With Impact Season 3 already underway and their opening match against CLG Red just around the corner, we sat down with IGL Anna ‘\u009cbuhnny’\u009d Cheung to discuss the team’s changes and future.<\/p>\n
Sam ‘\u009cAN1MO’\u009d McKenzie, BLIX.GG: <\/strong>The last time we spoke was after your elimination at ESL Impact Katowice, and you spoke about being excited to learn from your defeats; tell me about that process and what you learned from them.<\/p>\n Anna ‘\u009cbuhnny’\u009d Cheung: <\/strong>Katowice was a great experience. We learned more about the way other teams play, and more importantly, we learned not to be scared of playing at LAN. Honestly, it’\u0099s been hard to actually go deep into the demos of the games in Katowice because of some of the roster instability we’\u0099ve had. However, we still have the same core, and we’\u0099ve retained the knowledge of the mistakes we made in Poland and learned from them. Also, I learned you can’\u0099t win them all, which is important for managing expectations and growing as a team.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>Your team has undergone multiple changes since then, with one player leaving and another kicked; how did that all happen?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>There’\u0099s no bad blood with Paula, but she chose to leave because of some of the drama surrounding the team after Katowice and not wanting to be around that. We’\u0099re all still good friends, and we support her decision to do so. Hopefully, she will find herself on another team soon. With Jess [JKranny], we had already discussed removing her before we went to Poland. The main reason we didn’\u0099t, though, was that we made the LAN with that roster, so we wanted to play there with that roster too. The decision was largely performance-based and realizing we needed to make a change to progress further as a roster.<\/p>\n BLIX:<\/strong> There has been some pretty high-profile drama surrounding the kicked player, did that factor into the decision-making process at all?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>As I said, we were already discussing removing her for performance-related reasons. That being said, the drama definitely didn’\u0099t help. It really impacted our team at LAN, and it became something that overshadowed our time there. I don’\u0099t want to say too much about it, but I will say that I’\u0099ll always look out for what’\u0099s best for my team.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>How did you find your new players?<\/p>\n buhnny:<\/strong> We’\u0099ve known about Daria [bezdaria] for a while. She’\u0099s been on a few teams, and we’\u0099ve seen her around in both Impact Cash Cups and in pugs. We actually wanted to trial her when she first moved to Canada in August, and we were building our team, but with Impact Season 2, we were in a time crunch and just needed to start practicing with a five. It just made sense to try again with her this time. We found Sofia [eychesdot] through a mutual friend, but we already knew her because she’\u0099s also played Impact before. She has experience, and she’\u0099s a smart player. Her team wasn’\u0099t competing this season and they said they could look for other opportunities, so we asked her to come trial for us and it went well so we picked her up as our fifth.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>How are they gelling with the roster so far?<\/p>\n buhnny:<\/strong> We had to switch some roles around, but I think it’\u0099ll work out. It’\u0099s good because we pug together, and that’\u0099s really helpful for building up chemistry and friendship, something I think is really important for building a successful team.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>One of the departing players was your AWPer; who will be taking the role, and how are they adjusting?<\/p>\n buhnny:<\/strong> Olya is our AWPer now. She’s always wanted to AWP, so she’\u0099s fine taking over the role. She’\u0099s having good impact so far, which is important. Her stats are crazy so far. BLIX:<\/strong> Your Impact campaign begins on Thursday with a match versus CLG Red. Do you feel ready for the season to begin despite the roster being finalized so recently? What are your expectations for the season?<\/p>\n buhnny:<\/strong> As you say, the roster has only recently been completed, so we’\u0099d be lying if we said we’\u0099re as prepared as we would want to be. We haven’\u0099t properly finalized our map pool, but we’\u0099ve been practicing every day, so that’\u0099s not to say we aren’\u0099t confident already. Our expectations are to at least make Dallas; that’\u0099s really important for us. Of course, we also hope to get an org this year; that’\u0099s the next step if we really want to push on as a team.<\/p>\n BLIX:<\/strong> CLG Red have been the best team in NA for a while; why is there such a big gap between them and the other teams?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>CLG has been around for years. They have players who have been playing for years and competing for years. They have a lot of experience and know what it takes to compete at a high level. It’\u0099s a lot to catch up on. They also benefit from being backed by an org, which is obviously huge compared to teams that aren’\u0099t.<\/p>\n BLIX:<\/strong> Do you think you can be the team to overtake them? How much harder will it be to do so without an organization backing you?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>I think we can with time. If we stick together this year and work hard, we can definitely overtake them. They’\u0099re obviously very strong, but they aren’\u0099t undefeatable. Our new team has what it takes to compete at a high level, but guidance would help us get there quicker. It’\u0099s hard to find a coach willing to put in the hours to help us get there while we’\u0099re still unsigned.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>Despite CLG’\u0099s successes within your region, they struggled in Poland. Why do you think NA is struggling so much against international opposition?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>When we play in NA, we’\u0099re playing the same people repeatedly. It’\u0099s harder to grow when you’\u0099re playing the same players over and over again and not learning from teams that come from other regions. It’\u0099s also the case that with those European players, many of them started playing far earlier than we do in America. I also think there are generally fewer PC players in NA than in EU, which limits the strength of the player base.<\/p>\n BLIX: <\/strong>Do you think your team is the one that can break through and find success internationally?<\/p>\n buhnny: <\/strong>It’\u0099s going to take a lot of work. Everyone we played on LAN at Katowice was insane. To be honest, it’\u0099s not something we can do without getting signed. Even then, it will take a lot more than your typical 40-hour work week. We’\u0099ll have to grind consistently to reach their level. Still, I do believe we can find that success if we do find an organization and can commit all of our time to the game.<\/p>\n Cover image credit: Freddie ‘\u009cGrimyRannarr’\u009d Pritchard<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps a surprise inclusion to the teams competing at ESL Impact Katowice, Saints capped off their rapid ascension in NA Impact by qualifying for the event by defeating EG Gold. Unfortunately, their time in Poland ended in disappointment, and since then, their roster has undergone multiple changes. Read more: GFi: “My greatest hope is for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":9834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/07367559261bfe30.jpeg\")
Image credit: Freddie ‘\u009cGrimyRannarr’\u009d Pritchard<\/span><\/div>\n
Olya has taken over AWPing, and so far, it’\u0099s going really well. She also wanted to AWP, so it wasn’\u0099t a case of having to force someone who wasn’\u0099t comfortable with the added pressure into the role. So far, she’\u0099s having good impact. In fact, her stats are better than our previous AWPers were. It’\u0099s looking positive.<\/p>\n