Head Coach Daniel “papp” Hart gives his thoughts on the recent PGL EU RMR Open Qualifiers, the teams progression and ESL Conference.
From your perspective as Head Coach, how do you think the RMR open qualifiers went?
“On the whole, whilst we did not qualify into the closed RMR qualifier, I feel the team’s performance was very good, especially considering the limited time we have had together as a full team.”
“After making HLTV and beating Espionage who are a very good team, we are starting to see the level this roster has the capacity to play at, and glimpses of the team’s potential.”
Which player stood out to you in particular?
“I would say it is difficult to single out one singular specific player! We are a very team driven, so we try to see our performance as a team effort – we win and lose as a group for example.”
“If I was forced to give chose one player, I think considering his young age and the fact he is new to the team, I would pick Jan. He had some really impressive individual performances during the qualifiers, and will only continue to grow more comfortable as time continues.”
Now that the team have had more time to play together, what are you currently working on in practice sessions?
“All in all, we had two days of practice days together last week with the rest of the week allocated to the RMR qualifiers. As a team that is still in the very early stages of being built, we need to play as much as possible to really pinpoint the areas we need to improve on.”
“It is clear to see how the confidence and composure of the team improved day-by-day during the last week of qualifiers, but the reality is, with no off season to prepare, we are still learning whilst on the job.”
The ESL Conference round robin schedule has been released, with teams like Guild Eagles, Pera, and Sampi. How are you preparing the team? As there is not a huge turnaround between the events we are currently playing, right now we are focusing on team fundamentals and the way want to approach each map.
Rasmus and I will be watching matches back from the RMR qualifiers to assess where we feel we excelled, and perhaps areas we can improve on with the short amount of time we have before ESL Conference. We will also be paying close attention to our opponents within Conference to understand their style of play as much as we can with the time we have.
As I’ve previously mentioned, our team’s development will come with time. Once people get more settled, chemistry improves, and general performances improves, we will start to see more growth. Some of the players on this roster are playing more officials right now than they ever have done previously, while also facing much greater qualities of opponents.
The boys have a couple of days to rest and reset now the RMR qualifiers are finished before we come back again for ESL Pro League Conference. We will be looking to really cause some upsets and show the true level we can play. With this format, anything is possible!
