“We’re trying to create a good bond between everyone on the team.”

Noah “Nifty” Francis and his teammates beat CLG 2-1 to secure a playoff spot in Denver. HLTV sat down with him to talk about the team’s next game, the addition of Keith “NAF” Markovic to the roster, and the upcoming Asia Minor.

Aaron “AZR” Ward had a rough weekend with Renegades. In the match against CLG, Keith “NAF” Markovic was in pretty good form, and Noah “Nifty” Francis also had something of his own. I have “expensive” highlights.

Renegades just won the rematch of CLG in the group stage, how confident are you when entering the bo3 format?

The whole team went into the match with utmost confidence. We’ve won against CLG 8-1 in the last 9 maps, so everyone has played well against Renegades. Even though the first map ended 16-14, things didn’t go as expected – We didn’t play to the best of our ability.

Aaron “AZR” Ward actually performed quite well in this tournament, but we still see a mismatch between AZR and Justin “jks” Savage – what do you think is the reason?

Unfortunately, at this point, everyone has issues to deal with whether it’s outside or in the game. Right now, I’m trying to help him grow and get inspired, because Azr is a world-class player, and the job is to bring that consistency. So I’m helping him improve from now on, all he has to do is focus and perform at his best.

As for jks, he is having psychological problems, and these problems seriously affect the game. But everything will pass gradually, because of his aim ability, the way to judge the situation, location selection and everything is pretty good.Jks is really a very smart person in the game.

Tomorrow, the whole team will meet BIG in the semi-finals. I believe you haven’t faced them either, so how do you feel about that?

That’s right, we’ve never played against BIG, just watched them play. People have also seen their demos, they are really a pretty strong team, and also a creative team. I feel quite excited and if we control the game and communicate with each other like today, the whole team can beat them easily to get to the finals.

Coming up, Renegades is about to attend the Asia Minor, what do you think is the team’s chances at this Minor, and what do you think about the tournament being only for invited teams?

Recently, there have been quite a few events and tournaments, but it can be noticed that: everything of the team is better now than before. So no matter what happens, we will win.

Considering the recent invite-only Minor controversy, it’s quite odd, I don’t think they want to hold a mini qualifier. Everything will be OK with Renegades – because we are invte straight. As for the teams that do not qualify to participate, I understand that they are quite upset about this issue.

One of the other invited teams was Tyloo. What do you think about their recent addition of Vladyslav “bondik” Nechyporchuk to their main roster?

Tyloo is really a very “odd” team. With the trainer Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu and now they have bondik. I believe they can communicate in English well but no one has seen this. They go to a big tournament and say hello, goodbye, listen. wonderful! They also have excellent players in the team, but how the hell do they communicate and work together in the best way, how can the coach present the content in the best way? shop for the team.

Renegades used to use David “Jayzwalkingz” Kempner in the fifth position of the team, what made you decide to put him on the team?

When he initially came in for a trial, everyone assumed that David was more likely to be replaced because we had better options, one of which was Keith “NAF” Markovic. But Jayzwalkingz performed quite well with a lot of effort. He participates in a lot of activities and chores around the house, trying to learn strats. David also received many requests from the team.. One day after we made the requests, he got on the plane and left the team.

Final Jayzwalkingz has been replaced by NAF, what do you think about this replacement?

NAF is of course a person with good experience and skills. We’re creating a good bond between everyone and trying to help him get along better, and to show him that he’s part of the team.

Everyone wants him to be in the same house as the team, but we won’t force the NAF. He was reluctant to accept the invitation because he had felt uncomfortable with Optic before. I told him that we are a family in this house, where we can enjoy together, where we can accomplish things together.

What do you think about North America, below the level of professional gamers?

I see a lot of very good players, and they can join professional teams, when they can accumulate enough experience. Top teams can compete against professional teams in the qualifiers, things are getting stronger. And according to my teammates, right now there is a lot of Australian talent that is continuing to rise in the csgo scene.