daps: "Outside of a decent T-side on Train vs Falcons the rest of the games left a lot to be desired"

Yesterday NRG faced elimination from IEM Dallas 2025 following two one-sided losses to Falcons and Aurora in the group stage. While the squads are some of the best in the event, NRG's coach Damian "daps" Steele feels that is no excuse for how the team played this week.

daps responded to a number of questions sent to him by Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about the team's poor showing in Dallas, Jadan "HexT" Postma's career-worst showing, and what the team needs to do to reverse course at the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

Yesterday we saw NRG exit IEM Dallas 2025 after an unfortunately flat showing against Aurora in the lower bracket. NRG had a difficult bracket with Falcons and Aurora, however it was clear the team struggled immensely to force a competitive series. What do you think went wrong for the squad in Dallas?

While we definitely had two of the hardest teams to play at the event back to back it’s no excuse for how we performed. In terms of what went wrong it was a list of issues such as nervousness, bad communication, forgetting game plan specifics and poor execution of things we’ve done many times down to the micro details.

If I was to generalize it down to one thing though that caused all of these issues would be players putting way too much pressure on themselves even though we knew we had none. The Major was our main focus regardless and we talked about how Dallas was more of a test event to see where we are at vs better competition and that our goal was to at least be competitive even if we ended up losing.

HexT said he had high expectations for Dallas when we talked to him in Vegas. Did the team share those expectations and what informed that expectation?

The expectations of the team were definitely higher than they were at EPL earlier in the season and we just wanted to show that we can compete vs the top teams in the world. Outside of a decent T-side of Train vs Falcons the rest of the games left a lot to be desired.

A key issue we need to focus on was HexT’s performance, with Jadan posting a career-worst performance in Dallas. Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on what led to him struggling so much? Is there an out of server explanation you can offer?

I’d say HexTs struggles from this event would be him putting too much pressure on himself based on his performance on an individual level. The reality is he doesn’t play too many roles where his aim/individual performance is what is required of him but more so other parts of his game that need more focus.

NRG have proven themselves incredibly capable against NA teams but have thus far struggled to arrive in the international scene. What evolution of the team do you think needs to take place especially with the Major around the corner?

While we have been on a fairly consistent slow progression for the last year there are many factors that have been preventing an immediate up tick. These factors would be players switching roles to find what fits the best such as br0 moving more towards star roles which he has been fairly good in and was one of the bright spots at this event was his entry rating. Nitr0 and jeorge also have been changing roles and trying to see who should be doing what.

The last big factor would be having to play in NA all the time. We went a full month winning every scrim in NA and barely learning anything since we rarely get punished but things top teams would do. That low level of practice slowly conditions you to that level of play over time which makes it very difficult when you instantly play 2 top 5 teams in the world. This is also why we showed better form at EPL earlier in the year because we played 10 days in Europe before that event and grew a lot in that time.

What are the plans ahead of the Major, does the team have a bootcamp planned and if so, where?

Since a lot of teams are staying in NA after Dallas we will practice in NA up until the Major which should help us show better form for the upcoming Major and let us address issues on some of our weaker maps.

NRG will need to regroup and put in a lot of work at their bootcamp ahead of the start of the BLAST.tv Austin Major on June 3rd.