Patsi: “For 17 years old it's an unreal experience for w0nderful”

IEM Cologne was a big test for the new Spirit squad, who were playing their debut with their newest player signing, Igor “⁠w0nderful⁠” Zhdanov, following Abdul “⁠degster⁠” Gasanov‘s surprising exit from the team in May.

The Russian-Ukrainian side made it to the top 12 in Germany, advancing through the Play-in stage and getting off to a good start with a hard-fought win over Liquid in the groups, before getting eliminated at the hands of FaZe and FURIA, with the Brazilians dealing them a tough blow as they came back from a map behind and a 7-13 deficit on the second map in the series.

HLTV.org got a hold of Patsi shortly after Spirit‘s were eliminated from the final tournament of the season to discuss the change of AWPers and how w0nderful performed in his first big LAN appearance.

The star rifler praised his new teammate and talked about how the balance of aggression has shifted in Spirit after they brought in a more passive AWPer compared to degster, and how much responsibility there is now on Patsi to create space, after he was by far the most involved player in opening duels out of everyone at IEM Cologne.

You can watch the full video interview with him above and check out more video content and other interviews from IEM Cologne with the likes of Mareks “⁠YEKINDAR⁠” Gaļinskis and Håvard “⁠rain⁠” Nygaard on our YouTube channel.

There is also a full transcript of the interview with Patsi available below:

You went out of the tournament in the top 12 – you must be disappointed?

I think it’s of course not the result we want, but we understand why it’s happened. It’s a new player, we are playing only for like two weeks before this tournament, and it’s all in the future. But anyway, we could win this match, the previous match, it was just [because of] no experience for us. I don’t know, a lot of rounds that we should take, but… unluko, happens, that’s it.

On Mirage against FURIA, it seemed like you had everything under control until it was 13-7 on the T side. What happened after that point?

I really don’t know because when I was in the game, it was like, we are still winning, it’s okay. But, after, I saw the score and we were losing already. I don’t know what happened, maybe we started to do bad calls a little bit and that’s it. I don’t know.

You mentioned that it’s your first event with w0nderful, a new AWPer coming in. What is your impression of him and how he performed at his first big LAN with you guys?

Of course, for 17 years old it’s an unreal experience for w0nderful. He played good for his years and his first LAN, after a break from official games like half a year, or three months, I don’t remember. Of course, he played well for it, but he still needs to play more and take experience from all matches.

How different is he to degster and how you’re playing with him?

degster is a more aggressive AWPer and w0nderful is more passive, but it’s good, anyway, because in our game and our structure it’s a really good AWPer for us, and we still understand that we can go through the tournament and try to show our best with him.

I wanted to talk about the structure and your position in it. We’ve seen you get even more aggressive compared to for example the Major, so I wanted to ask about your philosophy behind that, whether the team’s or yours, personally. What makes you that aggressive? Does it also have to do with degster missing and not having as many opening kills?

Yeah, of course, we have a more passive w0nderful, and now I should play more aggressive sometimes. Of course, not all the time, but in some of the rounds I call for myself and I’m doing some stuff, and call that someone needs to flash me or something. When degster was playing with us, he was calling for this too, and it was for two of us, and now I’m the only aggressive player. Sometimes, of course, w0nderful can peek when he wants to, but he’s more passive than degster.

Is it something that you talked about before you made the change, or while you were making the change, that it was going to be up to you to be more responsible for creating space and openings?

Maybe, yes. I think in our game it’s very good when we have a passive AWPer. He can play clutches with the AWP because the AWP in clutches is the best gun that you can play with, it’s one bullet, one kill, that’s it. And when you have a player like me it’s not good when your AWPer is super aggressive as well.

Now that you’re heading into the break, what’s the plan for the future?

Of course, first of all, we need to take this break and chill a bit before the new season. After, of course, play more and more and more to prepare for the next tournaments.

You had to relocate and stay in Serbia for quite a long time. What has this experience been like, having to move your life away?

It’s a really hard part of our lives. When you’re moving and trying to play a lot like we’re playing you don’t have time for other things, you know? You need to buy stuff for your new home and something like that, and you still need to play like 12 or 10 hours per day. Of course it was very hard for us, but now I think it’ll be good for us and after the break we’ll play normally.