Janko “YNk” Paunovic is a legend in the Counter-Strike scene. One of the smartest guys around, he frequently spends his time delivering cutting criticism to underperforming teams at the top of the CS world — but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to praise those doing the right things.

Having also been the coach of teams such as MIBR and FaZe Clan, YNk can also offer a unique perspective about the make-up of teams, as well as the issues teams face internally and when looking to make roster changes.

With many top teams in attendance of CCT Global Final 2024, we sat down with YNk to discuss those teams and the issues that some of them, such as Liquid and ENCE, are currently facing, as well as the new found hope for Astralis and fnatic. 

“I don't think the [Liquid] changes are a lock yet”

Bo3: Liquid have been in the news recently because of the report that cadiaN may soon be benched - do you think it's odd that the team would look to go down this route considering that cadiaN is such a high-profile IGL and that it isn't easy to see who could replace him in the role?

YNk: I think it is a little bit weird that we hear things like that to begin with, but I also think people might be overreacting to it a little bit because it's also to do with people being unhappy, or whatever. 

It's to be expected that people would be unhappy considering their results, but the whole part him maybe micro-managing too much is a strange situation for me because I think cadiaN is mature enough to be able to adjust his style to a new team with different players, he doesn't seem to be the type of guy to say 'no, you guys are going to play how I want to play or I won't be the captain of the team.' 

Also, just in general, any IGL would prefer to not have to micro-manage all of his players or even the majority of his players, right? It takes more of his focus and energy if he has to do that, so if he has players who are good at self-sustaining themselves and take initiative on their own in rounds then it frees him up to focus on his game a little bit as well as making good reads and good calls, so that's the part that's weird to me.

As for Liquid as an organisation, if that's an issue then you should figure things like this out before the team is completed when you're still talking to everyone. But, it can be hard to know that issues like this will arise until you put all the players together and they start playing.

But, we'll see, they're doing better now, they just beat Astralis in a bo3 here at CCT. It might be online, but they've been playing better in this event than they have recently. Who is to say that they couldn't win CCT and then have a solid run in Dallas and then not make any changes? I don't think the changes are a lock yet.

Bo3: Do you think that when it comes down to cadiaN being potentially cut it could also have a financial aspect to it? The easy players to criticise are YEKINDAR and skullz, but they paid a lot of money for skullz and YEKINDAR is surely on a massive contract that they won't want to have sat on the bench, so do you think there would be that financial aspect?

YNk: It's always an aspect, even for the biggest of teams. It's something that you have to consider, but also the fact that Liquid are one of the biggest organisation means that their goal is to contend for trophies, so it's a bit hard to find the sweet spot when you don't want to bring in some cheap, younger talent who might come good just because you want to save money and then the player doesn't develop the way you need them to or if you spend more on a similar player, and they still don't.

When that happens, it's not like you can then just go out and get KSCERATO because even if you're looking to make a change like that, you can't just go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every time you want to make a change or even waste hundreds of thousands of dollars because that change didn't work out.

I think they learned that they can't really try and save money with the whole Rainwaker situation. They need to shell out if they want to create a fully competitive roster, and that's what they did with these players, now it's just about how they make it work and get it to function.

“[Astralis] have the ability to exceed what HEROIC achieved”

Bo3: Let's talk about Astralis - they've been a lot better since device took over as IGL, but how far do you think they are from being in true trophy contention? Do you think they can do so more consistently than the old HEROIC did because of the fragging differential between cadiaN and device?

YNk: I think they can, their ceiling is probably a little bit higher even when you look at the riflers as well. I really value Staehr a lot, and we'll see about br0, I think he's done a great job so far and surpassed the expectations that people have had for him. They make the individual skill floor really high, which was also the case for HEROIC, but I think with the skill of the players the ceiling might be a little bit higher, and it didn't have to be much higher for HEROIC, you know? They were right there as consistently the second-best team in the world, so I think in the long run They'll definitely have the ability to exceed what HEROIC achieved. 

Bo3: Eternal Fire reached the Major playoffs at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, a peak for both them and their nation in CS, do you see that achievement as being their actual peak or do you think they can go further than they currently have done?

YNk: I don't think they can go much higher, to be honest. The fact that they can only look at Turkish players to make changes in the roster or supplement the team really limits the talent pool, and once you look at some teams out there like Spirit, MOUZ, FaZe, and Vitality, even G2, the firepower and talent on those rosters is really sky high. The way you make up for that is with some teamplay and structure, they do have some decent structure but at some point when it comes to the big stage games it comes down to your players showing up and delivering and I'm not exactly sure that, even if they are really good with XANTARES and Wicadia being the standouts, that across the board they have enough to compete with the biggest names in the scene.

“I don't think the expectations are really high for GamerLegion anymore”

Bo3: GamerLegion has gone through a lot of changes recently, how much have the expectations for the team changed now that they have three very inexperienced players on their team?

YNk: I think it definitely lowers the expectations. For me, the changes are a combination of both surprising and disappointing because they ended up being at the Major again and it's their stickers that were there so they'll get revenue from that and they'll potentially get revenue from selling a couple of players, so then it's like 'couldn't you have gotten someone with a little bit more experience or a little bit more high profile?'

They went for three very new players, for sl3nd and aNdu it was pretty much their first-ever proper LAN event at Pro League and the same goes for FL4MUS at Chengdu with Nemiga. 

It's also a bit surprising because they've now changed three players so they no longer have the core to be automatically at the next RMR, so they'll have to go through at least the Closed Qualifier.

