gob b: We have good chances

We talked to Fatih "gob b" Dayik after his team, BIG, was proclaimed champion of the European Minor for the PGL Krakow 2017 Major. With this victory, his team earned a spot in the Main Qualifier, the last stop before the big event.

After winning three matches today, all of which they won 2-0, against EnVyUs, dignitas, and PENTA, BIG secured a spot at the Main Qualifier for the Major and took the $30,000 grand prize.

gob b thinks if they play like today, they'll be able to make it to the Major

We sat down with Fatih "gob b" Dayik once the dust settled from four intense days at the PGL Studios to chat about the grand final, the team's best and worst sides, and what lies ahead, the Main Qualifier.

Let’s start with the final. There’s not that much to say, but did you expect it to be this one-sided before going into it?

No. To be honest, I didn’t. We just played. After I did the veto I came back and everyone was really happy. I don’t know why people think we’re bad on Train, I think it’s one of our best maps and we are really confident because we are confident on maps in which everyone listens and we can play our game, and Train is one of these maps. We were confident on Train, and we were confident on Overpass because we played it two times today and we felt like PENTA was really bad on that map before. So overall, we were confident but didn’t expect to crush them or so. They also didn’t have the best day, to be honest. It was just everything combined.

Did you have any specific preparation against them? Did you look stuff over?

No, not yesterday. We were just worried about EnVyUs. Everyone had nV on their mind, so we didn’t even look at dignitas, either. We just had our previous preparation. They know how we play, we know how they play. The difference is that we can adapt much better, I think. Both tactically and individually. I think that’s why we won.

What was the change between yesterday, when you floundered a bit, and today?

If I only knew. Then I’d change it. It felt a bit like the EPL qualifier, when we won the first day playing really solid against VP, then we had an OK start and should have won against HellRaisers but then they crushed us. Then the other map we had no chance… It was kind of the same during this event. We should have won against dignitas on Mirage, I think, we had a lot of rounds. I don’t know what it is. Sometimes we’re inconsistent and that is our biggest weak point at the moment. It was just a bad day, I would say. I think… I think… I hope!

What are you expecting for the Main Qualifier. Are you going to prepare any particular way, or do anything specific?

I don’t think we’ll do anything specific. We’ll just do what we do for any other event. We practice a lot, we talk about Counter Strike all the time, we play individually a lot, we will rewatch every match (even the ones we won and crushed the opponent), we will talk about our mistakes. Yeah, we’ll just do what we did. It’s not fancy stuff.

You know, and it’s not that easy because we’ll play against all sorts of teams, and we can’t prepare for all of them, so we need to have a solid map pool and a solid game plan. That will be really, really important for this tournament.

Having to play against anyone, do you think that will affect you in a good or a bad way?

In a good way because you need to adapt in these tournaments really fast. I think we’re really good at that, if something doesn’t work I can create a totally new tactic in like ten seconds and it will outplay the enemy a high percentage of times, so that’s why we’re not that easy to play against. But the problem is if we have a really bad day it looks really off. The communication is off. The executions are off. So I hope we won’t show that face. Just the good face, like today.

With all the teams known now, you somewhat know what to expect, what do you think are your chances of making it through? Do you think you’re one of the favorite teams?

I wouldn’t call us a favorite. Like I said, we won the tournament, but that doesn’t change everything. If we have days like today every day, then yeah we’re favorites, but to be honest we don’t. It also really depends on which are your opponents, if you get matched up against good or bad opponents and that kind of stuff. But I think we have good chances.