“You had started the season rather well and were leaders of the European championship before this week, where you lost your two matches. What went wrong?
Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov: I’m having trouble pinpointing any specific flaws. I think we’re just not very good right now. But if I had the solution, you can be sure that I would already be working on it. I think we still have really good players, so these two defeats are not very important, we will bounce back and get back on top again. We are a good team, for sure.
The race for play offs looks more hung up than ever, with nine teams holding on to just a few wins. How do you explain it?
I think it’s a mix of several things. The supposed best teams don’t play at their level, training hasn’t been good for some. I also think that teams supposed to be below can clearly snatch a victory from everyone, in a dry match.
You have taken part in the European Championships continuously since January 2015. Does it really seem to you to be more homogeneous than ever this year?
I don’t know… In itself, the teams have few big stars, but have brought in a lot of rookies. And they are the ones who bring a lot of energy to all the teams. On paper, the league isn’t super strong either.
Which teams do you expect to upgrade later in the season?
It’s so hard to say now! Snape is really good, that’s for sure. MAD Lions and U.S. too. Excel plays quite well, G2 the same. But it’s hard to tell who will be in play offs however.
Do you still trust Fnatic to reach the top 6?
Personally, I have confidence, in any case. If we manage to correct our little faults, there is no doubt for me. But I’m never 100% confident, I could never promise you that we will win the season. Maybe if you ask other players in my team, they can tell you…
“We worked a lot on our team spirit, the atmosphere, we tried to move forward on our cohesion. »
What was the team’s mood after your previous segment, finishing in third place after a dry defeat against G2 ?
We worked a lot on our team spirit, the atmosphere, we tried to move forward on our cohesion. These are things that we missed, we weren’t really a collective as soon as we left the game. lost this weekend? Maybe I’m too hard on ourselves. I really think we’re on the right track, they were just a bit unlucky games.
In the spring, you received a lot of praise and you came close to receiving the title of MVP…
I think it was deserved. I was playing really well at the start of the year, but my team was playing better overall, at least in the 18 regular season games. Now that we’re struggling a bit, it’s more complicated. When we win, it’s often Martin “Wunder” Hansen, Marek “Humanoid” Brazda who shine, or Ivan “Razork” Diaz who plays like crazy, while I often have a more secondary role.
What would qualifying for the Worlds next October mean to you? You must necessarily want to erase the failure of the past year (European vice-champion, Fnatic had been eliminated in the group stage, undermined by internal problems).
Going to Worlds is always the ultimate goal. Since I came to Fnatic (as of December 2017), it has become mandatory for me. Not going there would be a disappointment, not only for me but for the team. There’s a lot at stake, honestly. With the players we have, we should be able to achieve this easily. It would especially be really nice to be able to take Razork there, since he is the only one of the team who has never been there! »
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