Thank you for your question, /u/Tsirai.

It was a challenging period for the team back when I joined. They were left without a coach and a general manager when they just dropped out from the RMR, without a chance to participate in the year's most prestigious event.

I have been following the CSGO team closely past few years, and I always had my own opinion on the situation and how I would adapt the team. However, things are veeery different from the inside than what you can get observing the team from the outside. Being an esports manager at G2, I had an opportunity to listen to the scrims and comms, which gave me some excellent insights and good learnings for step one.

As the second step, our head of esports and I sat down with every individual on the team to gather intel from their POV on the 1on1 calls. To feel their thoughts, hear how they feel, and listen to how they want to proceed. Based on the learnings, we sat down and made a restructuring plan after I got offered an opportunity to join the team as their General Manager.

Third step, we hosted an offline workshop with the boys in Berlin in late October last year, where we spoke about what the team has achieved and what the expectations were (we did the reality check). We analyzed the positives and negatives about the team and individuals and concluded how we wanted to proceed forward. We spoke about the structural changes and hierarchy, roles, responsibilities, and leadership and ensured that the vision with a clear plan was shared with everyone. Introducing Edward at the right time was also a blessing.

I personally value hard work and dedication. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. On the mentioned workshop session, we spoke about the approach to work, re-learning the fundamentals and the new implementations of the rules on practices. We started creating good habits instantly.

Having said all that, nothing would have worked if the players were not dedicated and ready to show the world what they are actually made of. There we come to the fourth step - implementation of the new system and endless grind like we were starting from scratch. Full credit should be given to the players, and we (the support staff) are there just to support them and assist in what they do the best, making sure that they can solely focus on their crosshairs. Without their dedication, transparency, honesty and hunger - we wouldn't have been where we are now.