LETN1 on joining TYLOO: “It's a big change; it's a different culture, different people”

Last seen in the managerial and analyst role with the now-disbanded EXTREMUM squad, LETN1 announced his return in May as he joined TYLOO as their new head coach, with the Chinese organization once again reaching outside of the region for a man to take the reins after having worked with Ivan “⁠Johnta⁠” Shevtsov and Luis “⁠peacemaker⁠” Tadeu in years past.

Two months later, he and TYLOO are at IEM Cologne, competing in the Play-in stage for a chance to make it through to the main event as they look to end the season on a high note following a tough period that saw them struggle to compete against European opposition.

As they’re about to head into their qualifying match against MOUZ in Germany, we had a chance to talk to LETN1 about his new job and about the challenges of working with the Asian side, who had been notorious for their issues with communication in past years.

The Serbian coach shed light on how the team is dealing with the language barrier and on his connection with Hansel “⁠BnTeT⁠” Ferdinand, with whom he previously worked in EXTREMUM as the analyst and assistant coach, as well as on TYLOO‘s plans for te second part of the season.

You had your time with EXTREMUM last year and then had quite a big break before you got back into action. Tell me about your exit from EXTREMUM, why do you think it went wrong?

I was the manager there and assistant coach, and… Well I just think it didn’t work out. We didn’t click together, or maybe the EU scene was too strong at the moment for us. I think all the players are amazing, but it just didn’t go well. After that, the management decided to shut down the project, and that’s it, we went our separate ways.

It took you a while before you landed in TYLOO. What were you doing in that time and what were you looking for in terms of offers?

I was coaching one Estonian team for like two weeks, I was a couple of times in some trial periods with some teams, but I just didn’t find myself comfortable in those teams and then I was just waiting for a good offer to come. When TYLOO contacted me, they asked me if I was interested, I said yes, of course, and everything happened so fast. In seven days or something, the contract was signed.

How much of a change has it been for you, joining an Asian team?

It’s a big change. When I came first, I only knew BnTeT because we were together in EXTREMUM. It’s a different culture, different people, you need to get to know each other well, to find an approach to them in-game and out of the game. The language barrier is also there (chuckles), but I think it starts getting into place the way everything is working right now, so we’ll see how it will be in the future.

I asked you about the language barrier as a potential obstacle when you first joined, and at the time you were optimistic about it. What’s the experience been like in reality?

I don’t know what to say, it’s not as bad as people probably have thoughts about it. They’re thinking that there’s very bad communication between us, but in the end, I don’t know, it works somehow. It’s half-Chinese and half-English, I already learned all the calls for the maps in Chinese and in English, so it’s working very well, and in times where it doesn’t work people just translate to them. I have a good connection with Hansel, BnTeT, so we just come to our things together and he just passes it to the others. Also, three of them understand English, two of them are maybe not that good, but we found our way it looks like (laughs).

What is the living situation like, have you been in Europe this entire time?

The whole time we were in Europe. We were at bootcamps in Kinguin in Warsaw, and after that we were in Relog in Belgrade, in Serbia. The plan is to be in Europe as much as possible and just to go back to play RMR events. The competition in Europe is on another level than in Asia, they can have good practice there, which is why they moved, and that’s why they hired me as a European coach.

You’ve been up and down in the past few weeks, being able to play teams like Movistar close but also suffering some tough losses like the elimination game to Illuminar back at the Conference. What has the team been missing from becoming more of a consistent threat?

First, I think we weren’t playing bad at all before the game against Illuminar. We had our mistakes, but Illuminar just came at a bad timing for us. We just travelled to Dubai and then back to Sweden, we didn’t practice a lot these days, and people were tired. It’s the end of the season, they’re away from home for five months or something. I think it was just an off day for everyone, we just couldn’t get a kill. But yeah, we’re not as consistent at the moment as I want us to be. I think we need to improve on some mistakes we’re making as a team and individual mistakes. I think there is space for everyone to improve a lot individually at the moment, and then consistency will come with time.

You’re still within a chance to make it to the next stage here in Cologne after your win against MIBR. How are you feeling about what you’ve shown so far and how much of a chance do you think you have when you go up against MOUZ later?

I think we have a chance. This is CS:GO, everything is possible, especially in the tier two, three scene, everything happens so fast. I see us having a very good chance against MOUZ, but we’ll see, we’re playing later today, everyone is hyped and ready to play, and we’re eager to win.

Is this the last event you have, and then it’s off to a break, same as everyone else?

Yeah, after this event there’s a break, players will go back to their homes to chill, and then after that we’re going to play qualifiers for the RMR, everything around the Major, and then we’re gonna come back to Europe again. I think I will need to spend a month in Asia or something like that because of these events and because of some restrictions in China and everything. So I think the next bootcamp will be in Asia, and after we do the bootcamp there and the RMR then we’ll come back to Europe again