Imperial impressed everyone at BLAST PRemier Spring Final 2023 when they defied the odds to reach the semi finals. Now without their legendary leader FalleN, they begin a new era with VINI taking the helm.
Changes to the roster following the departure of FalleN and chelo to FURIA saw the reuniting of a core of boltzz, HEN1, and coach zakk, who previously made a Major final together at PGL Krakow.
Here at IEM Cologne, we sat down with zakk to discuss the changes to the team, the success of The Last Dance project, and the differences between FalleN and VINI as leaders.
How do you feel about your recent experiences of the BLAST Spring Showdown and Spring Final?
The way we see the Showdown and Spring Finals is that it was a closure for one circle, we had chelo and FalleN, and FalleN was our IGL, so everything changed after that. So it's a nice memory, but it's gone now.
About Spring Final then, what did it mean to have that as the final memory of the last roster?
The first season wasn't very good for us. We didn't qualify for the Major, we didn't have any good results, didn't leave the groups at Pro League, the only thing good we had was BLAST. We worked so hard, the whole season we worked a lot and it was frustrating because we never got a good result, so it was a happy ending that I think we deserved because of the amount of hours we put into the game to try to achieve something, to not achieve anything, I thought it wasn't fair, so I think the last result at BLAST was good.
You came in after the start of the project, but before it began it was marketed as The Last Dance, that's not how it ended, but with PGL Antwerp and Spring Final, should 'The Last Dance' be viewed as a success?
I think the idea from The Last Dance was to have friends together, and in the middle of the project it changed because FalleN could see that he could still compete and still had the drive to dedicate himself to be one of the best. They changed the mentality in the middle of the project and I think they had success on the first part when they were playing with friends and for fun, they reached a big stage, but now it's why he left for FURIA because he knows he can grab trophies again.
In terms of the team now, VINI has stepped into the IGL role, apart from the fact FalleN is an AWPer, what's the main differences between the two?
Well there's a lot of difference. For VINI, this is his first experience as an IGL so he's still adapting and finding who he is as a leader. He knows who he is as a player, but as a leader it's a totally different subject. I think he's going to need more time, more games, especially tournament games as this is our first one in order to find his identity as a leader. He's very smart, he knows how the game goes and he does the math really quickly in terms of what's happening in the middle of the round, so he has everything to be one of the best.
What about the AWPer role? HEN1 and FalleN are two very different players, how does that affect you as a coach in terms of helping to build a system and a gameplan?
Well building a gameplan isn't so different because FalleN would talk with me before a game to align our ideas and it's the same with VINI. VINI is very open to listen to me and we get along very well. As AWPers, it's 100% different. FalleN was an IGL that liked to micro manage and HEN1 just plays his game, he tries to help of course, but how they communicate is very different.
chelo has also left who was a key player for Imperial with felps coming in to replace him. He has a lot of experience, but does he need to step up in a fragging sense to replace chelo?
When we were playing with chelo we had a system that was closer to the way tier one teams play, and right now, felps has a playstyle that he likes to find holes in the game for the CTs. He finds the holes from lurking and stuff like that, but chelo is more of an Entry, he doesn't take as much initiative as felps. It's very different, but I think felps is going to need to change just a little bit of how he plays to adapt to us. It's like VINI as the IGL, it's going to take some time.
So in terms of time and the hopes or expectations for the end of the year, do you think it will take that amount of time to reach a peak level?
I think to reach our peak we're going to need more... I don't know, to be honest with you, I have no idea, you know? CS2 is going to come out and by the end of the year CS:GO will be gone and everything will change. The meta will change, but I think the most important part is that we build the structure that we want to play in. Right now, we're playing based on felps' playstyle and I don't think this will last too long. We can use this style for like six months, but to reach our peak, we're going to need to change our style so maybe next week we will reach the peak.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Register your BLAST.tv account and join the BLAST community for Spring Groups and beyond
Play Counter-Strikle
Test your CS knowledge daily with the Counter-Strikle Quiz. See how well you really know the pro scene!
BLAST ApS., Hauser Plads 1, 3., 1127 Copenhagen