YNk: "The primary reason [we added NEO] was that we needed another voice"

时间：2025-04-21 04:36:24 来源：网络整理编辑：case opening

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Following FaZe's close 1-2 series against Liquid, we sat down with Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović

Following FaZe's close 1-2 series against Liquid, we sat down with Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović to discuss the team's recent addition, how the new system is functioning and clarified details on Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski's trial arrangement.

FaZe are currently set to face G2 in the quarter-finals of DreamHack Masters Dallas after the team secured a flawless run to the upper bracket final of group A. It was here that their spotless run was halted, shut down in a close 1-2 series against Liquid, who secured a semi-final spot at their expense.

YNk noticed that, barring occasional communicational issues, NEO is fitting in well

Following the conclusion of the best-of-three against the world's #2, we spoke to FaZe' coach, YNk, to discuss the addition of NEO, his impact on the roster, how his integration has gone so far and clarified some details on his trial arrangement.

Before coming into Dallas you had a small preparatory period in the form of a couple ECS series with NEO on the roster. Were you able to adjust certain things over these matches?

Because we had our first official at ECS against Virtus.pro literally the next day after NEO joined, we didn't really have time to go through a lot of stuff. We lost that game, which meant there was no chance for us to make the ECS finals anymore, but we still needed to play the next week.

At the time we were actually in Warsaw for 4-5 days, just to get some bootcamping in. Those games we just treated like practice in terms of playing to win, but we wanted to play Vertigo, for example, because we've been practicing it and wanted to see how it would go in an official game. We've been playing a lot of Nuke, with NEO being in Virtus.pro that was one of their strongest maps, so I think recently we've had some better results on that map too. There was "nothing" for us to play for in those games, except for some cash, so we tried to get the most out of it to help us improve faster as a team.

Over the course of those two series was there anything you ended up adjusting about the setup, or was it more of a meshing exercise for the team?

Yeah, a lot of it was just helping NEO get more used to calling in English, communicating in English and leading these guys, who are obviously a different set of players than what he previously had. For us as a team, even from before, we were testing out some stuff, seeing what works and what doesn't and, of course, every official game with NEO you see if there are any positions that need to be swapped or not. It has just been learning more and more with every game, trying out some maps that we hadn't played as much and trying out some new things.

Looking at the run in Dallas - it has been impeccable up until this series against Liquid. You bested both Windigo and NiP without dropping a map - would you say it gave the team a positive boost?

I mean it didn't really impact us that much. In the end, Windigo and NiP both had to play with a stand-in. For us, we just understand that when we made this decision to bring NEO in, even for a trial period, we knew there were going to be some growing pains and it would take some time for him just to get used to a lot things. In that sense, of course, we are here to win the whole tournament, but we also understand that if that doesn't happen, with time things will get better.

The fact that we did have some good games, and even the Liquid game, all things considered, was pretty close. We had another good performance on Nuke, and there are still games to be played. We're still feeling good and taking one game at a time, just hoping to get as many games as we can with Filip [NEO] to see how things are going.

Despite the loss against Liquid, you are still guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals. Does that achievement align with the general ambitions you set out for the event?

Absolutely not - I mean even with NEO being here for only a week or two, our goal is still to win the whole tournament. We still have the players, the core lineup is still there, and we don't think that the fact that he's a new addition changes that. No one on the team would feel satisfied with just making the playoffs, top four or the finals. We're here to win, and if we lose in the quarters or lose in the finals, for us personally it doesn't make a huge difference. Yes, there's a difference in ranking or prize money, this and that, but with players like these, the mentality is always win or nothing.

As a coach you have a unique perspective looking at the team - how have you found NEO's input so far?

I was actually very positively surprised, and not the way of having low expectations of him - we're talking about NEO here, a legend of the game. He has been in-game leading at a high level for a long time, playing on a high level for a long time. I was positively surprised with how motivated he was, how hard he was working at the bootcamp especially, before and after practice, always trying to work on things and trying to make things go forward faster.

When it comes to his in-game leading, I also think that's been going pretty good in general. Issues mostly arise in terms of communication - the ideas he has during the game are great, and all that stuff is going great, it's just about him being a bit more comfortable with communicating in English. Sometimes you have to say things pretty fast, time is running down, and if you wait two or three more seconds searching for the words, sometimes it can be a problem. Those are all things that are just going get better with time, so for now I'm really liking having him on the team.

The addition of NEO provided FaZe with a much-needed second voice

In terms of the interaction on the team - is it the case that NEO has taken over executive calling altogether, or is there still a remnant of NiKo's calling?

There definitely is in the sense of NEO being the primary in-game leader, but NiKo, if he has something and he really thinks a round would be good to call, he obviously says it and Filip listens to him. That's the great thing we have on the team, in that we have Filip as the primary caller, so that NiKo can focus on playing, and the rest of the guys as well, but then when NiKo sees something, or anyone else for that matter, he can chime in and say what would be good to do, whether it's an idea or something he wants done as a team or individually.

I think they have a pretty good dynamic going on right now, especially at the beginning where, as I said, Filip is still new and is getting used to calling and the pace of the team.

The general idea behind NEO's addition - would you say it revolved more around alleviating pressure off NiKo and creating space for him to shine individually, or was it to do with diversifying the strategic component?

No, it wasn't really a matter of strategy. Sure, on one side, to alleviate some of the pressure off NiKo, but also we needed another voice on the team in-game, right? Every team can't have just one guy doing all the talking, whether it's on T side or CT side. You need to have at least two guys, because you have to have people on two different sides of the map to see things, call things and tell some of the other players who need a bit more guidance.

The primary reason was that we needed another voice. Even if we would get a player and NiKo would be the primary in-game leader, that guy would have to be the secondary in-game leader in that case. That's why I think some of the things are working much better for us now - we're playing a bit more active and dynamic than we used, so I think it's going good.

Lastly, could you provide some clarification on the trial period NEO is undergoing - how long are we talking, is it time/results based?

There are no conditions really. Initially, we just did it for Dallas and for the Pro League finals, because for EPL it had to be a player who hasn't played in the actual league. That's kind of so that in the case things don't work out, we still have time to test a different player before the roster lock comes in for the Major, so that we can then say: "Ok, this didn't work out, let's try one more guy", and then see in the end what our best option is for the Major.

That's the timeline we were looking at, and after that period we will make our final decision as a team in regards to if we're going to continue working with Filip or we're going to start looking for a different option.