neaLaN: "I'm happy to be in this organization and I'll do anything to win the trophies"

Right after the loss against MOUZ that put Evil Geniuses 1-1 in the Challengers Stage of the IEM Rio Major, our own Ryan Friend caught up with Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov, the young IGL from EG. The two discussed neaLaN's time with the org, the first two games of the major, and what can come next for the North American squad.

Tough loss, but there were a lot of bright spots coming out of that game. You are now 1-1 on the day, how do you feel coming out of today, knowing that you are in this decent position?

This day was a bit hard because our first match against IHC was pretty spicy, I would say. We were losing 7-0 but we won that game anyways. Against MOUZ that was a hard start, I don't know why, we will rewatch the game and we will find an answer. I'm not happy, because I wanted 2-0 of course, but anyways we will try to qualify to the Legends Stage and we'll keep going forward.

What are you thinking about what's going on when you are having those kinds of slow starts?

I don't know right now because I need to rewatch the games and just remember some communication, but I don't know actually. I can not answer right now.

Speaking of communication, coming to an American team how has that communication gone and how is it different from your previous teams?

At the start it was really hard for me to communicate in English. I was always communicating in Russian English, so the first month was really hard for me but right now I'm pretty normal and I don't have any problems communicating with the team or in the game.

In terms of the Americans, we are known for saying a lot of information very rapidly. Has that been a challenge within this team? Sorting out when to talk, when not to talk, things like that?

I came from tier 2, tier 3 and this is tier 1 so I need to adapt and make some stuff. The more experienced people in the team are more professional, they know what they need to do, how they need to upgrade themselves and grow up. This is more professional, of course I like it.

How has it been with an organization like Evil Geniuses? They are one of the biggest, they have put all these resources, all the money. Has that helped you elevate your own skill?

Yeah, I'm actually really happy I'm with EG because it's an insane organization. I'm just happy being here, I'm happy to play with the guys, I'm happy to be in this organization and I'll do anything to win the trophies.

HexT is one of the younger players, how has he impressed you?

I was working with a lot of young talents and HexT is also a young talent, but he needs more experience, he needs to play more games, he needs to learn and learn and learn. I'm actually impressed with him, he's playing really good. He is in tier 1 for two or three months, so he's good.

We can hear the crowds as we speak. What is it like playing in front of this Brazilian crowd? I know they weren't as loud as they were with the Brazilian teams but certainly are different from any other crowds you have seen.

It's actually insane to play in front of the crowd, especially playing in front of the Brazilian crowd. It's really amazing. I didn't feel any pressure, it's only giving me more power when I see the crowd.

Being 1-1 you will have to play another BO1 tomorrow and then you are going to start into your BO3s. Who are you most looking forward to trying to play against in the BO1, to get you to that qualification stage?

I don't know. I don't know who we are going to play against and I actually don't care, because if you want to lift the trophies you have to beat everyone and this is a Major, this is all the best teams in the world, so we need to beat everyone.

Do you think now that Evil Geniuses is one of the teams that can really beat everyone here?

We will see. We are still a rookie team, I would say, because we didn't have a lot of time to play together and practice, but we are just gonna push ourselves as hard as we can and show the best result.

Evil Geniuses' next game is at 10:00AM against 9z. This is the last BO1 for both teams, as the elimination and qualification games start later today for the 2-0 and 0-2 teams.