After defeating INFINITE, BC.Game and 1win in succession to qualify for the EWC main event, 100 Thieves' "former IGL" rain spoke to HLTV about qualifying for the EWC main event and why the team chose to change its lineup and sign new IGL Gizmy during the off-season.
Q: Okay, rain, congratulations on successfully qualifying for the main event of this year's EWC. First, how do you feel after playing three BO3s in a row?
rain: Actually I feel pretty good. I think the energy drink is keeping me going right now, I might feel a bit exhausted after a while, but I feel really good at the moment.
Q: Well, especially that second game against BC.Game. I think that must have been the most nerve-wracking one — you were very close to being eliminated early.
rain: Yes, very close to being eliminated. Honestly, when Gizmy was playing that clutch, I thought it was over at one point. I thought it was a 1v4, then I suddenly looked up and realized there was only one person left alive on the other side (laughs). Because at the time I was already thinking: oh, damn, I'm packing my bags and going home. So it felt really amazing, yeah.
Q: Did this meet your expectations? I mean, when you saw the group draw, there were obviously a lot of big, heavyweight names in there, many teams we thought might qualify for the main event. Making it all the way to the end, how difficult has this road been?
rain: Pretty tough. I mean, BC.Game put up a really strong fight against us, they destroyed us on Inferno, and basically every map was very close. So it was really hard to play. I think the last game was actually the most comfortable one, so that's pretty good.
Q: From your perspective, how would you evaluate the entire qualifier process? I mean, you've been competing at this level for a while now, you know very well what these open qualifiers are like, so this experience probably isn't anything new to you. But how do you think the team handled this stretch of back-to-back matches?
rain: I think we actually handled it really well, everyone gave it their all, and there was a lot of energy on stage. Of course, understandably, by the end we were definitely running on empty, everyone kept shouting, our voices were getting a bit hoarse, you know. But overall, we handled the pressure really well, we listened to Gizmy's calls really well, he made excellent calls and excellent clutch plays. So it was really great.
Q: How do you feel about heading into the main event? Obviously the level of opposition will go up another notch. Up to this point it's been teams ranked around the top 30 gathered here, but from here on it will only get harder, and you'll be one of the lower-seeded teams. Obviously, right from the start you'll most likely be up against a very highly-ranked powerhouse team.
rain: Yes. Actually, I prefer playing against tier-one teams, because I've spent basically my entire career playing against them. So for me, you can roughly predict what will happen, and the pace of the game is more familiar to me; in comparison, those tier-two teams are sometimes just completely random, pure chaos. So for me, I'm still quite confident about playing in the main event.
Q: I think you guys are ready. Of course, especially since working with Gizmy is still in the relatively early stages of building synergy. With bringing in a new IGL, how do you feel about the pace at which the team is coming together so far?
rain: We have three to four hours of theory discussion every day, and there's a huge amount of information to digest to get into Gizmy's system. He has a lot of things he wants to implement, and we're basically playing his system now, and I think this system fits all the players really well. So we've put in a lot of work. I don't think we're at our best yet, we're definitely still far from reaching the peak this team can achieve. So it's going to take some time, and we'll have to wait and see how we perform over the next few months.
Q: For you personally, this is clearly a transition — returning to the player role you once played. Can you tell me what exactly went wrong during your time as an in-game leader, or what you felt you were lacking that prevented you from staying in that position longer?
rain: Yeah. Mid-season gla1ve and I had a talk, he kind of asked me: Is this really what you want to do? I said I'd think about it. But then as things progressed, I thought, I can go back to playing my own positions, I can do the things I truly enjoy. So I'm really happy now, and glad I can contribute to the team from my old positions. So it's good.
Q: What do you think you lacked in your first season as captain?
rain: I think it's probably just a problem with my personality. They wanted a more fiery caller, while I'm a very easygoing, very calm person. So if someone does something wrong, I won't call it out, I'll just say: ah, it's fine, bro, don't worry about it. So I think my personality might be a bit too chill.
Q: What is the difference between Gizmy and you in this regard?
rain: If you mess up, Gizmy will definitely point it out to your face, there's no doubt about that. So he's very direct, extremely hungry for victory, and wants everything to be perfect. So you could say he's a perfectionist.
Q: Okay, thank you very much, and good luck to you going forward.
rain: Thank you.