I don't think the expectations are really high for GamerLegion anymore, so it's now about developing these new players integrating them into the team and seeing how good they actually are and how high their ceiling can be. Maybe they'll earn their spots on the team or maybe they'll need to make some more changes down the road to really get into the top ten.

Bo3: Do you think this team has the potential to get to the top ten and get back to the point GamerLegion were at where they were always within a game or two of the playoffs at events?

YNk: I'm not sure with the changes they've made, but right before isak left they made the playoffs at Pro League, albeit a lot more teams make the playoffs there, but even that was surprising for such a new roster.

But I don't think with this particular lineup they'll be able to get back to a kinda top eight level. Look at the teams who, on paper, should be in front of them, you have MOUZ, Vitality, FaZe, Spirit, G2, Astralis, NAVI, Liquid, these are all teams that are out there, so to think that GamerLegion will be right up with those names isn't realistic. 

“[blameF is] a guy who can tip the scales in [fnatic’s] favour”

Bo3: The expectations for fnatic are surely changing now that they have signed blameF, but is that signing really enough for them to push on as a team?

YNk: I think it's definitely an upgrade. It's a bit surprising that they were able to land him, to be honest. fnatic definitely isn't the fnatic of old that was a contender team and always in the playoffs of the biggest events. 

They've been going for players like MATYS and kyuubii and even before that you could see how they were trying to find value in these tier two players, but it didn't really pan out for them the way they would've liked it to. I'm hoping this signals a bit of a shift in their approach that they're now going to be on the market for some of the bigger names and just field a roster that can be competitive.

No matter what sort of a structure you install and how efficient you are in your practice, at some point, the players have their ceiling and you can't really make up for that indefinitely.

We'll have to wait and see if they make any more changes and how far they can go with the addition of blameF, he was a top ten to twenty player in the world in the last couple of years, so he's definitely a guy that can tip the scales in their favour. 

Bo3: Another team that seems like they may make changes in the future is ENCE, what do you think their issues are?

YNk: I think it's just a weird composition of a team, there's four Polish players, a Polish coach, and then gla1ve, a Danish IGL.

I'm not really sure where the ceiling is for these Polish players. dycha has been around the tier one scene for a while with ENCE, but he's become a little notorious for going missing in some of the big games. In this lineup there was a bit of a role issue initially but I don't think that's going to change too much.

The same can be said for hades, he has flashes here and there but I can't really say he's consistently a top ten AWPer. It might even be that the highest ceiling could be with Kylar or Goofy, but I don't know if the sample size is big enough for us to be able to say that yet.

I think it's strange. ENCE was a top-two team towards the end of CS:GO and they probably got a good chunk of change for their players, and of course, it was last minute and they then had to field a roster for an RMR so they got the 9INE guys who had a spot there and they then got to the Major, which was a huge success for them, but I feel like they have enough cash now where they could sign a couple of good international players and create an international team.

Obviously, you wouldn't want to get rid of all four players, you probably want to keep two of them and gla1ve as your IGL, but you can bring in two more guys who be upgrades. Or, maybe they look at gla1ve and wonder whether he can be the IGL of a contender team, if they think not then maybe they replace him and one more guy and keep three of the Polish guys. 

Some changes need to happen because this team has turned out the way people has expected it to. Everyone was shocked by their performance at Katowice, and then the RMR went great for them which was the most important tournament for this lineup, so at that time maybe they thought they had something that was working but after that point, we've seen the reality of the situation and that's that some changes need to be made. 

“SAW were just overrated, really”

Bo3: SAW also looked strong earlier in the year but have dropped off since, do you think that we've seen the best from them and it was just a purple patch earlier in the year?

YNk: I think SAW were just overrated, really. People were just looking at their results and winning streaks but the reality of that was that they hadn't really played good teams on LAN in bo3s and won those games.

they had a comeback during the RMR that they were dominant in, but they played the likes of NIP in those games and then they were able to qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Final through the Showdown, which was online, but they did face some good opposition. Don't get me wrong, they're not a bad team, but people were making it out like they were a top ten team. 

I saw the news that BERRY would be their coach at Spring Final, I like that, I rate BERRY highly as a coach and I think he knows a lot about CS and has done a great job in terms of developing talent. 

Due to no fault of their own, I think people really have high expectations of SAW and it's mistakenly so. It was a historic achievement for them to qualify for the Major and be the first Portuguese team to ever do so; and Spring Final will be a great opportunity for them because they don't get too many tier one LAN tournaments, so hopefully they can do damage and keep building on earlier results and actually break through.

Bo3: There's a bit of a power struggle in Brazil right now with FURIA struggling and other teams looking like they could overtake them as the premium Brazilian team, do you have a take on who the best Brazilian team is right now?

YNk: I think it's tough, I really think it's up for grabs.

If paiN was just able to keep their roster from the Major they would have been the number one team, but they've first had to play with a stand-in and now they have snow. It was disappointing that they couldn't make the playoffs here at CCT, that was the expectation.

Also, MIBR failed to qualify for the Major but at some of these online tournaments they really show up, they were a win away from making the CCT playoffs, for example. 

FURIA obviously have the benefit of being a partner team for this year and therefore get more opportunities, but it's not like they're capitalising on that. We've only seen a glimpse of them without arT, but we'll see what their roster is going to look like eventually.

So yeah, I don't think there is a clear best team in Brazil at the moment.