Daps on oSee: "He is showing to others that he belongs here"

After the tough 2-0 loss against G2 in the semifinal of IEM Katowice, Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin talked with Liquid's coach, Damian "daps" Steele, about the event in general, the roles situation in the team and the strategy going into future events.

daps, you guys had quite the run here at IEM Katowice. As the coach, looking overall at the team, give me your verdict on the run here.

In terms of the run, it was super good overall, considering our BLAST results and the lack of practice we had coming into this year. We had like four days before BLAST and four days before Katowice. We have only had seven full practice days and that's not enough, because we are adding Nuke as well and all these things. Overall we are happy we got our revenge on Spirit, FaZe, and Vitality, we beat only the top teams we never beat before at this event. It's a good run and the G2 match was also winnable, we didn't get absolutely stomped, we made a ton of mistakes, and lost a ton of men advantages, it was a winnable match. I'm happy with the results.

In terms of that Nuke picked that you mentioned, working that into the map pool was that an idea that came from you or nitr0 or was it workshopped or what was the situation there?

It was an idea that was floating around even last year, just because from watching the team and knowing how we play, it's a map that suits our roles a lot better as players and also is a map that fits our calling style a lot better. I guess I was sort of the one to bring it up initially but everyone eventually agreed on it as well, and then we decided that we had to add it now, if at any time.

In terms of some of the games that you guys had here, we know about the comeback on Overpass, it seemed like there were a lot of slow starts. What's the way you can go about fixing those slow starts so that they don't happen consistently?

It's hard to say one thing because a slow start can be based on how they are playing, they can just be playing insane and we are not doing anything wrong or we can just be doing a ton of mistakes or comms are low. To be honest, it's not an issue I feel we have had with this lineup but the things to do to stop that is just to make sure we have a good pistol, first few rounds we have planned out, really thought through, and we really do, and just making sure we keep our comms up and we are in it from the start.

YEKINDAR was added around IEM Cologne, EliGE is quite an aggressive rifler, and YEKINDAR is an aggressive rifler. With the way their form has fluctuated on the T-side, with spots overlapping, what's it been like for you trying to work both of them into a system that works for both of them?

I think it's been easier than I thought it would be. Even though they play similar roles, YEKINDAR is a lot more aggressive than EliGE is and it sort of is a nice balance. There are some maps where the roles are kind of awkward, we don't have a real second lurker, so then nitr0 has to pick that up sometimes. It's not too bad just because YEKINDAR also mid-round calls and says a lot of stuff in-game, so nitr0 being a second lurker sometimes doesn't hinder us at all.

Another thing with roles in this team has been NAF. Whereas in the past we have seen him more like a star player, he is in the anchor role. Do you think he as a player, with his versatility, can become way more comfortable in those lurk roles and become one of the best in the world at them, and anchor roles as well?

Yeah, NAF has always been a top-tier player in those roles and that's just sort of the role he has to fill in the team. He is the only one that really does it at that level and I 100% think he can be the best in the world at it. He has shown time and time again his consistency. I think he was the second most consistent player last year, I saw an HLTV article about it. He is doing a good job and he's one of the most reliable players on the team.

At this tournament, oSee shut up a lot of the haters with his form and with the way he came out of his shell a bit. What's it been like working with him, we talked with EliGE and he mentioned confidence was the one thing he was missing. What's it been working with him?

Working with oSee has been a pleasure. He is super receptive to criticism, and always willing to learn, he is obviously the least-experienced person on the team and he is always open to trying new things and taking in things. I agree, he had some confidence issues last year, but he is gaining more and more confidence with every event and he is showing to himself most importantly, and to others that he belongs here, and I think that is super good going forward. The more his confidence builds, it will just keep improving his game.

It seems we are going to get into a busy period with the RMR and ESL Pro League coming up. For you as the coach, what's the main point of focus in these future events?

I said it already in an interview before, but our main focus is to win the major. Obviously, we are going to try to still do well and win all the other events going forward but we are trying to take a strategy that we are not using all of our energy instantly out of the gate because this team, even before I was here, ran into burn out issues multiple times and we don't want to be at the Paris Major or at the events after that and be like "oh, we are so burnt out and tired". We are trying to find ways to balance our energy for each event properly so we can maximize our results.

You mentioned the main focus is winning the major. We have seen two finals appearances and the expectation is now to make playoffs every time. With the mix of experience and talent in this team, what do you think is going to take to get over the line and get that tournament win with this lineup?

I feel like we have shown that we can win an event, 100%. G2 is playing really well right now, and so is Heroic, but have beaten both those teams in the past, with the same lineups. It just comes down to our own individual form and the practice we had. We play better when we have weeks of practice in a row. We are going into every event knowing that we can win and it just comes down to our gameplan and just how we show up on the server.

The next event for Liquid is ESL Pro League Season 17 which starts on February 22nd and ends on March 26th. The team won't be playing the qualifiers for the RMR as Liquid already has a spot in the Americas RMR, happening in Monterrey, on April 5th.