FNS: "The best way to increase my stock... is to just earn it through MDL"
After defeating Rugratz in the Group A elimination match of the ESEA MDL Season 32 Global Challenge, we sat down with Pujan "FNS" Mehta to talk about their promotion match against INTZ, his time since eUnited, and the current roster of Riot Squad.
Beginning with yesterday, you've had some time to reflect on that game. On Train, you were up 15-11, what do you think happened at the end of that game to let it slip away?
A lot of people would probably think that we let our foot off the gas or we thought we already won, but that wasn't the case, we were still into it, we knew it wasn't over because those guys are fighters, obviously. At 15-11, I think one of us took a tactical pause, I can't really remember, I think they might've, and we knew they had low money, but we also didn't know that they had an AWP. When we got off that pause, we basically went into it knowing it was going to be a hard round regardless, but we played it way too scared, essentially. So we played that round really scared and got picked off one by one, and didn't really know what to do. And that's my fault as well for not making a concrete call, so everyone got picked off one by one. That made it 15-12.
We rewatched the game, and we saw all the mistakes we made. On those next three rounds, we literally had two after plants at inner where we planted the bomb, had four people alive, it was a 4v4, and we just did not get the kills, and just lost that way. It was really unfortunate - it was really cool that they were able to win, from their perspective it's awesome, but it hurt us a lot because they messed up our money for the last round. We were getting bomb down and stuff, but still it was really hard to win and we couldn't get after plants going at all, we just couldn't win them. We had two in a row where we just lost, and I don't remember what the 15th round strat was, but basically they just accumulated money over that time and just won the retakes.
I noticed both in that series, and in this game you just finished here against Rugratz, that you guys were losing to force buys a lot. What do you think was going on there?
Being lazy with utility, and kind of also being caught off-guard at the same time, which doesn't really happen that much online. I don't think nerves had anything to do with it, it was just overconfidence in those rounds, which led to overpeeking and then peeking without flashes. When you're going to peek top players like these without flashes on LAN, where players like yel, all these guys on INTZ have so much experience, they're going to hit those shots. And that's exactly what they did, they capitalized, got the entries, and then we fell apart when they had the man up advantage because their players on the extremities made a play, got the next kill, got the next kill. We haven't gotten that concept of anti-ecos grasped yet, where we shouldn't be lazy, but I think this event in general has taught us a big lesson on that.
Obviously you lost to Spirit earlier today, and you're going to be playing them again. What is the gameplan going into the decider match?
We tried to anti-strat them too much in the initial game. We looked back and said, if we just played our normal game, we probably would've gotten a lot more rounds, at least on the CT side. Realistically, they just destroyed us, and didn't give us any momentum to play off of, and we didn't adapt that well either, we were just trying to anti-strat too much, and I think this time around it will be a little bit different just because we'll play our own game.
So hopefully our own game will be able to beat them, because we are good when we are able to play our A game, we're probably better than a lot of the NA teams, but we rarely are able to play our A game, that's the problem, especially on LAN. Right now we're just playing our C game, and it just sucks so much because I know all these players individually on my team, including myself, we're capable of much more, but we just fall apart at the worst times - and it's a different person in different rounds. It's not one person's fault entirely, it's just overall we come with a good gameplan, but I think versus Spirit specifically, we just anti-stratted them too much. Coming into this game, hopefully we don't do that.
On the roster side of things, around the time you joined the team was when they got weber. I don't know if you were involved in the process of adding him, but how did that come about and what does he do for you and the team?
I think he was just an analyst when I joined, and then he became a coach through recommendations, I asked people around, but I also talked to him individually. He does a lot of the hard work for us, he watches the demos, makes sure that - I basically told him what I want from him, and he's able to provide that in a really organized manner.
He kinda just helps me in that way, whether it be strats on the other team, or just what strats can we run versus the other team that we already have in our arsenal that will work really well vs them, or what player can we abuse, stuff like that. He's really good with tendencies, so he brings that analyst side to the table. I think as a coach, he's very reserved, and I think that's his downfall a little bit, he's not able to yell or scream at people, he's not able to cut down on players' mistakes, he's not able to criticize that well, or with a loud enough voice. He is just a very soft spoken human being, so I think if I were to criticize him, the one thing I would say is he just needs to be a bit more assertive, but outside of that, as a coach, especially a rookie coach, I think he's doing a really good job.
Moving on to you personally, there was the time after eUnited where you were teamless, playing for different teams, notably with Lazarus for the Minor and all. During this time, did you have any plans, or what was the deal there?
I knew that I had to regain my own stock, I had to increase my stock a little bit more and play again. After eUnited, things just did not go well there at all for me individually as a caller, as a player, and it just looked bad. I had tons of offers, and I chose eUnited, and in my opinion that was definitely the wrong offer to choose just because I didn't know the problems we were going to run into at the time. I'm still grateful for the opportunity and all that and at the same time, I would never take it back because I think I learned a lot. Overall, that was just a mistake in my opinion, going that route, and I made an instant decision to join a team like eUnited. That didn't work out. I also didn't play well at all on that team, so I'm not trying to blame other people it's definitely my fault.
