LAG Experative: "We deserved to be in ECL"

North America has seen the rise of LAG over the last several months as the European squad has proven themselves to be contenders at the highest level of play in the region. A semifinal finish in December's Fragicago, promotion from Advanced, and a 4-2 record thus far in ECL is nothing to scoff at. LAG are proving that they should be seriously considered in North America and are set to prove that once more in Philadelphia this weekend.

During the several matches going at Fragadelphia's CS/DO event, Dust2.us Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore spoke quickly with Deniz "Experative" Mutlum, the squad's IGL, about how the team is doing so far in the event, how it feels to have built a solid core over the past year, and about their current run of form in the North American league structure.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

How do you feel like you did in Group A?

I think it went how we were expecting, it could have been easier, but I think it was fine. It was one-sided on almost every map.

How do you feel after reaching the ESL Challenger League in your first season of ESEA Advanced playoffs?

We were expecting it because we were scrimming against most of the ECL teams and other Advanced playoff teams. We were doing pretty well in scrims and we were to qualify but it was, obviously, hard because you never know what will happen in important qualification matches. We deserved to be in ECL, and when we made it we were really happy that we managed to do it.

You have been together for around a year, how would you rate the team's performance since its formation?

I joined this team, during the end of the summer, around September, and since then, I think we made pretty good progress and I will say, as an IGL, I have a structure and I'm doing lots of sometimes micromanagement for our team, then I have a game plan for almost every map, I would say. So it's been going pretty well and our players are feeling really comfortable with my calls and calling style. I have been an IGL for an EU team for the past five years and I haven't changed myself, I would say and my teammates are happy that we are playing in kind of an EU structure.