neaLaN: "I liked [valen's] vision and the vision of the organization"

Recently, during his first event under the Seattle-based organization following his unexpected transfer from K23, Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov caught up with Milan "Striker" Švejda of HLTV.org. During their discussion, neaLaN gave some insight on the build-up to his surprise move, potential culture clashes, and his transition to calling in English.

In relation to the offer from Evil Geniuses, much in the same way as most of the community, it came as a shock to the 22-year-old. When it came to the reasoning behind the decision, he suggested that it was perhaps due to his time playing FPL and that word had reached the EG camp that he had good English. He also joked that perhaps they just had good data science, a nod toward Soham "valens" Chowdhury whom neaLaN mentioned was the one who reached out to him via email for a trial.

When talking about the team itself, he was candid and honest about the fact that despite having strong English, it was a struggle for the first few days and that he would need time to adjust. When discussing the dynamic of the team, he noted that their styles and how they want to approach the game were pretty different. Despite this, he also reassured that discussions were had during their bootcamp in Serbia and in his view, they are close to finding a solution.

You can read all of neaLaN's thoughts from the interview here.