Outsiders have made it through to the quarter-finals of ESL Pro League Season 16 after overcoming FURIA in their opening round match, ending a streak of three back-to-back losses to the Brazilian side.
FL1T says Outsiders are confident and fear no opponent right now
Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev had been a key component in Outsiders wins during the group stage, and his good form continued into the playoffs as he was the difference-maker on the latter two maps of the series to help his team over the line.
To get some insight into what is powering the 21-year-old’s current form and how the team have been faring since losing Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis, HLTV had a brief chat with FL1T, who was aided in translating some of his thoughts by teammate Alexey “Qikert” Golubev.
You just came off a win versus FURIA, it started a bit shaky with a loss on Ancient and then you bounced back on Vertigo and Inferno. Can you talk me through that, dropping your own map pick and then coming back in the end?
After Ancient, we just went outside, talked with the team. We’ve played against them two times and we know what they do on the map, so we just focused on that and did our strategy. It’s not hard. We were well prepared against them on all maps, but on the first it went really shaky.
What made you pick Ancient this time around? Two out of the last three times you played FURIA you banned it.
We’re playing on Ancient a lot. It’s one of our best maps, so we’re full confident on this map.
They played quite aggressive against you, what do you think went wrong?
They played aggressive not against us only, they played aggressive against all teams. It’s their playstyle, his playstyle. We know how they play because we play a lot against them, and we were ready.
If you were ready for it, what went wrong for you at the start?
It was about in-game, it was economy problems, it was some shit rounds. We lost more people than needed in some rounds, and that’s why we lost Ancient.
This is the first time you’ve beaten FURIA in almost eight months, how does it feel to make up for those Cologne and Roobet Cup losses?
We’re feeling good, it doesn’t matter against who we’re playing. Every team is good who came to playoffs. We play our game, our team is strong now, we will try to show our best game and try to do our maximum.
When you have an in-game leader like Jame, it gets much easier to set up your game
YEKINDAR has mentioned before about how smart Jame is, the last time we talked to n0rb3r7 he said the same thing as well. Can you try and go a little into detail about that sentiment, what is he actually bringing in game?
He’s smart because he loves this game. He’s that type of man you know? He’s smart not only inside the game, but also outside the game. He’s the type of person who works a lot and it helps a lot for the team, like when you have an in-game leader like him it gets much easier to set up your game, set up your strategies, and you are three steps forward during the matches when you play.
Has he helped you a lot in terms of your own performance? As we’ve seen here you’ve been playing exceptionally well, but has that been mostly you working on yourself or has Jame been a big part of that too?
Yeah of course. I’m working on myself, and Jame of course helps me a lot. We speak with him about our strategy, about our rounds, and he helps me in some microdetails. It’s our common work, all teammates help me and it’s about the team I think. Of course I’m practicing, but the team helps me a lot.
You lost YEKINDAR, but it seems like the team has bounced back a bit now. How much of a blow was it losing him, because it looks like you’re doing pretty okay without him right now?
YEKINDAR good player, but this is a game about the team anyway, you know? If you have five people who are believing in team, believing in every round, who is friendly, they can play good. You just need to believe. Good atmosphere, good vibes, and practice a lot.
You’re going to take on Vitality next, a team who looked in pretty good form during the group stage. How do you feel going into that match?
We’re feeling good, ready to play against every team. It doesn’t matter for us. It’s good experience for our team because we’re not playing too many tournaments like this, tier one tournaments, so we’ll try to show our best game.
We want to win as much as possible because we are not getting invites
As you said, you don’t play in too many tier one tournaments. You’re not a partner team in EPL, you had to come in through the Conference, so what are you hoping to achieve in playoffs here and the RMR after that? What’s the short term goal for the team right now?
We want to win every game, and match to match to stay focused every round. We want to win as much as possible because we are not getting invites, and these wins are pretty important for us because we are getting invitations to the next tournaments, so every game is important for us because we don’t have a second chance, we have to win a lot.