Axed: "laxiee likes to grind the game and wants to improve as much as he can"

BLUEJAYS are one of the top teams attending Fragadelphia 19 in Windsor, Canada. The German organization made a huge roster overhaul after not making the Austin Major, and secured a very experienced player in the form of Paytyn "junior" Johnson.

But, it's the recent addition of Mongolian rifler Maks "laxiee" Andryei that left everyone intrigued. Fortunately Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore got hold of BLUEJAYS' coach Tommy "Axed" Ryan after their debut in FRAG, to ask him more details about how they came across laxiee's name and what he brings to the squad.

The complete interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. Questions and answers just for clarity and length.

We saw you recently return to activity with BLUEJAYS, first coaching the squad at Dust2.us Eagle Masters Series #2. However, you haven't been announced by BLUEJAYS, and of course, they just announced laxiee today. So, what's your current situation with the German organization?

I can't really answer this question. I literally don't know. I don't have an answer.

Regardless of any discussion of a contractual situation with BLUEJAYS, it seems like you've been doing good work with the recently reformed BLUEJAYS squad, helping them do a great run at the Eagle Masters, a third-place finish at the EPL qualifier. And now you're here on LAN. How are you enjoying working with that new squad so far?

I'm enjoying it a lot. I've already teamed with four of the members on the roster before, CLASIA with Evil Geniuses and RBG, junior on EG, freshie and Cryptic both on BOSS. So really, the only person that I'm like figuring out still is laxiee a little bit. It's his first team, and he's speaking English in the team as well. He's in the space-taker roles, he's aggressive.

So really it's more like trying to find the balance between where the core of this lineup is or was previously with RUSH, Peeping, and adreN. Bringing in three new people, myself, freshie, and laxiee included, there are just a lot of different aspects in terms of just experience, gameplay, and communication. So, still everyone's kind of learning like how they fit and what's expected and needed of them, but day by day we're getting there.

The practice in North America isn't always amazing. So it's like one thing that we have to be kind of tough on ourselves, because we're just not going to get tested in practice as much as we want to. But overall, things are trending in an upward direction.

The addition of laxiee was a real surprise. He's a Mongolian who only played in teams that speak Mongolian, so there are a lot of intangible reasons why you may not necessarily want to pick up a player like that. But like you said, he plays a very integral space-taker role in the squad. So, what can you tell me about the decision to pick up a real wildcard like laxiee?

So, the first person who actually recommended laxiee was junior. junior in the past has actually had a pretty great track record at like recognizing younger players. He was on the radar with JBa, and he was on the radar with Lake. He always thought HexT had the potential to be good, same with Jeorge. He's always had an eye for players like that.

So, I think just seeing how much laxiee plays the game, he pugs all the time, he plays FPL every weekend from start to finish, no matter what. He just likes to grind the game and wants to improve as much as he can. His English is better than any of us actually expected. He's a shy kid, though, so that's one thing we're trying to get out of him. He did speak English in his other teams, like they spoke [a mix] of Mongolian and English, you know, depending on like who was alive and around and stuff like that, but they never practiced.

So I think practice is one of the things he's getting used to, but one of the things about him, which is really impressive is that anytime we show like a strat or just like roles and stuff like that, he picks up on it very fast and he actually he doesn't forget a lot of stuff, which is nice to see in a young player.

Was it a goal of BLUEJAYS to bring in a young player? Was that something you were intending from the onset? Or were you initially looking at someone, you know, maybe a more experienced player who could fill those roles?

I think initially we were definitely looking at more experienced players, but just due to circumstances, I don't think it was all able to work out. Because of circumstances and like, roles.

So at the moment, we're really relying on junior and CLASIA to step up alongside Cryptic to kind of be like leaders in this lineup, just like, in the server while they're playing. A lot of that kind of stuff needs to come from the players themselves to kind of continue to push each other to improve and hold each other accountable.