Before joining another team I had to make sure that I was good enough to play. I felt like I was slumping really hard on eUnited, so when I left I was like I don't really know if I want to play still, I don't know what I want to do, I definitely don't want to coach, I still have the passion to play. So I took a little bit of time off, and then I played with Lazarus, and that's where I regained my confidence, because I was like damn, we just made the Minor with a pug. We beat Envy, we beat Luminosity, to make the Minor. It was pretty impressive considering we were just a pug, so I was like I can still play. That helped me a lot, and I tried to join Lazarus, but that didn't work out at all because the organization just didn't want to do it.
That led to basically where I am now, where I was like the best way to increase my stock and potentially make Pro League is to just earn it through MDL, and it sucks that we weren't able to do it yesterday, because I think it was just ripped out of our fingers. But I definitely think both us and INTZ deserve a spot in Pro League, so hopefully we are able to do well in Relegation.
When I talked to ptr, I believe he told me crashies was the first one to reach out to you for this team. How did you end up deciding on this versus some other team around the same level?
Truthfully, I think it came down to the fact that I knew Pete. I knew that everyone on this team was also pretty talented and I knew that they needed a caller and just needed an extra push. I also have a lot of faith in crashies specifically. I think that guy is going to do pretty impressive things in the future, whether it be with our team or another team. That was really cool to see with him growing as a player. Also with Pete, I've had problems with Pete in the past, with compLexity, with CLG. We replaced him on CLG for a lot of issues that he - he's now a lot more reserved, he doesn't have those issues any more, so it's fun playing with him again.
It mainly came down to the fact that I knew Pete, we had a long heart to heart talk, figured out where we were gonna find common ground, and that we're just different people that are going to handle things differently. Obviously we've run into a lot of problems on this team as well, but that was basically my decision as to why I joined - I knew Pete, I had a lot of faith in crashies from watching him in FPL, and when we picked up Jonji I was like damn we need a player that is aggressive, where people can't predict what he will do, and he's doing a really good job himself. Then mitch is that solid player for us. When I saw a lineup like that I was like, in terms of first glance, the lineup looks really good.
You've kind of already answered this but, you've played with so many players over the years, what are your thoughts on the three younger guys in the team?
Yeah, it comes down to mitch, Jonji, and crashies. crashies like I said probably has the brightest future in my opinion, not trying to pick favorites, I just genuinely see a lot of talent in him, I think he's gonna end up on one of the top two or three NA teams at some point. As far as Jonji is concerned, Jon has slight problems with too much overaggression, so I think if he can tone that down a little bit and just start thinking, and having more composure in the mid round, as opposed to just knowing exactly what you did at the beginning. I think he will have a lot of success in the future with this team or another team. I think Jonji and crashies will be the most sought after players on our team, and mitch will always be mitch.
I think if mitch put more time into the game, and I tell him this all the time, he'd be an incredible player. Even with the least amount of hours played, out of anyone I've played with, mitch plays the least and has the most insane mechanics, a lot of good movement, really good game sense, clutches almost every round I see him in, like he's really good. If he can get his hours up, and he really wants it, I think he can join a top team as well, but like I said I think we as a team, with this five, can make Pro League, I genuinely believe that, it's not just something I'm saying. If we're able to do it, it'd be really cool to just stay together with the team and do a good job and make it into Pro League.
Speaking of Pro League, Relegation is going to be coming up at some point in the near future. Considering C9 is kind of dead, they probably won't be playing in it, and then Complexity and Swole with their new lineups, so do you think you have a really good shot?
Honestly, because there are so many unknowns, I just have no clue. I wish I at least knew - I was telling the guys yesterday I just wish I knew who I was playing or who I could potentially play. This Cloud9 roster could potentially be ATK, the current ATK roster could just go there, so I have no clue what's gonna happen there, cause then ATK has a spot, then what? Honestly, it's just a matter of who we end up playing, if the bracket ends up being decent for us, where we're the stronger team, we'll win. If all these stronger teams come in, Complexity comes back from Europe and just dominates the Relegation, there's not going to be much we can do about it. We'll definitely do our best, but it kind of just depends on the draw. I have a lot of faith in the lineup, I have a lot of faith in our chemistry and what we've built so far, so overall I do have a lot of faith regardless of who we play, but it's really hard to just say cause there's so many unknowns.
All that's set up for the future other than EPL and Relegation is the IEM Katowice Qualifier in January, what else is coming up for the team, and what are the goals going into 2020?
That's all it is right? Just make Pro League, try to qualify for Katowice, which is going to be really hard because I think all the top teams in NA are in it, other than I think EG and Liquid. eUnited's in it, the new Gen.G lineup is in it, a couple other good teams are in it, so it's going to be really hard to qualify for Katowice, but that's our goal. Another goal is obviously the bigger one, to make Pro League. If we're able to make Pro League, that's a lot for the players, that's something we earned, playing a whole season of MDL, so it would suck not to make Pro League.
FNS and Riot Squad went on to win their rematch against Spirit, and now await Finnish side HAVU in the semifinals.
