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PARIVISION’s coach dastan sat down with us to talk about zweih’s addition, the team’s tactical evolution, Vitality’s supremacy, and more.

zweih’s been with you for about two months now. He seems to be doing pretty well for himself, but how has it been on your side? Did he fit straight in, did you have some initial hiccups, or was it smooth sailing from moment one?
When he was free, we instantly asked if it was possible to get him, and I had a call with him on Discord. I know he’s very young and there was a lot of pressure on him in Spirit, a lot of people commenting, and I felt that he needed some support. I didn’t talk in a strict way with him, I felt he needed a bit of a different approach. If he says he’s tired right now, I’ll tell him he can go and he won’t feel like he’s doing something bad. I always tell him you can go, don’t worry, don’t think about anything.

So that’s kind of how you’re helping him to adjust?
I think when I see CS from his POV it’s very nice, he’s got a no stress life. I know he was in a family with parents who support him a lot, he is their favourite son, and I’m tyring to keep this feeling in the team as well. I think in Spirit there were a lot of expectations and it was stressful for him.

I read this interesting analysis a while ago based on your players’ amount of deaths traded percentage, and it kind of showed how Jame’s calling style has changed since his AVANGAR days.

The conclusion was that he used to be more lurk-based, and now the team seems to rely more on explosive pack executions. Since you’ve been with this core for so long as well, do you see this evolution as well?
We were separated from each other for half a year, when he was in VP and when I was kicked. After that, we started to play online, and it was different with some new things, and I think he got a different vision of situations.

I think we’re trying to play more 100% rounds, and when you see a low death rate, it’s also a fundamental thing. If you’re alive, even if you are one HP, you can still influence a round. You need to play good crossfires, you need to play together when you go to a site, you need the right roles in the right place.

If we want to be stable we have to be fundamentally strong, for example if you see Vitality they are fundamentally very strong, with good round and good round endings. Vitality doesn’t always play fast, it’s all about reading the game, and Vitality are an example of being good at all parts of CS. They also have superstar players who can end the round even if the call was bad or the situation was bad. I’m trying to teach my guys the fundamentals because it will help them to win in the long term.

You and Jame have been steady top five in recent times, but do you envision yourself attacking the top three in the coming months?
I think it will be hard. In my rating now, Vitality is number one, second team is NAVI right now, and next is FURIA and Falcons, and we are kind of below that. We can beat every team, but we can also lose to every team. And when we win, we don’t often win with a confident 2-0, it’s always close matches.

For me in PARIVISION, it’s nice that my organisation supports this vision because the players are young and it really helps if they don’t have to win tournaments. It will come with time and I hope some of my players will develop.

You can see most of my players have around a 1.00 rating, with Jame and zweih a little above that, but the general structure I think is a good structure that’s helping us to play together, and we’re in balance with other teams. And that’s okay for us, we’re a new organisation, we’ve got good goals because they will get their stickers for the first time and they really support us.

I’m not as stressed every day as I used to be before, when I was younger. Competing every day is not easy. Every day you’re going to fight, and it's going to hurt your mentality. I’m eight years into this, and I’m trying to set real goals, and I try to achieve them in a healthy way. The goal for this year is to attend many tournaments and finish in the top 10. This is a realistic goal for us, takes pressure off our shoulders, and still allows us to overperform.

We’re trying to do a lot of vlogs and get our community to support us like they support elite teams like Vitality. We’re trying to be closer with the viewers, and we hope we will get some finals in the long term.

You’re trying to be a little bit more pragmatic and realistic with your goals.
Of course. If I had a super player in my team, I could say tomorrow against any team: we will crush them. No chance for them, I can trash-talk, I can be like apEX. But right now I don’t have these kinds of players to be super confident that we will win, but I hope in the next few years some of my players will develop or some new players will come and we will be super confident. In interviews now, I’m just trying to speak the truth more than before. I like how apEX is talking; that’s a nice feeling, and only a few gamers can do that.

You already talked about Vitality a little bit, but you haven’t really been able to beat them so far, with them stealing the semi-finals spot from you in the group stage. If the events unfold right, you might end up facing them in the final here. What’s your kryptonite to prevent them from repeating the last game?
There were a lot of close rounds like in Mirage, where we have three or four advantage situations at the end, 4v3 or 5v3. A lot comes down to finishing rounds, and that’s their biggest strength. I hope handling these situations better will help us to win at least one map and then we will be confident.

I try to tell my guys that they are strong, they can win. There's a chance we'll lose, but we just need to be comfortable. They also make mistakes, but some mistakes don’t cost them rounds or maps, and you need to pressure them more. I told my guys that I think 20-30% of teams lose to Vitality because they are Vitality. They may have too much respect, so don’t have respect, just play as you can. There is a skill difference, but it will be smaller if you play openly. Don’t be afraid to lose; losing in the finals or in the group winner’s match is okay. I am ready to lose to them a lot, but I hope that with time, we will get better and better.

For example, playing against Spirit is easier for us because we know them better. I think my guys don’t really know yet who is ropz, who is mezii, who is ZywOo, but my guys are growing. They’re young, they don’t know mezii, but I know him from FNATIC, I know flameZ from OG. They’re a really strong team with a very experienced IGL, and it’ll take some time.

Vitality is 26 years old on average, my guys are 20 years old on average. It’s a difference in experience right now, but we are in a very historic moment where Vitality can become better than Astralis. We need to remember this moment, maybe apEX will retire soon and in five years we need to remember how they play. What is the key? It’s a nice example of how it’s possible to win everything.

Speaking of how they play and the group stage, obviously something else happened during the group stage which was ZywOo’s phenomenal 1v5.

Sometimes in football, when another team’s player scores an amazing goal, you’ll see even the opponent’s coach applaud or look in disbelief. How was it for you standing behind the players and seeing them go down one by one?
I was sad that Jame got four kills first, and now everyone will forget those kills because everyone will remember that ZywOo moment. As I said before, my guys understand that he’s the type of player who can win this round. I wasn’t frustrated because it was 12-12 and I know they don’t want to lose in that moment.

I hope this moment will help us to lose like this less in the future. Of course, it’s a 1v5, it was nice. Good play by him. It’s ZywOo. If it had been another player maybe we would be more frustrated, but it’s okay. They need to learn, and it will be a good way for them to memorise to not overpeek, to play better in these situations.

It was a learning moment?
Yes, yes, 100%. I am happy, ZywOo is an elite player, and number one. What can I say?