kuben: I couldn’t approach a game thinking about exchanging someone

Virtus.pro’s run in the ESL One Cologne Group Stages ended in a disappointing manner. With that, the team continues to show a rather bad performance ahead of the Krakow-Major. The players couldn’t play to their potential and the team lost three games in a row. According to an interview with escene.de, coach Jakub ‚kuben‘ Gurczynski thinks that the team struggled with basic mistakes, but that would not be enough of a reason to make any drastic changes in the lineup.

escene: Kuben, I think there could be better moments for an interview. The results at ESL One weren’t good for your side. What are your thoughts on the recent results, especially in Cologne?
Jakub ‚kuben‘ Gurczynski: I think it’s not a bad moment. It happens in sports, and esports aswell. Most of the top teams like fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas or G2 struggled for a long time. Everyone knows we are capable of coming back after really big shit, I would say. But the thing is, we can never give up. We know where the barrier is and we can go above that barrier all the time. We just need to start winning. When we are losing, we can’t get that additional power. I mean, we need at least one win and then we can move on with power for the further games.

VP enttäuscht – ein Sinnbild der aktuellen Form

Virtus.pro is known for trust in the team and switching roles for upcoming events. But Jaroslaw ‚pasha‘ Jarzabkowski found dramatic words in a facebook post and even talked about a miracle, if the team will stay together. What do you think about that?
He chose these words and we should better ask him. But as far as I know him, he meant that, if we keep losing, we would need a miracle to not split up. 

Your role as coach should be very important at this moment with focus on the major. What are your ideas for the next event and do you want to change something?
We don’t want to change that much. We know that our game plan is good. It’s more kills we need, even in important rounds where it is 3vs3 or 4vs4. There are basic mistakes we make in-game in clutch situations. We kept giving up the economy. Even if we win one or two rounds, the third one doesn’t follow. This breaks our money.

Is this more of a mental situation or is there a way to practice these particular moments?
It’s not practice itself. Even without an opponent, it’s repeating of what is important in particular situations and reminding yourself of it. The in-game leader can focus on reminding his team of such stuff, but they need to play their own game.

Looking ahead to the major in Krakow and the time needed to prepare for it, is the timing of ESL One Cologne unfortunate?
I wouldn’t say so. Before the last major in Atlanta, we went to China for WESG. It gave us a perspective at which level we are playing, even with the loss against a polish team. But we knew if we improve some little things, reaching the major final, or even winning the trophy, is possible for us. We have thrown away the final, we should have won. So I think it’s not a bad idea to come to another event before the major.

Does Virtus.pro need some small adjustments or a big change for the upcoming major?
For now, little changes will work. But if we fail at the major… I’m not talking about exchanging someone, because with that in my mind, I couldn’t even approach a game. We know that we will keep the lineup. Maybe switching the roles will work again. And if we fail, it means we fucked the plan we had for the game.