a boomer or our team is super young now. We could probably even pass as an academy team.
One thing that feels different from the past is that I am calling out my teammates more for mistakes whereas before I might not have and I’m being more vocal about my opinion on things. I’m also turning 23 soon and the age is starting to sound a bit too serious, hopefully no retirement soon. I guess with being one of the more ‘experienced’ players in the team I’m just trying to be more mature and lead by example.
It was a pleasure to play with Snax and learn from someone who has been at the top of the game. I can remember back at the first bootcamp with him where we shared a taxi from the airport and spoke about all sorts, his personal life and general conversation about competing in CS and handling pressure or tilt.
He somehow always had an answer for any questions or issues that I had at the time, giving me a new perspective on the mindset that I should have. There were even some positions that I played which he also did for a long time and he was able to give me valuable walkthroughs and tips.
I think he’ll do fine and much better than the community has been suggesting. In my opinion, the reactions were too harsh and many were quick to judge before they even played their first game. His calling style could potentially suit G2 and there’s a chance that his motivation will increase with this opportunity.
Honestly, I don’t know how he did things in Metizport and can only base the impression I had of him on the team’s results when he was leading. They were doing well as far as I remember and after the roster changes they dropped off a bit so I would say that it was a mistake for them to bench him.
He’s a really nice and chill guy and I’m confident in his ability to lead the team. Currently, the time we’ve had so far to practice with him, he has implemented a good chunk of his playbook and it will just come down to the rest of us following his plans.
He has great ideas but sometimes we might not execute them properly making the call look bad when it’s not really his fault. That is something that people watching on stream would not be able to tell, yet they would judge him for making bad calls when the execution was the issue.
FL4MUS surprised me the most, in a good way, because he brings a lot of energy and is super vocal inside and outside the game. His English is also good so we don’t have massive language barriers which people might expect. Sometimes he might be a little too active in the game but that’s kind of what we’ve been missing and with more experience he’ll find the balance for sure.
The other two, aNdu and sl3nd have been in the team a bit longer and we’ve played Pro League together so I’ve seen how they are in a S tier LAN environment and to be honest it seemed like they were playing like it was any other tournament. I didn’t feel any nerves from them, they played with a lot of confidence and hunger to win. All three have one thing in common being grinding FACEIT like crazy and I believe that it helps them stay sharp. It’s clear they love the game and that is the best mentality you can have to succeed.
Since there is a small age gap between the players now it feels like everyone gets along super well and have bonded quite quickly and easily and that’s only going to make us a stronger team. Good vibes, the talent and hard work will bring us the wins eventually.
Sure, a young team like ours hovering at this rank will have the attention of bigger orgs to steal players, but I think GamerLegion is doing the best to make everyone want to stay here and to provide the same support as tier one orgs.
Of course, in cases where a team like G2 comes knocking it's a no-brainer for anyone to take the offer. I would like it for the roster to stick together for at least two seasons, whether that will happen is not really in our control.
Qualify for the Shanghai major and reach top 20 on HLTV.
In the previous Fall Groups, London didn’t quite call us like I wished. This time round advancing to the Fall Final would be huge but considering we are heavy underdogs in our group I think picking up some wins is the realistic goal. I want every match to be competitive. I have four young stars with me that can make anything happen.
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