Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of ‘MewMents with Catslayer’. It has been quite some time since the last episode, but this time around there is someone all the way from Serbia that I got in touch with recently.
Just before the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, I caught up with Nestor ‘LETN1’ Tanic from CR4ZY. We had a quick chat about the team's performance in the Minor leading up to Berlin, a few things about CS:GO and a bit about the ongoing Major as well. Read on and enjoy!
Q. How does it feel qualifying for the Berlin Major?
LETN1: The feeling is just awesome, I guess we all worked hard for this and it's like achieving my personal goals and fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Q. What was going through your mind after losing to North in the semifinals of the playoffs?
LETN1: Ah, we were all just sad because we didn't play our best game. We knew if we meet them again that we would put up a much better performance.
Q. Being so dominant throughout the group stage what went wrong in that match-up?
LETN1: I think it was just not our day, guess every team has their good and bad days.
Q. Dropping down to the lower bracket was their nervousness in the team? How did you as an IGL keep the team calm and motivated?
LETN1: Well, there wasn't any nervousness in the team even after dropping down to the lower bracket, we took it as a wakeup call for us, we realized that if we don't show up now it will all be over, we would be out of the tournament.
Q. Finally getting your very own stickers must be a great moment for you.
LETN1: Yes, it's a really great feeling because it is proof that your place is among the best.
Q. Taking a peek at your history, you have always moved around from one team to the other only when the roster was acquired by a different organization. Why was that so?
LETN1: If you look at my history you can see that I have mostly played with the same people in the past. I played with Luka ‘emi’ Vukovic and Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovac for a couple of years, after which I also went ahead to play with Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isakovic. Moving to CR4ZY, the only new teammates with whom I was playing for the first time were Rokas ‘espiranto’ Milasauskas and Otto ‘ottoNd’ Sihvo, but having spent time with each other we are all now one happy family.
I moved from Binary Dragons to Valiance, which was the only time that I changed an organization. Valiance was then rebranded as CR4ZY while the line-up remained unchanged.
Q. Were there no offers from other teams or is it some principle that you follow?
LETN1: Yes, there were offers from other teams of course, for other players and also for me. Some organizations even offered to take the whole team, but we all stayed together, kept practising, and believed in our dreams.
Q. What are your expectations going into the Berlin Major?
LETN1: Well, expectations are always high, we are aiming for the legends stage or more.
Q. What according to you are the strongest and weakest aspects of your team?
LETN1: Well, the strongest aspect is definitely our individual skills along with the chemistry between the team, while the weakest according to me would be that sometimes we are overconfident, which leads to a lot of mistakes in the game.
Q. CR4ZY qualified for the Major through one of the toughest Minor Championship. What are your thoughts on that? Were you guys always confident on making it to Berlin?
LETN1: Well, we entered the Minor Championship with a goal to qualify for the Berlin Major, and we achieved it. Of course, it was a hard road through the qualifiers but we were pretty much confident all the way through.
Q. How has the team grown since you started leading them in-game? What are some things that the team has improved?
LETN1: For starters, I am not the IGL anymore, since the past four months the IGL role has been taken up by Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isakovic and under his guidance the has grown a lot. Some aspects on which I would say we have improved is teamwork and tactics, our coach emi is the best guy when it comes to devising strategies.
Q. How are you utilising the ‘Player Break’? All practice or taking a break from CS?
LETN1: It depends on the individual player. Some prefer not to take a break from CS but for me, I feel better after a small break, after a reset and a cleared mind, I come back stronger for the grind.
Q. What is the current schedule of the team like? Are you feeling positive coming out of a break straight into a Major?
LETN1: We are currently playing the Berlin Major 2019 and after that, we go on to play at the Arctic Invitational and few more events in a very short period, so our schedule is quite stacked at the moment. Yes, we are feeling positive, the team started practising 2-3 weeks ago and we also had a ten-day bootcamp, so it shouldn't be a problem for us.
After an intense conversation, we laid back a bit as I started asking him a few off-topic questions.
Q. If not a professional counter-strike player. What profession would you have taken up?
LETN1: I would be a professional fighter or an economist.
Q. Your dream roster that you would like to captain.
LETN1: There are no specific five players that I have in mind. I like everyone in my team but I would add my old teammate Niko to the lineup for sure and would like to play with a full Serbian roster on the highest level.
Q. If given a choice to pick any 3 knife skins what would they be?
LETN1: Butterfly Doppler, Karambit Gamma Doppler, and M9 Bayonet Lore.
Q. Your favourite quote? Any saying that you live by or which motivates you?
LETN1: Well, I don't actually have any favourite quotes but there are a lot of positive thoughts that I give myself every day, to feel motivated. I always like to prove a lot, so if people doubt me and tell me that I can't do something, then it always makes me work even harder to achieve it and prove the person wrong. That’s how I am here right now I guess! I am always trying to keep the focus on myself and grow in every field of life. I try to be better every day, that’s the thing I live by.
To finish off with the interview we played a rapid-fire,
Mountains or Beaches
Beaches
Hip-Hop or Rock
Both (Also Pop even more than the two)
Pizza or Burger
Burger
RedBull or Monster
RedBull
AMD or Intel
Intel (letni :D)
Surfing or Skating
Surfing
Dog or Cat
Dog (I have both and love cats as well. If you gave me a choice between animals and people, I would choose animals.)
Summer or Winter
Summer (Also Autumn)
Sandal or Shoes
Shoes (Sneaker)
Muffins or Pastries
Muffins
With this, we came to the end of our conversation. CR4ZY are doing quite well in the Berlin Major 2019 till now, as they stand fifth on the points table. It was great talking to LETN1. Let’s see if he is able to “reach the Legends stage or more”.
That is all for now until next time this is Catslayer sighing off!
Check out the previous editions of 'MewMents with Catslayer' below.
1-Cove Esports | 2-TNC Pro Team | 3-Team FrostFire | 4-Giang Rambutan | 5-BOOT-d[S] | 6-DickStacy | 7-Global eSports | 8-MVP PK | 9-Intel Corporation | 10-Francisco 'Escudo' Mascarenhas
