The Lead-Up To Team Monte's Run At ESL Challenger’s Katowice

The results of day 1 have put the team one step closer to total victory, and Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz, Monte’s IGL, could not be more happier. The IGL has had a particularly rough year so far, putting up a stellar EVP-level performance at IEM Katowice on ENCE at the start of the year, only to be benched in May, forcing him to look for a new team. Now, hades is back in Katowice as Monte’s IGL, looking to take it all, something that he expressed in an interview with HLTV after day 1 concluded.

When asked about how important is it for Monte to win the tournament, hades said:

Yeah. It's the last big tournament of the year, so if we manage to do well in this, it sets us up for the new year and it sets everyone up because it's all about the Valve ranking next year, right? We wanna do as best as we can. It's really important because our online results have been pretty shaky recently. Now we had like two weeks of practice, so we wanna show that the practice is paying off and do well at this tournament.

When asked about being the lowest-ranked team at the tournament and why he chose to be its IGL, hades said:

I think we're gonna do pretty good on LAN. We're a team which is pretty emotional, so I feel like we can hype each other up really well. Also it doesn't affect us because we don't have as much pressure as the other teams. I think it's a good tournament for us.

Towards the end of my period in 9INE I was trying out IGLing. I kinda liked it, so it was something I wanted to continue with or try again in the future. When I got an offer in Monte I was able to try again, so I was like, why not? It's something I kinda like. I wouldn't really call myself a proper captain just yet, I would just say I'm an IGL because I lack in the captain qualities. I try my best, I sometimes do the captain style, but then I don't have this type of captain mentality just yet, I'm still working on myself in this direction. I think so far it's going pretty well. 

When asked about how he’s coming to terms with his new role and improving at it, hades said:

I try to take inspiration from every IGL I've played under, mynio, Snappi, gla1ve. I tried to take bits I like the most and try to implement it into our own game. Sometimes it's pretty good and sometimes it's a little bit inconsistent, but then I also have nawrot with me, who is also an IGL from the past, so he also helps me out a lot, tells me, 'we could have played this a bit different, you should have fought like this,' or 'you should have done this round after this round.' It just makes me think a bit more in-game. It's not easy for me, but I have really good people around me to learn from.

[As far as difficulties go,] mainly when it's mid-rounds, for example, and sometimes I have players who like to do their own bit. I always let them do their own bit, but sometimes they can just get on top of me. When that happens we just get too chaotic, so we just need to work on that mostly.

Towards the end, when asked about what kind of IGL he aspires to be, a strict one or a flexible one, hades said

For me, it's a bit of both. If someone wants to do their own thing in the map I'll support them, but if no one is saying anything I say my plan for the round. When I need to be strict I'm trying to be strict, and it seems to be working. I'm just trying to take feedback from everyone, if everyone's happy, if they have enough space, if they can do their own thing. I'm trying to have space for everyone.