neaLaN: "In every game wiz is going to get better and better"

Following Evil Geniuses 2-0 loss to Sprout and their exit from the IEM Katowice Play-in, Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin had a chance to talk to the team's IGL, Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov, about the loss. The two discussed what went wrong in Katowice, the team's new additions, and EG's schedule post-Katowice.

Disappointing way to go out against Sprout, tell me what went wrong for you guys in that series?

I mean in Ancient it's not our best map so we were trying out best to play this map. We were leading and I made one bad call and we just lost Ancient. On Mirage everything was good on T-side but we lost the force round of course. But, something happened on the CT-side, I don't know exactly what happened we just need to review and we'll see.

EG also struggled against fnatic yesterday, can you tell me about that game and it not being as competitive as you probably would have wanted?

The veto was fine for us, we knew what we wanted to play and Inferno is a pretty good for us. But, something happened on Inferno on T-side where everything went wrong. We weren't ready for the aggressive moves and as you can see we just gave them a lot of open frags which means it's really hard to play 4v5. But after the match we talked about it and we actually fixed it, yeah.

You guys beat Heroic at BLAST and then played a close game against them later in the tournament. Is it frustrating to get that win and cut it close against Heroic on the rest of the maps and then have it not go your way at the end.

Actually, playing against Heroic showed us that we can play really good CS, right? So I mean we just keep working hard actually so I think the results right now you can't say if we are bad or if we are good. In the RMR or the Major it's going to be said if we are good or bad.

As an IGL can you tell me about your preparation going into the 2023 season?

The previous season I was a rookie in tier one but in this season I already know how the other IGLs lead in game and for me it's getting easier and easier to call around them.

Can you tell us what it has been like working with wiz?

He's actually really talented. He's working hard but he doesn't have any big experience in tier one and sometimes he's nervous so he's making stupid mistakes. But, in every game he's going to get better and better.

Also, what has it been like working with Shakezullah, EG's new assistant coach, since he joined the team?

Alan is really good. We talk alot with each other and discussing about the game and he's helping with small details if I or vorborg don't have the time.

With your time at IEM Katowice coming to an end, can you tell me about that space of time between now and Pro League?

Right now, we're going to fly to NA and we're going to play the closed RMR qualifier and as I know we're playing the IEM Brazil qualifier. So after that we're going to Malta.