ropz on AG2 update: "It doesn't feel right. It's hard to say, but not the best first impression"

Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore of Dust2.us had the chance to speak to Vitality's Robin "ropz" Kool at BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1 Media Day in Fort Worth, Texas.

ropz discussed how the team avoids burnout after winning so much, what he thinks of FUT, and the growth of CS in his home country.

Find the video interview below with a full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How do you work to avoid resting on your laurels after such a great year?

It's a good thing to think about for sure. When you win so much, you can get lazy at some point, and things will kick in, but you keep learning after each win in a way. Last year was a perfect example of that. We had many wins and at some point in the second season, we didn't do as good as we wished, and maybe it was a bit of complacency. Maybe we were a bit lazy, I can't say for sure, but that's the thing we always take care of, and we always try to work on if we do win many tournaments here and there.

We keep saying to ourselves how lucky we are to have this team and to be setting these kinds of records and be able to reach these achievements. It's a unique thing, and we all have to realize that. It's important to keep up as hard as we can and not waste this moment, because you never know when it's going to end.

Is burnout something you guys are also thinking of before the Major?

Yeah, it's very true that we're spending more time in-game than the average team because we go so deep. Nowadays, when you get eliminated, you go home early before the playoffs, so you have extra days at home to either rest or again prepare for the next tournament. For us, we always go all the way, so we maximize the days at the tournaments, in terms of burnout for the Major. Obviously, with Rio we reached a big goal of completing the Grand Slam, and that was a bit of pressure. There was a desire to finish it before the Major. We'd rather do it before, and because we did that, we come into this US block now. We're coming here to win, but it's definitely less priority than it was going to be, because let's say we didn't win in Rio, we would have to step up in Atlanta for the Grand Slam.

But now it's the case where actually we can relax a bit. We still want to put in some effort, but we have time to take some rest. Actually, we didn't practice much before this, and as we're staying three weeks in the US and there's a week between Blast Rivals and IEM Atlanta, we have that week between where we're also not going to practice much. We're going to focus on recovery and rest, and do our best in these tournaments and hope it's going to go well. Then the goal is to be ready for the Major and use this time to rest for the Major.

What's Vitality do to relax and recover, especially when you have time like this?

Honestly, it's going to be so different for everyone. We're not going to be at the tournament area for sure. There's a chance we might all fly to different locations in the US, whatever we desire. I have an idea to go to Yosemite this week, to fly to San Francisco and take a road trip to Yosemite. Some guys want to go to New York and have some time there. We have a lot of plans, different ones, and we might go in groups. We'll see.

What are your thoughts on AG2 as someone who knows so much about the game?

I haven't looked much into the details of the update, but I've played on it now quite a bit. To be honest, my first impression is not the best of what it's changed from. The spring update is probably better. The animations feel very unnatural right now. The legs are better, but there's so much more happening than there was before. The body is flinging the AK around, or the legs are doing a split at some point, or when people are flicking against you, do you see the animation of the flick? It doesn't feel right. It's hard to say, but, not the best first impression. I still have time to get used to it.

Any thoughts on the FUT match?

Historically, the thing with Vitality is they've been awful against stand-in teams, most notably the one at IEM Dallas at 2024 with Stewie when they lost in the final, and that was one they regret. Now recently we've been having trouble against Falcons when they had a stand-in, as well. We're making jokes that we cannot beat teams with a stand-in. So we'll have to see how it goes. But obviously we're confident. We're winning tournaments, and that's the most amount of confidence you can get in a game, and we're going to come in come in swinging. We're not going to underestimate. We always do the prep for any team, always the same.

There were things where we pulled off that boost against RED Canids in IEM Rio, and that's something we noticed. So if it works for the game we go into and the preparation shows it, then we can pull those things off, and it will be the same with FUT. We'll see what what we can do and they're a great team.

Recently they won PGL Bucharest. They're they're very talented young guys. Probably not many of them were heard of before, because you have family watching back at home like, "Who are these guys?" But they're good players, and they're popping off. So I'm excited to play them. The future is bright for them.

As the godfather of the Baltic scene, are you excited to see your countrymen finally have more opportunities to break out in Counter-Strike?

I definitely want to have tournaments nearby in the Baltics, whether it's in Latvia, Estonia, or Lithuania. But yeah, it's super cool. It's rare to see big teams come to that area in the world, and it's going to inspire more players. It's going to provide more opportunities, and that's always an exciting thing. It's a good thing. I'm still hoping for one day to maybe have a big tournament where all the top teams go in our area, but we'll have to see. Maybe one day it happens, but so far it's a first step in the right direction, and I'm happy to see that there's bigger tournaments happening.