pashaBiceps: "I was watching a lot of replays for the first time in a few years"

Following Virtus.pro's victory over Gambit, we spoke with Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski, who openly discussed the loss to AGO, the relationship with the Virtus.pro organization and more.

Coming into the second day of StarSeries i-League Season 5, Virtus.pro were overtaken in the rankings by a Polish team for the first time, following a 2-0 loss to AGO on day one.

Virtus.pro managed to turn things around today, beating Gambit over two maps to go 1-1 in Kiev. In a post-match interview, pashaBiceps admitted that he tried analyzing demos of Michał "⁠snatchie⁠" Rudzki ahead of the AGO game, but was disappointed with the results in the end.

You played a tournament before this, you didn't have a good result, you come here and you are playing AGO in the first match. Tell me about playing the up-and-coming Polish team, they are obviously gunning for your spot, what was the mentality like going into that match?

Before the match versus AGO, I saw in our faces that everyone was focused so much. I didn't see so focused faces from my teammates in such a long time, and me as well. AGO play really well, everyone knows it, they have really nice aim, they have a really nice game plan. I've heard that Furlan analyzed his opponents before the matches, so, to be honest, for the first time in five or six years I went and watched demos, replays from HLTV.org. I wanted to analyze snatchie and then in the game, they played everything differently. I didn't have a lot of chances to pick him, maybe Furlan told him "pasha is probably watching, do something different". I was watching a lot of replays for the first time in a few years and it didn't help, I was so disappointed.

snatchie was the main guy in that comeback on Train, you were 14-6 up, is there anything else you struggled with in that game that made you lose it?

In our head, when they did the comeback, it was 14-6, later it was 14-10, 11, at one moment I started remembering my feeling about the Major versus Astralis, we lost on Train and it was the biggest struggle, the most painful match ever. I started remembering that in my head again and nothing worked, we tried this and that and nothing worked. Just like Astralis vs Virtus.pro in the ELEAGUE Major final.

You come into the second day and you play against Gambit, you are two teams with a lot of legendary players, Major winners, but you are not in your prime right now. What did you expect from that game?

We like to play versus Gambit, but to be honest, on Mirage, they also tried to comeback. We had an overtime, we handled it and we could finish the game. But they are awesome guys, very polite, one of the guys who come to you and say hi, because these days pro players don't look at you straight, they don't say anything, they are just walking by like they don't know you. This is painful because in the past everyone knew each other, said hi, respected each other, but when the money is coming to the business, everyone thinks that they are the kings of the world. This is big bullshit.

But it was a nice game, we showed we can play on CT very well, we can have more rounds on T side of Train, but we feel we can finish.

Obviously, after yesterday's defeat, it's the first time you lose to a Polish team on LAN in... I guess ever. You drop in the rankings, 20th place which is the lowest ever, did that spark some motivation to get the result today?

First of all, we lost to a Polish team at the WESG 2016, in the semi-final to Kinguin, there was a very big prize pool, it was very painful, they were playing really good. But today, at the breakfast, I was eating alone, I opened HLTV.org and I saw that Virtus.pro is 20th and AGO is one place above. I see that this is no good, probably the worst result in... I don't know, my 11-years career. It was like "What to do? Let's fight and try to play better, let's climb in the ranking".

I'll touch on the online leagues, you didn't manage to get to Pro League, you are playing ESEA MDL, is there some pressure from the organization that you need to get that ESL Pro League spot, is that something they really want you to achieve?

You know, in Virtus.pro we build together. The Counter-Strike side we built together, all the fan base, and the bosses of Virtus.pro know it. They cannot say "Ok guys, you have bad results, get the f**k out, you are not in Virtus.pro anymore." If they did it, it would probably be like they are not human. We've known each other for so many years, they support us in very bad results, they support us in very good results, if I have a very bad situation outside of the game like family or something like this, they say "chill, no problem pasha, focus on the game later, we don't rush personal things". We are really good guys, we are like family.

I know Anton (Virtus.pro owner Anton Cherepennikov), we call each other, talk, If I have a problem, for example, if I go to a casino and lose a lot of my money and say "Anton, can you help me because my wife will kill me", he would probably send me money in one second and help me with everything. When people say "how long can you remain under Virtus.pro?" - we built Virtus.pro together, who is going to kick us?

With MICHU coming in, he has been playing well, but obviously, he is not going to carry you to the first place on his own. Is there a feeling that you should've taken him in earlier, that it could help you not fall as low as you are right now?

I think we made a good decision, be it earlier or later. We talked about bringing him to the team a lot of times. He is a very young player, we talked a lot with Loord who we've played with for a lot of years, about MICHU, he gave us a lot of info about him, how his aim is, how he is doing in very close situations, if he is nervous on LAN or not. We know everything about him. But he says that MICHU just needs to be calm in the clutch situation, and we are working on it. If he learns this, he will be a really, really, really top player and I know that one day he will be on the list of "Top 20 of 2020", or 2021.

I wish him to be top 5, not top 2 or top 1, because in my team I was top 3 and I always say to Snax, who was top 4: "But I was top 3! I was better!" (laughs). I wish them the best.