If you aren’t considering Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov one of CS2’s best players, you must have missed the entirety of the BLAST World Final in Singapore this week.
The 19-year-old sniper has been tearing teams apart almost on his own this week. Liquid and Spirit tasted his wrath in the group stage before he gave us his best against Vitaity in the semifinal, posting a 1.55 rating and a +27 kill differential in the three-map series.
Very little stands in the way as m0NESY and G2 storm toward their third title of the calendar year. And yet, many still wonder what the prodigal sniper's limit is in CS2. As he said to esports.gg following the semifinal win, it's the support system in place at G2 that enables him to reach these lofty heights.
G2 m0NESY: "If we're in a good zone, we're strong"
“Talk me through the preparation for today's game. There was a lot of discussion about punishing Vitality in the veto because they've got JACKZ standing in. Is that how you see it?”
“Obviously, when you have a stand-in on your team, you try to play it a bit differently because usually when you prepare as a team you have your own set of things you expect from each player. It was the same when we played with Stewie2K; we also played against Vitality with Stewie in the grand final in Dallas.
“Sometimes it's maybe a bit easier also to play for the team… but we just kept playing our game. We wanted to focus on our game; you just need to understand how they play and then play around it.”
“On Dust 2, you guys were up 11-9, Vitality was working their way back into the map. You call the timeout, TaZ says a few words, you regather and you finish them off three rounds later. What is it that you say in moments when things are slipping away and you've got to pull yourselves back?”
“To be fair, I don't really remember what we said on the freeze-time, but I just remember that we had to slow down the game a bit. We were playing very fast. We were, I would say, leading and playing at our tempo — we were winning but we were making fast decisions and we just had to slow down a bit and play a bit of default, and that's what we did. Victor says very good words on timeouts during the game; it's helpful, it helps the team.”
“What lessons did you learn from the last time you played Vitality on Mirage in the BLAST Fall Final? That game went to OT, and this one was looking like it could have gone the same way.”
“It’s just about making sure you're ready for things they might do, and you're just like playing around it maybe sometimes. I cannot answer personally, I just don't focus too much on my enemies, but I focus on myself a lot. And as a team as well, we focus on ourselves. If we're in a good zone, we're strong, you know?”
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m0NESY is "obsessed" with Counter-Strike
“This has been an incredible tournament for you on a personal level. You've been building up to the Shanghai Major as one of the favorites for the best player of 2024. What do you credit as the biggest motivators for improving?”
“From the players in our team to the coach, management, and everyone else, they help me to feel comfortable and, not just motivated, but just to keep progressing. You should not forget that you always need to learn from the mistakes you do and from other players as well, because if you only look at yourself and you focus only on yourself, it's bad.
“I also think you should always help players, and if you see a player making a mistake, you can speak with them about it, and you will also learn from it, you know? I think it’s just having people around me, like great people around me — they help me to develop. It helps that I'm obsessed with this game and I love playing this game. I love Counter-Strike.”
“There's obviously a lot of talk about the future of the lineup. How special would it be if you guys were to leave here tomorrow with the trophy?”
“I mean, everyone wants to win. I don't know who will be in our grand final tomorrow, but I think every team wants to win and it would be very special for us to win this tournament just because of how much we've been working towards this. It will be amazing to lift another trophy here in Singapore.”
G2 will take to the stage tomorrow chasing their third trophy of 2024 at the BLAST World Final in Singapore. Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and coverage.
