kyxsan: "If [degster] doesn't get his visa it makes no sense having him on the team"

The arrival of degster on HEROIC was met with a lot of excitement but visa issues have so far prevented the AWPer from having any real impact on his new team.

With HEROIC now playing their second successive event with a stand-in, questions are starting to be asked as to whether the team would be better off just finding a more permanent solution to their problem.

Following on from their opening loss at IEM Cologne to MIBR, we caught up with HEROIC IGL kyxsan to discuss degster’s continued absence, playing with Woro2k, and whether being more relaxed at events now may help them later on in the season.

degster could be here tomorrow and play the next game

Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski

The difficult circumstances for HEROIC at the moment go without saying, but how are you feeling after the opening game?

It's obviously disappointing, even if we are playing with a stand-in we expect to beat teams like MIBR. They played great, but we can do much better in games like this.

Were you surprised about MIBR's level?

Yeah, they played well, but the veto did go a little bit differently than how we expected it to. I don't think it mattered too much because either way we had a stand-in and didn't have too much time to practice, but they played well.

Where did using Woro2k as the stand-in come from? It was maybe an unexpected name for you to go for.

We expected everything to be fine with degster but when we saw that there were still some problems we had to add a stand-in and did so at the last moment, thankfully we have Woro2k so we actually have an AWPer now.

There weren't too many options, there aren't too many available AWPers who don't have a team right now, so, in our opinion it was the best option.

READ MORE: Woro2k Exclusive: "I’ve hungered for official games, I miss this drive"

Playing without degster is difficult regardless, but how is it for you in particular as the in-game leader when you're trying to build a system and incorporate him and keep having to use stand-ins?

It's hard, we need to change a lot of things and we've known Woro2k for only a few days so we can try to help him with the starts but there's just not much time. It's much harder for me and the whole team.

What's the situation with degster? Is he getting his visa and it's just a matter of time or is there the possibility it doesn't happen?

We don't know, he was supposed to get it ten days ago but it didn't happen. He might get it at any moment and he could be here for the next game. It's open, we just don't know.

Is there going to be a point where you have to look for a permanent solution if he doesn't get the visa?

Yeah, it all depends on that. If he gets rejected and he can't travel then it makes no sense to have him in the team.

Would that be a big loss to the team? How much would you struggle to find an equivalent player?

It will be sad for us because degster is an amazing AWPer, we've played with him for a few months and I'm happy he's on the team. Most other AWPers that are available are not better than him, so it would be a big loss.

When you're having to use stand-ins how does that change how you look at the events when they begin? Do you need to lower your expectations from the start?

We try not to think too much about the results, but when we play with stand-ins it's a bit more relaxed because we're just trying to enjoy the game more and not take it too seriously. In that aspect, we have less pressure.

READ MORE: JDC: "We have to show a level of BIG that has never been shown before"

You're going to come into the events and do as well as you can anyway, but with how long the seasons are and with the amount of travelling do you think having these more relaxed events now might help you towards the end of the year especially with the Major now being the last event?

Yeah, I think that the tournaments towards the end of the year are more important. Obviously, Cologne is very important, but the Major is very important for us and the tournaments towards the end of the year will decide the points for the next year, so they're very important. The focus should be on the end of the year.

How do you look to bounce back tomorrow?

There's not much to do now, we can only watch back our game and find our mistakes to try to fix them for tomorrow.