Spirit has officially released a Q&A video following hally's return, discussing the specific reasons for his return and the changes to the team's tactical system since S0tF1k joined the coaching staff.
Q: How does it feel to return to the team after being away from competition for so long?
hally: Hello everyone, I'm back. As for my return, it happened after PGL Astana. We spent two weeks preparing for the Major, and then went to play in that tournament. After Astana, I had a talk with our CEO, and things became very clear — our way of working had to change. Now I no longer have to carry everything on my own. On top of that, the players have been given more room to fit into the system and to bring their own ideas to life. My role is different from the one I was used to in the past: before that, I was responsible for coming up with our tactics, system setups, and so on; whereas now, responsibilities are shared out. This is completely new to me, I'm adapting and slowly getting used to this new system.
Q: Are you satisfied with your current results?
hally: To be honest, I'm not satisfied. When you've been winning championships non-stop for two years, obviously you want to win every tournament. Our team was in great form at the IEM Cologne Major; but after Cologne, we've been struggling to find our rhythm again and have run into some difficulties that we're working to resolve. In the end, only results will show whether we are truly heading in the right direction.
Q: Can you talk specifically about your preparations for BLAST?
hally: Speaking of the BLAST Bounty, we genuinely felt we had what it takes to win that trophy. But based on how we actually played, we didn't deserve to win. We had communication issues and found it hard to get on the same page in-game. At that event, we completely failed to play like ourselves in practice. I think we just hadn't hit our best form yet, and that takes time. We only had two weeks to prepare for BLAST. And once the tournament was over, we had a lot of material to review and a whole series of mistakes to fix. We wrote down every single one of those details. During the ten-day bootcamp in Paris, we gave everything to get into peak shape and to make sure everyone felt comfortable.
Q: Talk about the division of responsibilities between you and SOtF1k.
hally: There is a whole overarching framework that we have to focus on, and I'm the one responsible for building it. A lot of things are finalized through our conversations time and time again. Specifically, S0tF1k is in charge of our micro level — he tells the players exactly how to play certain specific rounds, gives guidance on utility lineups and things like that. And I communicate with him and magixx to lock in our macro approach, that is, how we are going to play CS as a whole. We reach a consensus: the players put forward their own suggestions, and I try to pick the best one out of them. This is usually done through live, real-time communication.
Q: What are your expectations for this EWC?
hally: At EWC, we want to play our top-tier CS. BLAST exposed all of our mistakes, and it was clear we weren't at our best at the time. We hope the work we're putting in here will pay off in the official matches.