Following Vega Squadron's victory over PANTHERS, we talked with Dmitriy "jR" Chervak and team manager Alexander "Lk-" Lemeshev about the ROG Masters EMEA Finals and other topics.

Vega Squadron got their campaign at the ROG Masters EMEA Finals, in Krefeld, off to a great start as they moved past PANTHERS  on two maps, losing just 15 rounds in the process.

jR's Vega Squadron got off on the right foot in Krefeld

Among other subjects, the Vega Squadron discussed their opening series in Krefeld, their expectations for this tournament, the rumours surrounding Dmitriy "⁠jR⁠" Chervak and Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov before they renewed their contracts with the Russian organisation, and more!

I'd like to start by talking about Inferno. You had a slow start and lost both pistols, but then you switched to the the CT-side and easily racked up enough rounds to win the first map. How were you guys feeling?

jR: The answer is simple. It was the first game in the morning, still way too early as we usually get up in the afternoon during bootcamps. That is the only thing. We lost some rounds trying to force and change the game, but it didn't work out. As we switched to CT, we were pretty confident about our game and we just finished the job.

Train was PANTHERS' map pick, but you had an easier victory. How do you guys feel about that map?

Alexander "⁠Lk-⁠" Lemeshev: We are as confident as we were supposed to be on Inferno. We just started out as Terrorists, trying not to think too much and trying to play as simply as possible. We were just doing really simple rounds, and they were working. It looked easy.

Were you worried about the veto, or was it something you did not think too much about?

jR: We did not really prepare a veto for the match as in trying to guess what they would pick. We tried not to overthink and just picked the comfortable maps for us.

How did you prepare for this tournament?

jR: We bootcamped for approximately three weeks, but the thing is that we did not really prepare for this one tournament. After returning from China, we only had one day off, and then, for a week and a half, we had an official match every day. So there was not really any time to prepare, we just tried to be in our best shape.

How are you guys feeling about facing either mousesports or ALTERNATE aTTaX?

jR: I think that mousesports might be the winner of that match-up. They are the stronger team, even though ALTERNATE aTTaX have a new line-up and want to surprise. I would say that there is an 80% chance it will be mousesports, and it will be our first match against them. We are just looking forward to the game and we will try to give our best.

Despite winning China Top, you failed to qualify for SL i-League Invitational Shanghai and WCA. How was the team's chemistry after those qualifiers?

Alexander "⁠Lk-⁠" Lemeshev: It was still ok. The last day before flying out to Germany, we had the decider match of WCA, which we lost against AGO, but in just 40 minutes we had the final against Natus Vincere for a place in the EPICENTER Wild Card qualifier, and we managed to qualify. So, beating Na`Vi improved the team chemistry. I would say that you could call EPICENTER a major tournament – not like a Major itself but it has a big prize-pool and great teams –, and even though we only qualified for the Wild Card stage, we are still pretty proud of it.

Lastly, at the end of the last season there was a lot of rumours surrounding jR and mir. How were you guys feeling about it? Did the contract renewals change anything? 

Alexander "⁠Lk-⁠" Lemeshev: We did not really think about changes or anything like that as we are what you call a team. We are together, we are doing our own thing and we have a goal that we want to achieve. If we had some problems or if players were thinking that they would be leaving for another team, we would not have renewed the contracts. But we did it, these are long-term contracts, and we are happy with them.