maLeK interview: ''[JaCkz's] just needed some guidance, having a system. Now, he’s got it.''

The G2 coach maLeK spoke with GGRecon following the BLAST Premier win over OG to qualify for the Spring 2020 finals!

maLeK, congratulations! You guys just beat out OG. Qualifying for the Spring Finals already. Starting out 2020 with a guarantee big old major coming around the corner from this and of course Katowice as well. How are you feeling?

I’m feeling very very good. The team is practicing very hard, and the atmosphere is great. Everything we want to do just brings us here to play those events and having a shot of enjoying ourselves playing good CS. It’s starting to show. I’m confident for the year. That’s it. That’s very good.

maLeK, I wanted to ask about the veto very quickly which was that you guys ended up banning out Overpass as well which isn’t your usual ban. It’s actually a map that you guys have historically sometimes played as well. Was there any reason you ban that out against OG?

I think it’s all about the veto games. Sometimes you want to play specific maps so you bring them in. There’s so many tournaments week after week and it’s very nice to play around it. This is what we did here and next week might be different.

Well your map pool is incredibly impressive right now actually where you guys have revealed a lot of maps where you’re good on. Perhaps about some of which that people were surprised about as well including Vertigo, Nuke and whatnot. Historically, your players have been good but you look stunning. Was that something that was a big focus during the off-season actually getting that map pool strong again?

Definitely helping to our own many things. And to go more deeper into many protocols and checking out everything that didn’t work for us before. But, map pool is actually a thing since a year already. We are trying very hard to build that thing. Right now we chose but honestly since the seven guys arrived, we all are working very hard since day one to make it work.

The hard work is paying off. I wanted to ask a bit about the players before I move onto the game itself. Which is that JaCkz yesterday and today has been performing significantly better than what we normally see him play. I mean he’s a fantastic player anyway. But now his numbers are also increasing. Some of the players mentioned to me that he’s gotten a lot better at English and the communication is running a lot more smoothly in the team. Has his individual performance been up because of that or is it just roles being changed?

Roles are the thing. He is feeling very comfortable in the system we have here. All the things we ask from him are very clear. So it’s always helping in these scenarios. Also he is a guy have been playing semi professionally for maybe eight years and then from last year he’s been going to tier one events and now he can just have the experience helping him as well. He’s just crazy, and I think he will keep it up. It’s very encouraging for the future. He is very chill, always positive. His skills are amazing so he just needed some guidance, having a system. Now, he’s got it.

He’s looking stunning now as well, but I have to ask about the game now. In particular Nuke. Very interesting ideas we saw coming through from G2. You guys were completely okay with letting OG take control of the outside, go into lower. You said ‘no worries, it’s okay we’re going to take lobby instead’. Where does that come from? Where does that confidence come from and where does that confidence come in your players to say hey it’s okay let them go down, we’ll deal with it?

For us it’s just like everything we do we work very hard to make sure that in the hearts that whatever the decision we take we are 100 percent in it without any second thoughts, and it’s one of the main reasons. So we just decided to do it for tactical reasons, and we just stick to it and if it doesn’t work we are fine with that because we are deciding as a unit to do it. We do it, that’s it.  And after that we make better decisions in the future. So, this is what is behind it and I’m glad you can see it on the server. The guys are very chill. We just go for it and we see.

Second to last question is about the game that is going to be tomorrow. So, you will either have the chance to go up against EG or you might have a rematch against OG. Is there any particular team you would personally prefer going up against?

Now we have qualified and for the sake of preparation playing different teams play styles and everything I think it would be really great to play Evil Geniuses, because we can test ourselves, see different things. It’s very early in the year so many things to grind yet. So, for that sake as a coach I would say Evil Geniuses.

We’ve seen s1mple back on the AWP, we’ve seen zywOo looking stunning with the AWP last year and now kennyS is looking to have a big return in form. He’s looking great all weekend long. Is kenny going to be the number one AWPer in the world again?

Of course he will.

Image via BLAST.