Person with a beast deep inside that needs to be taught its place, and this beast can either become...
Sometimes gets stubborn and it's hard to find a common language with him.
We have... Uhm...
We could've missed our flight from Amsterdam. Just before the departure, when the gate was open, the guys decided to...
I thought they had it under control and understood where they were going...
I have nothing more to add.
Like most people, I started going to PC cafes in my youth, I enjoyed playing.
Later I even opened my own PC cafe for that purpose, that cafe operated for a while,
after that I started organizing events and tournaments in esports, I learned the industry from both sides.
Then, in 2013, Sasha Kokhanovskyy invited me to Na'Vi, so I'm here with the team now.
My work in Na'Vi can be divided into two groups: administrative and, so to say, my job as a psychologist, or a mentor.
There are too many administrative tasks, I won't tell about all of them, there is paper work, correspondence, and others.
My job as a mentor isn't an easy one as well, I can't describe it in two words.
I try to make players' conditions and preparations for the tournaments comfortable, so they can become a team.
I don't have a special education, I'm self-taught, I read books and visit seminars, also I use my own experience in sports.
The methods are rather simple, we take everything that helps us, and remove everything that hinders us, we move towards our goal.
A good team is people, who got together with a common goals, dreams, attitude.
They didn't get together without a reason, I believe that things attract similar things.
When the guys gather, they have a common goal from the beginning.
This goal is a base, then attitude starts to matter, how they build their relations.
The good team is a team that can build those relations well at some point in time.
Our daily routine has two stages: preparation for the tournaments, and tournaments themselves.
The stage of preparation is rather simple, we play either from home or from bootcamp.
During the bootcamp, for example, we wake up at a certain time,
we gather as a team, then we start out training process, with food breaks.
Our training process has a few stages: theoretical, aim, tactical, and others, like watching demos.
In addition, we have psychological trainings, we have them from time to time to improve players' conditions.
We have some free time in the evening, we can play something, spend our time together, or spend it separately.
Then we go to sleep, that's our schedule on average, probably it's the same when we play from home.
During a tournament, things are much harder, we are tied to the tournament's schedule.
We can play in the morning, or in the evening, we try to figure things out in advance to prepare ourselves,
to sleep well before the game, so we don't play the game after 3 hours of sleep, for example.
Or the other way around, if we have a game in the evening, it doesn't make sense to wake up early,
the guys might get sleepy before the game, we don't want to use energy and caffeine drinks.
So we act according to the schedule, but we also have a team gathering, practice time,
free time, which we try to spend together as much as we can, and we move forward.
If we win the tournament, we go home, if we drop out earlier, we have a lighter schedule.
Vanya has a big heart, he is very versatile, goal-oriented, very organized and kind.
Next is Denis, he is also very goal-oriented, focused, it even hinders him sometimes,
he pays too much attention to his goals, he wants to achieve the result faster than possible.
Egor is very flexible, soft as water, adaptive, it's comfortable to work with him,
sometimes he is stubborn, and it's hard to find a common language, but he comes to senses quickly.
He adopts everything quickly, he is probably one of the easiest players to work with, given the right attitude.
Ladislav - confident, calm, goal-oriented, cheerful and generous.
Sanya is the most extraordinary person in our team.
I haven't seen all of his sides yet, but what I see now is that he's progressing rapidly.
He's gifted, goal-oriented, extraordinary and talented guy with a beast deep inside that needs to be taught its place.
This beast can either become a friend and a helper in life, or lead him to the wrong path.
It's up to Sasha which one it will be.
He's probably one of the most talented CS:GO players I've ever worked with.
There's a saying that my dad used to tell me: Order frees thought.
What is order?
It's an order in your head, in everything around you, proper prioritization and so on.
In other words, it is a discipline in everything you do.
The clearer and simpler the discipline is, the more focused and committed the player becomes.
He spends time more effectively, that's it.
Order in all things begins with the discipline, self-discipline, and I think we are currently managing it well.
We've had a lot of funny moments, it's hard to pick one.
Well, off the top of my head, a funny thing happened on the way to the Major,
we could've missed our flight from Amstertdam to Atlanta.
Just right before the departure, when the gate was open,
the guys decided to go grab a bite, as if they still had one hour before the flight.
They went looking for a place to eat, I thought they had it under control and understood where they were going.
On a big plane, boarding can take a while, about 30 minutes.
That's probably the logic they used.
However, as it turned out, the plane was half empty and boarding was really quick, so the staff started calling us to board the plane.
They're calling our names over the speaker, three times, then the final call, but the guys are not coming.
Then the staff told me they are closing the gate, either we go in or we'll miss the flight.
So I went looking for them, I ran about 500 meters before I spotted them.
They waddle towards me, drinking cocktails, looking around, cracking jokes, not realizing that we can miss the flight.
I start yelling at them, they didn't realize right away what was happening.
Because I didn't actually run up to them and tell them what was going on,
I started shouting from a distance, when they were like 30 meters away from me.
Everybody looks at me, I realize it's a public place, but there was no other way.
I didn't explain anything to them, I yelled, "Faster!", turned and ran back.
Then I see they're trying to comprehend what's going on, thinking maybe it was some kind of joke.
Then they start running, made it to the gate, all out of breath, finally realized what it was about.
Well, it was kinda both funny and instructive.
I've visited a lot of places thanks to my job, which I'm very grateful for.
I'll probably pick three cities that I liked the most.
Paris, New York and Shanghai left the biggest impression.
This is the best, the friendliest, the warmest and the cleanest city on earth.
Big city with wide streets and great people.
I was born and grew up in Minsk.
Probably there is nothing more to add, it's a great city.
I spend free time with my family, friends.
I try to develop myself, I attend various trainings and seminars whenever possible,
I read books, listen to music, watch movies and stuff like that.
Esports is a young industry that has yet to establish certain rules and regulations.
And we ourselves don't fully understand what's effective and what's not.
In essence, those who are involved in esports today they all are laying the future foundation.
They're building a certain system that will be used later and will get optimized in the process, we adapt all the time.
But I think the current amount of staff we have at this moment is optimal.
Plus, it is probably important to have a full-time psychologist.
Assuming I'm just a manager - having a real psychologist is essenitial, and it should be a sports psychologist.
Perhaps a massage therapist would be nice as well, or maybe one person who can combine both jobs.
Someone who can relieve the tension by talking or massaging the players.
Because there's a lot of stress and pressure in our industry.
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