MCD player Dan “rpr” Ušić: “We are very confident, our playstyle won’t change and it will work against any team in any region, we just play our game and focus on ourselves, we’re not scared of anyone.”
After parting ways with North, the team of Mande, Taisheen, and rpr came into the Winter Circuit without an organization to their name, despite this, the team managed to set a statement entrance to the circuit by winning the first tournament in Europe, qualifying themselves for playoffs, and also bringing themselves even closer to Championship qualification. Today we talk with rpr about the recent victory, look ahead into the Winter Circuit, and Season 8.
Thank you for accepting this interview. First off, congratulations on winning the first Winter Circuit tournament, as well as qualifying for the playoffs, how does it feel kicking off the circuit with such a start?
rpr: You know we had a great 2020 with amazing consistent results ending in top 2 in Europe, but our year ended on a pretty sour note, having been dropped from our org. So going into 2021 and winning the first ALGS tournament and on top of that qualifying for both playoffs and further cementing our spot into the $1,000,000 championship is probably the best feeling ever for an orgless team right now.
I can imagine that playing without an organization can put on some more pressure to perform, as it’s harder to have a more secure position. Do you think it affected the team coming into the Winter Circuit?
rpr: It surely did affect us a little bit. But in general, we knew what our game plan was and what we are capable of so we just played our game, our synergy is unmatched and the system we have in place relieves that pressure as soon as we get into the game.
Touching on that synergy, do you think it’s one of the key factors in how the team operates? You’re often not found scrimming, yet you always perform consistently as a team.
rpr: Of course it is, we worked a lot on our synergy when we first started as a team inside and outside the game and at a certain point it reached the top and we realized that there’s no point for us to scrim anymore because we won’t be learning anything, we would rather focus on our mental health and making sure we’re in the right spot for the tournaments, hence we haven’t scrimmed in like 8–10 months or something.
Of course, I’m not saying scrimming is not going to teach you anything, it just won’t teach us anything since we’re at a point where we already know everything we need to know and we just need to focus on winning.
I see, now coming back to the tournament, during the last game we got a chance to catch a listen in on the main broadcast, at that moment some title contenders started showing in the kill feed, how much do you feel it impacts your decision making knowing the standings of your opponents?
rpr: It impacted a lot of our decision-making, for instance when we knocked someone on Totem Esports we instantly went for thirst and tried to end their game right there by applying more pressure on them.
Also when we realized that Magicians were up the hill and that they had to rotate in the open field I told my boys to hard focus them with Charge Rifles because they were our main rival. After those two teams got eliminated we kind of had a feeling we had already won when we were in the top 4 situation.
Now with that, you’ve qualified for the Playoffs, but more importantly it has also set you up in a really good position to qualify for the Championship, looking at the likely scenario that you are qualified, how do you think your team will fare against the competition from abroad?
rpr: The qualification for playoffs and the fact that we are instantly in the finals of WC OT#2 basically 100% guarantees us a spot in the Championship purely on the amount of ALGS points we just secured. In terms of comparing us to the teams from across the world, we are very confident, our playstyle won’t change and it will work against any team in any region, we just play our game and focus on ourselves, we’re not scared of anyone.
Are there any specific teams or players you would like to face at the Championship?
rpr: I would love to go against TSM, NRG, and Complexity from North America and as for APAC, Reignite South, Crazy Raccoon, and T1. All of those are crazy teams, and I’m sure there’s more that I don’t even know about that are going to surprise us.
Obviously the announcement for the Championship is something that has 2021 looking bright, but are there any other things you would like to come for Competitive Apex this year?
rpr: I would love to have as many LAN events as possible within this year, I would also like to see the EA partnership bring in more organizations and that the events get advertised even more. The viewership has been going up consistently but I really think we can reach some crazy heights this year.
Now, we’ll also have season 8 coming up, do you think that the new legend Fuse will bring any change in the meta for competitive?
rpr: Yes, I believe Fuse will be meta, his abilities seem to be way too strong to not be utilized in some way, that being said we are probably going to be one of the first teams to pull him out in competitive.
Also touching on Season 8, do you think the map changes might help Kings Canyon to become a more viable map for competitive? Given that there’s been quite some complaints when it was in the rotation before.
rpr: I quite liked Kings Canyon before, but after seeing these changes I believe it will make the map a lot bigger and give better options for rotations which should be beneficial for competitive.
Lastly, is there anything you would like to add?
rpr: Just wanna thank my teammates for sticking with me and all our fans and our families for supporting us endlessly every day. We appreciate everyone more than you guys would think.
Also to organizations we’re looking forward to talking to you guys ;)
