Krad 'They clutched unreal situations'

AMKAL had a strong run in the Group Stages of the Skyesports Championship 2024 but were simply outclassed by The MongolZ in the quarter-final as the $300,000 event moved to the LAN stage. AMKAL suffered a big defeat on Dust2 but it looked like they would fight back on Mirage, going 11-6 up before The MongolZ stole away the map at 13-11 to knock AMKAL out.

Following their loss to The MongolZ, AMKAL's captain Krad spoke to Dust2 India about his team's performance and more.

To start off, you took Dust2 as the first map. What was the idea behind it?

On Dust2, we saw how they played, it's not their main maps and they play really simple in my opinion. We had like, some crucial rounds, where they were going 2 B and we were 4, but we didn't understand. We were running without understanding. It was really chaotic in our TeamSpeak. I understood everything and I knew we need to be a bit chill and make moves. We didn't practice a lot because we were playing with a stand-in (Sdaim), and it is his first LAN, so it's a lot of pressure for him. That's why we were losing some easy situations.

There were a lot of rounds throughout the map where you lost man-advantages which you should have closed out. What happened?

After T-side on Dust2, I did a pause and told the team that we can do any setup but it won't work perfectly because the problem is in our mental and the communication. We were only giving info like - "Enemy here", "We Here", "What to do? - Nothing". That was the main problem. I told them to just relax and play like FACEIT. We didn't practice Mirage a lot, it was only a few pracs. We just played like FACEIT, and it was working because Mirage is more like a CIS thing. And it's easier for us to play on it with a mix. The pressure and experience in the clutches worked against us. They clutched unreal situations.

From the perspective of the opponents, what is so special about The MongolZ's playstyle that makes it so hard to counter?

They have really good players. They are good individually. It gives them a lot of space and understanding. They are skilled so they are not afraid. This is their main advantage.

How was the overall experience here at Skyesports Championship 2024?

It was really good. For me as IGL, it was a new experience. I wanted to see how I am going to perform, whether I would stress or not. I have understood some things now. And of course it is good for other players like Sdaim and shady. It was important for shady, to show what he can do on LAN, and for Sdaim to get more experience.