Love him or hate him, smooya is a legend within the UK scene.
One of the first two UK players to ever make a Major playoff at the FACEIT London Major 2018, he was once tipped for big things but faded away from the pro scene due to external “distractions”, as he himself put it.
Years older and now back on his first team since 2022, smooya is a changed man and is looking to return and have the best spell of his career to date.
At BLAST Premier Spring Final presented by Revolut, we caught up with smooya to discuss this new Into the Breach roster, growing as a person, and his goal of playing on the Wembley stage again next year.
You're back on a team for the first time since 2022, how are you feeling about it?
It's good, obviously there's a new game now, so it's a new chapter, to say the least.
I've been focussing on content for a long time, but I've been maintaining my individual level which is why I was able to stand in at Pro League and have some pretty good results, played FPL and in some random mixes, even qualified for an RMR with one of those random mixes.
I'm always playing the game because I love the game, but I was just waiting for the right opportunity. I finally have that with ITB and they gave me a chance to bring the players I want in and play with who I want. They're supporting me as a player.
What a lot of organisations don't do, is that they have a player with some talent, which I'll say is myself in this case, and they try to change everything about them.
People shouldn't try to change good players in sports, of course, they have to mature and grow up which I am in the process of doing, but you can't just change, change, change because then you lose the player. If you change everything about them, they're no longer going to be that player you signed.
So, I have a very good, healthy, professional environment now and I'm very excited to hopefully grow with it and become the player I should have become five years ago.
Did you have a big hand in building the roster?
Yeah, at the beginning I didn't want any hand in it but then I realised that it's my project so if it fails, it's on me. If ITB get no results and we qualify for no LANs, it's on me. It's not on the org, they've given pretty much full leeway to me.
So yeah, we'll see what happens.
You've already picked up juanflatroo, sinnopsyy, and Keoz, what can you tell me about those three?
Well, I haven't played with them in any practices yet because we haven't found a fifth, but we're going to be trialling them and we have to find the right fifth for our format.
Keoz, everyone knows him, he's a Major finalist and a very good player. Everyone knows juanflatroo and sinnopsyy, they're very loud and very much like me, so I'm very excited to go to a LAN and be fucking screaming at people with them, that'll be a lot of fun.
It's exciting to just be competing again with some people who actually want to win and compete and who aren't just playing for salary, they actually want to be there.
Let's talk about that Pro League stand-in stint. Obviously you've already said you were playing the new game a lot already, but were you surprised about the level you could bring in a professional environment?
No, a lot of people know me for some of my hot takes and me saying I was better than I was back in the day and thinking I was this that and the other, but my numbers have always spoken for themselves.
I'm at a point now where numbers don't mean anything to me. I don't need numbers. I could play badly for my next thousand maps and I'd still be one of the highest-rated players in the world, I don't really care for that, I just need to win. If that means I have to be 0.5 rated, I don't care.
Back in the day, I wouldn't have had the ability to not care, I would've been mad. But now, I do not care. I just want to win, and hopefully, we can do so at ITB.
With that said, what are the goals for the team?
It's a long-term project because we can't make the Major because of the new silly rules, but we just need to work our way up the ladder and qualify for some events. These random online qualifiers where you can make Cologne or ESL Challenger, those types of events.
We need to make it to one of those first, then start doing it consistently, then win one, then work our way up.
You've said a lot about growing up and who you were as a person, you seem very introspective about that, what's changed for you?
Well, there's nothing that grows a man up quicker than paying the money I've paid in tax and some of the women that I've dealt with.
I'm an old soul in a young man's body right now [laughs].
I'm just focussed on the game and improving, not the rest of the distractions I used to have - chasing girls and doing dumb shit that doesn't matter. I am who I am and that won't change.
BLAST will be back in London next year for BLAST Open, you've played on the Wembley Stage before, are you hoping you'll get to do it again?
I didn't know that was happening but now I'm very excited that it is. Yes, that will be one of our goals now for sure, I'll make sure that it is.
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