hypex: "We're here to stop Vitality"

Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore had a chance to catch up with GamerLegion AWPer Milan "hypex" Polowiec after he and his team defeated FURIA 2-1 in their opener at BLAST Rivals S1 2026.

hypex spoke about his team's big win v. FURIA, their expectations for the NAVI match, and their goals at the Rivals event.

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

Huge upset, one of the teams that's probably expected to be in the finals. Gamer Legion has had a somewhat scrappy year. How does it feel to take down FURIA?

We feel amazing. It didn't start how we wanted; we got smacked on our own map pick. I'm glad we were able to bounce back and smack them the same way on theirs. Then, Mirage, we just felt more and more comfortable the longer we went into the game.

Speaking about Mirage, in round 22, you're in the AWP 1v1 against FalleN, and it comes down to you on short and him top mid. At that moment, you win that 1v1, were you guys like, "Ok we've won the game," at that point?

I didn't even know I was in a 1v1. I just heard him running away, and I was like I'm just going to kill him. Then everyone starts screaming, "NICE," I thought it was a 1v2. So yeah, I was happy. But no, we definitely didn't think we won.

It was a relief to get the 12th point, now you have to win and if you lose two rounds, you still have overtime. No, we never treated it as we won. We knew we still needed to focus and that's what we were speaking about in the tactical timeout.

With this win in hand, you're taking on NAVI tomorrow, which is another one of those favorites for a deep run. How are you feeling about the matchup against them? Is it someone you're familiar with, someone you've done a lot of prep on?

I don't think we've played NAVI since I've joined the team. So, it's going to be an interesting game for sure. I hope we scared them a little bit by beating FURIA. We'll see how it goes.

Everyone at this event, there's a narrative that Vitality is just gonna win it, who cares? They're gonna win here, they're gonna win Atlanta, they're gonna go to the Major and win. Let's say you lock in that win v. NAVI tomorrow, do you think that's enough for them to start taking notice of guys and say that this event isn't easily won anymore?

I think, even if we beat NAVI, no one is going to look and hope for us to win. I just hope we can surprise everyone. We're here to stop Vitality.