“Already at the age of 2 he was playing CS. Let the teams fear his AWP!” moNESY’ brother spoke about the life of a new CS:GO star

In an interview for Cybersport.Metaratings.ru Andrey Osipov, brother of G2 Esports player Ilya m0NESY Osipov, spoke about how the transition from NaVi Junior to the European team took place, and about the formation of an esports player and his acquaintance with CS.

- Hey! Can you tell us how you got into Counter-Strike? What year was it?

- Hello! I got acquainted with Counter-Strike in a computer club. We gathered there after school, went to play 2 on 2 or 3 on 3. And when we moved to another apartment in 2006, then the Internet appeared, and then publics and mixes began. It felt like something serious was about to happen.

– Have you ever tried to break into esports by yourself? Did you play at LAN tournaments in Moscow?

– Of course, I tried to break into esports. As I said earlier, in 2006 I just got the Internet, and my parents bought a good computer. After about a year and a half or two years, I began to seriously train in Counter-Strike 1.6.

I played at the Moscow LAN tournaments. Our most popular club was Click-net. It took me 3 hours to get there. Of course, sometimes I didn’t want to go there because the road was very exhausting. But the team and I still went there, trained, talked.

But since the game lasted only until 2011, I did not have high results. You can consider that I played at a seven-pro level. I also took part in ASUS CUP.

– And how did things work out for you in CS:GO?

– If we talk about CS:GO, then I didn’t really want to switch to this game. I was still playing Dota 2 back then. I have 3000 hours there. It was only in 2014 or 2015 when I started playing CS:GO, but I didn’t think that this discipline would develop.

But then I realized that the game has a future. Then I started to train more seriously. We gathered a team, trained, then we broke up. Everything is as usual. As a result, I found one good squad, and we’d been playing for a long time. Even now we keep in touch with each other. We’re playing the amateur league from StarLadder, reached the match for a slot in the PRO series, but lost to the dudes, who were later banned for cheats.

It's a shame, because in fact, I could get a profile on HLTV and my career could have turned out differently. Then we tried to pass again but lost to the Polish team with a score of 8-16.

Then I began to devote less time to the game. As a result, I didn’t manage to achieve something in CS:GO.

Do you remember when you first saw m0NESY playing Counter-Strike?

- It's hard to believe, but already at the age of 2, Ilya played CS 1.6 and shot very well. He kept asking me for a computer and told our mother: “Mom, tell Andrei to let me play!” We naturally had scandals about this.

It happened that I went to the LAN, he understood this, he wanted to play, but there was no keyboard and mouse on the table. It was very funny. But at the age of 2, Ilya was already shooting normally, although these were public places where he went and was banned, because they thought he was a cheater.

- When Ilya was 10, he had level 10 on Faceit. This is considered a unique result for these years. Did you assume that he would someday pass to the TIR-1 level?

- Frankly speaking, I missed this moment, because then he went to the country for 3 months and upgraded level 10 there with his friend folya. Yes, this is a unique result, but I didn’t attach much importance to this, since I didn’t consider Faceit to be something special. I used to play on ESEA.

But some time passed, and he began to distribute hard. Then I already noticed it. He then had a crazy aim, and all the guys were in shock. And then everyone with whom I talked knew that he would be able to reach the pro level.

I remember how he put 4 hard headshots on Dust2. Then I said to myself: "That's it, he will definitely be in NaVi." I didn’t even imagine, I knew for sure that he would succeed, since the potential was very noticeable.

- Did your arents asked you why your younger brother sits on computer for days? What did you answer them?

- Until the age of 9, we shared a computer with him. No matter how much they swore at him, they paid more attention to me that I was sitting for days. But then I already explained to my parents that something could come of this, don’t scold him too much, because he studies well. We discussed, talked about it, I gave my examples, explained to them and they were loyal to his hobby.

– Do you play CS:GO now? How many hours do you have in total, counting 1.6?

– I rarely play CS:GO now, but I have 10 LVL, 2500 ELO. In general, I have somewhere around 11,000 hours, counting another 1.6

- What is Ilya like in real life? Could you describe him?

- Ilya is very kind, hardworking, calm. He treats those around him kindly. Yes, there are some quarrels between us, he is somewhere lazy, stubborn, but this is due to the fact that Ilya goes to bed late due to training.

For example, he sometimes cannot wake up, and he needs to go somewhere that day, his parents wake him up, but he is all sleepy, starts swearing, etc., but that’s all right.

If we take a look at his professional qualities, Rufire noted that Ilya is psychologically stable. This means that he is self-confident and confident in his game. He is self-disciplined, and it’s a very useful quality. He can focus very well, he has a very accurate and quick assessment of the situation, and this is very important for the player.

Ilya trains a lot. This means that he has good performance. It is seen in his number of hours in CS:GO (15,000). He also has a good learning ability, he competently draws the right information for himself, and naturally he has his own goal, at which he is aimimg.

- Amiran said in an interview that when NaVi signed m0NESY, they first of all talked with his family. Can you tell how the conversation went?

- It is very important for the organization that there are no problems with studies, that parents have a good attitude towards his work and do not forbid him to train a lot. Since Ilya had no problems with studying and parents: he studied well, I talked to my parents, he talked to them as well, we discussed all this staff, so the conversation with NaVi was short, without any problems.

– Can you be considered an agent of m0NESY? Are you fully responsible for his social networks and give him advice?

-I don't think 'agent' is the right word. I’m his brother who should help out of the game, close all questions, and there are a lot of them, including social networks. We have synergy with him, somewhere he can't resolve all issues without me, somewhere I can’t cope with all rugs without him. We always help each other.

– m0NESY spent two years in NaVi Junior. In the end, he began to hint that he would already like to leave and move to another level. Have you talked about it?

- Of course, we talked about moving to another team, since Valera B1t is well established in the base. We understood that there would be no replacements in NaVi in the coming years, and Ilya wanted to take it to a new level.

- Since you are much older than Ilya, did you help him manage his finances properly? Did you teach him financial literacy?

- I just advise Ilya not to waste money on unnecessaries. For example, he says that he wants to buy something, and I answer him that it’s better not to, or “Andrey, I want to invest here, but I say that he shouldn’t do that or, on the contrary, he should.”

- Now Ilya plays in an international team. Are you worried about him in terms of gameplay, and also when he goes abroad for a bootcamp?

- I'm not worried about Ilya in terms of the game. Let other teams be afraid of his Avik! But our parents were worried about his adaptation to G2, especially when he flew to the bootcamp. However, we see that the atmosphere there is cool. His English is at a good level, so everything is fine.

Thanks for the questions, good luck everyone!