LAG Experative: "We didn't have any intentions [in making] a European roster"

Despite attending Fragadelphia x Block with Benjamin "niise" Mauldin, a last-minute stand-in for the German rifler Samet "SnacKZ1" Hosel, LAG made it all the way to the semifinals of the $10,000 tournament before BLUEJAYS put an end to their Cinderella run.

Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore managed to make a quick interview with LAG's Turkish IGL Deniz "Experative" Mutlum before they left the Fragadelphia x Block venue and asked him about their campaign, his comeback after a brief stint as manager, and the rumors of LAG planning to sign a European roster heading into 2025.

The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath.

You secured a top four finish here at Fragadelphia. How are you feeling about the team's result here at Frag?

Under the current circumstances, the result is kind of okay because we had to have a last-minute stand-in. We had to pick our stand-in niise on Thursday, [Editor's note: Fragadelphia x Block kicked off on Friday, February 28th] so we were not ever sure if we would find any player.

Then coming into this event, we had some unfortunate situations like SnacKZ1 [getting] stuck in Europe, he couldn't come to NA. We also didn't have any practice, so it was kind of a tough period. But, [making it into the] semifinals, we'll take it.

We did see you just return to LAG, having taken a break at the end of 2024 to become a manager. What made you decide to come back and take over again as IGL of LAG?

Actually, since we had an ECL invite, I wanted to take it. Also, having an amazing organization like LAG, we have really good and helpful owners like Siinz, JarBox, and Gundie. I have a really good organization behind me and they wanted me to keep playing, so I just wanted to have this opportunity and use it.

We did see at the end of 2024 that LAG were considering or planning to potentially go for a European roster with you, sehza, and SnacKZ1. But, ultimately they didn't go with a European roster. Why was that, and how did you ultimately form this current LAG roster?

Actually, we didn't have any intentions [in making] a European roster, it was just a one-tournament roster. We didn't have any negotiations or any meeting with those players. It was just to play one tournament, really.

So, we didn't have any intentions to go for a European roster, especially considering that we need to be in NA's VRS. We're just going to stick with the NA core.

With this new roster, you had something of a bumpy start in ESL Challenger League, I believe you're towards the bottom of the leaderboard right now. Do you think the team has time to recover and potentially make playoffs?

Yes, definitely. That's why we're still playing, I think we're going to make it a huge comeback and we're going to make it into the playoffs. Especially [because] we have a good schedule now, so in the next days we're going to have lots of practices, then scrims, and then do demo reviews. We still have lots of time and we have like three weeks until our first ECL match. [We'll] have lots of time to prepare.