nexa: "I need a couple more events to be fully comfortable calling"

spectrum 2 case2025-04-20 01:57:16536

We caught up with Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković after Imperial moved past Luminosity in Montreal to discuss the team's results and the recent roster changes.

The Lithuanian team finished second in Group B following a convincing 2-0 win over Luminosity, dropping just six rounds on Overpass after the first map, Cache, had been a close affair.

nexa admits that he is still not used to calling

Ahead of Imperial's semi-final clash against ENCE, Dust2.us' Danish "Nohte" Allana had a quick chat with nexa on matters concerning the team's rough start to life in Montreal, taking up in-game leading following Kevin "⁠kRYSTAL⁠" Amend's departure, their goals for the upcoming StarSeries event, and more.

On your first day here at DreamHack Montreal you were smashed by AGO. When you went back to your hotel, what did you discuss, how did you bounce back?

We bounced back pretty easily because we already knew what our mistakes were, to be honest. It was just jitters, it was the first LAN for one of our players, it was the first LAN with me calling, first LAN with two new players, and it was just some jitters. People were afraid to take duels and stuff like that, so we came in today [Saturday] with nothing to lose, no fear, we just started taking all the duels and you can see the result instantly showing.

Yes, you were down 10-5 against Heroic on Mirage, but you put up a really good T side half...

Well on Mirage we always have really good T sides, so even though we were down 10-5 we weren't really scared. We just go round by round, you win the pistol and you start snowballing. T sides come pretty easy for us since we have some insane aimers. When they are actually playing well and focused, and not being afraid, we take the duels and we hit our shots. T sides are pretty easy for us, no matter the map.

With you now leading in place of kRYSTAL, tell me a bit about the swap and the EspiranTo and kRYSTAL situation, what led to change, and how the team has changed since then.

If I'm being 100% honest, I didn't agree with the decision. It was just EspiranTo not wanting to play with kRYSTAL, he just didn't like his way of calling, so he basically forced our hand to choose between him or kRYSTAL and we just decided to keep him because he brings so much to the team in firepower, he's insane. Basically, that's just it.

You also had Lobanjica on board for a little bit. How did it happen?

Well, we were just searching for a new IGL, someone who could give calls that would fit our playstyle, and our playstyle is just basically individual plays all over the map, just killing people everywhere. So we were thinking, "who usually calls in FPL?", "who gives calls when he is the captain?" and we thought, 'why not try Loba?' He's the guy who always tries hard in FPL, just always gives calls, he's smart. We tried and we were doing really well with him, but since he's the guy who always sh*t talks on Twitter and he's the memer posting random sh*t Imperial just didn't want him associated with them so, unfortunately, we couldn't keep him.

What was his calling like, was it structured at all?

No no, it was basically the same as in FPL. Just puggy playstyle, we go for picks there, we go with three guys A apartments on Mirage, we go explode here, explode there, contact here, contact there, it was just pretty basic stuff and it was working really well because that's the kind of playstyle we want and that we are used to playing. All of us here we come from FPL, we come from pugs and that's the playstyle that suits us the most.

As a relatively new in-game leader, what was it like moving from calling online against lower tier teams to LAN against stronger opposition?

The first difference is that I personally feel a lot more pressure playing on LAN than online, not just pressure to perform but to keep a calm and level head so I can give proper calls. I kind of feel like I need a couple more events to just be fully comfortable with myself calling and moving around the map at the same time and not dying in some weird situation because I'm not used to calling and shooting at the same time, basically.

When it comes to EspiranTo, is it mostly him taking the initiative to make plays or are you sort of guiding him a little bit here and there?

It goes both ways, if I see an opening or something I will tell him to go there and peek, or if he feels like he has a good spawn he'll just say he's going to go peek up ramp and I'll just make a strat around it like I'll flash over him and we'll go three apartments or something, just simple plays. I'm just giving 100% freedom to all my players, they're just free to do whatever they want and then I design the strat around what they want to do.

Going into an event like StarSeries, it'll be another step up from an event like this DreamHack Open. How far do you think you can go there?

I think this will be some pretty good experience for us. I''m not expecting us to make that much impact there, but it's a Swiss best-of-one format so if you get good draws anything can happen. If we're on point like we are usually on LAN, we could go to the playoffs or something like that.

Speaking of formats a bit, the last StarSeries season used best-of-three Swiss, and a lot of tournaments still change up their format. Do you think there's been one that's the best so far?

Everyone is trying to find the perfect system that fits everyone. I personally think that best-of-three Swiss is the best system there is, and if I could choose I would choose that one. The downside is that it takes really long to play it out, especially at StarSeries, where there are 16 teams.

What does your coach Neil_M do for the team?

Right now, while I'm IGLing, he's behind me, supporting me 100%. He is coming up with ideas when he sees I'm stuck, he's always there to lend a hand, when we do a tactical pause he will come up with a strat if he sees that I don't know what to call. But usually he's our hype man, the sixth man of the team. We feel like he's always playing with us, he's always running around giving us fist bumps, yelling, pumping us up, and I think that he's a really important guy to have in your team.