We sat down with the champions of DreamHack Delhi CSGO Invitational 2019, pro100 after their 2-0 win over HellRaisers in the Grand Finals.
TE: You guys predicted right in terms of semi-final opponents and the final against HellRaisers, you guys couldn’t have written the script better. A comeback on Mirage and staving off a comeback on Train to win your first BIG LAN event with this roster. How good does it feel?
YEKINDAR: It feels really good. It always feels good to win, but especially to win against HellRaisers, who are also a CIS team, but also because of everything with Flarich leaving us for them.
pipsoN: It feels especially good as the comeback on the first map showed our mental fortitude and character as a team. They almost managed to come back on Train but we finally edged it.
TE: You mentioned your comeback on Mirage. The tactical timeouts you took were one of the things we noticed that were a feature in your comeback on the map. What did you see and address during that period?
pipsoN: Earlier during the CT side, we were trying to take mid control because they focus heavily on mid. Then on the T side, it was tough because they were holding on to their defence well. But, we were regularly doing good damage, keeping their economy in check so that we are not out of the game. We talked mostly about playing more aggressively.
TE: It almost looked like HellRaisers were going to get the win before you went ballistic individually. What were you thinking that sparked you into that fiery individual on the server?
YEKINDAR: I remember mousesports came back against Astralis from a similar scoreline 3 days ago. On teamspeak, I was like, ‘guys, do you want to come back like mousesports?’ In my head, I knew I wasn’t playing like I had played throughout the event so far and I wanted to win, be the best player at DreamHack Delhi and take the W.
TE: Talking about Train, you were dominant from the start, ending the half 12-3. But, they seemed to be mounting a comeback before you guys pulled it back to end the series. What adjustments did you guys make in your strategy or game to stop HellRaisers on Train?
YEKINDAR: On the T side everything was working. We knew how to play against them because they don’t know how to play Train. They played poorly as CT. But, on their T side, it was tough for us to get the economy going. We switched our play styles and played a bit withdrawn and managed to get the necessary rounds.
pipsoN: When we were CT, they were focusing heavily on popdrop, using the MSL double-jump and utilising almost all of their utilities to clear the area and pick off dimasick. On our first pause, we decided to leave popdrop and let dimasick cover middle because they were playing very passive around that area. Then they punished us there as well. But, after that, WorldEdit told us to forget playing at those areas and just take withdrawn positions around the site and that he will cover the guys with his AWP and not let anyone cross over to the site. YEKINDAR took the second AWP and helped WorldEdit in covering the players on the site, which started to work for us.
TE: What does the schedule look like for the next coming weeks for pro100?
YEKINDAR: We are going to go bootcamp from here for 4-5 days and then we are travelling to Romania for QI Banja Luka 2019.
TE: Anything you would like to say to your fans in India and around the world?
YEKINDAR: I would like to thank all the guys that came here, supported us and were happy that we won. During that Mirage comeback, I was like ‘pro100, pro100’ and the crowd actually followed. It was nice to see. I actually liked that. Thank you for your belief in us.
pipsoN: Indian people were very kind to us. They always cheered us on and as you saw, on Mirage, YEKINDAR was so hyped thanks to the support of the crowd. Hopefully, we get to come back to India, if and when there is another tournament.
