M80 is ready to surprise everyone.
ESL Pro League (EPL) Season 19 starts tomorrow for Groups A and B. M80, now captained by Elias "s1n" Stein, will debut against BetBoom Team. Hired to replace Marcus "maNkz" Kjeldsen, s1n is the new in-game leader (IGL) of the North American team.
The German is the team's second player from the same country after the signing of Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich in November last year. Hired from BIG, s1n will lead M80's CS2 squad within the server. Ahead of the EPL, s1n feels comfortable.
"We started bootcamping in Katowice instantly. I'm calling more in English than I was used to in BIG where we also called in English so that's not much of a change. It's [just a] matter of adapting in talking, but has been really good. I'm feeling really comfortable."
New region, new game style
Coming from Europe, this is the player's first experience in North America. For s1n, there are clear differences in play style, but the goal is to get the best of each person's ideas.
I don’t dictate the pass or the way they play because I still want them to feel comfortable. That’s the most important thing for me. I'm trying to get the best of both worlds. I only was six days in Canada. It's obviously a bit different."
A fellow German
The new captain is the third European on the team. In addition to compatriot slaxz-, the team also has the British Rory "dephh" Jackson as its coach. Having another German on the team is positive, explains s1n.
"I know Fritz from a long time [ago] and it’s nice to have a fellow German teammate on the team. He’s a really nice guy. I look forward to playing with him. It’s a big plus there’s another German in the team for sure."
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M80's moment and s1n's expectation for EPL
For EPL Season 19, s1n and M80 want to advance to the next stage. M80 arrives at the competition confident after securing a spot in the Esports World Cup (EWC). Along the way, the team beat teams like Elevate, Legacy, and Team Liquid.
"I personally think we have the potential and the skill to reach playoffs. We got some good teams in our group stage. Let’s see how it goes. There’s no big pressure for us. We are a very young team," s1n said.
The captain praised the team's performance in the EWC qualifier and showed that the team is prepared for great challenges.
"Beating Team Liquid is obviously huge. We had two chances. We had a nice start and then we got Liquid and they beat us hard. Then we had the run in the lower bracket. We beat Legacy also. We lost Vertigo there, which I think we should've won. We had Liquid again and we knew what we could expect. We watched demos and we prepared for that match. We found a solution on how to play against them."
"If we play with all our strength in our games, we can beat a lot of teams and surprise also a lot of people."
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