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ELEAGUE Major Boston: Janko ‘YNk’ Paunovic previews The New Legends

By Brittany Frederick

Janko 'YNk' Paunovic (center) at the analyst desk for ELEAGUE Major Boston. Photo Credit: Courtesy of ELEAGUE.
Janko 'YNk' Paunovic (center) at the analyst desk for ELEAGUE Major Boston. Photo Credit: Courtesy of ELEAGUE. /
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ELEAGUE Major Boston enters The New Legends stage Friday, and analyst Janko ‘YNk’ Paunovic spoke to FanSided about what’s ahead in the group stage.

The qualifying is done, now it’s time to battle at the ELEAGUE Major Boston. The New Legends stage begins Friday, with 16 teams remaining in the first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major of 2018.

This is where the competition gets heated, so FanSided recruited ELEAGUE analyst and one of CSGO‘s finest tactical minds, Janko “YNk” Paunovic, to look at The New Legends and tell us what teams and matchups you should be watching this weekend.

Check out Janko’s analysis of the second stage below and then tune in exclusively to Twitch to watch live starting at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT from Jan. 19 to Jan. 22.

Limited tickets for the ELEAGUE Major Boston’s live competition phase at Agganis Arena are still available here.

FanSided: Firstly, ELEAGUE fans were psyched when you joined the team for last fall’s ELEAGUE Premier and we’re so glad to have you back for ELEAGUE Major Boston. How have you enjoyed being part of the brand?

Janko “YNk” Paunovic (JP): It’s been awesome. Obviously I’ve gotten to work with pretty much everyone from the talent group before, but I never got to work with the guys from ELEAGUE. It was definitely something that I feel like I was missing for me, since I have such a good relationship with all the other tournament organizers in the field. It was definitely a great experience.

They 100 percent treat the talent super well. It’s a different way of running the show, in terms of approach and just professionalism. It was great to experience that as well. I just had a blast working with them for the Premier playoffs and was very happy to hear that they wanted me to come back for the Major as well.

FanSided: You got to see some surprising results in The New Challengers stage, such as the Vega Squadron upset of FaZe Clan. What stood out to you from the opening round?

JP: It’s been a very turbulent New Challengers stage. We had a lot of crazy games. Vega was involved in most of them. I think probably what stood out for me was how good the CIS teams were just in general. Even the Avangar guys were really, really good. QBF also managed to qualify for the next stage.

Besides that, it’s also how impressive Cloud9 has looked. [It] definitely seems like this lineup is looking the best that we’ve seen Cloud9, probably ever, and it really gives you high hopes and a lot of expectations coming into the next stage. If they are going to be able to make it to the New Champions stage, the playoffs so to speak, in Boston, which will be really awesome — having a North American team in front of the home crowd.

FanSided: With some of these lesser-known teams making it through into ELEAGUE Major Boston: The New Legends, is there anyone that you think could be particularly disruptive in this round?

JP: I think there’s a lot of possibilities like that, simply because we still have the best-of-one [system] in place, so that doesn’t necessarily test your best as a team. In reality, you will have to play a maximum of four maps. You always have the three vetoes, perhaps even less than that depending on the match-ups.

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So I think you look toward a team like BIG, who’s been pretty disappointing since Krakow. They obviously made the Legend stage and secured the spot at this tournament, so you know that they’re going to be putting in a lot of work, even over the break, to prepare for those specific maps and potentially cause some upsets again.

It’s also going to be interesting to see Space Soldiers in the next phase, because now they’re accustomed to the whole studio environment. They made their main goal of advancing to the New Legends stage, so that’s going to be an interesting one to see.

And last but not least, I look forward to seeing how Fnatic is going to do. [In the] last two tournaments of 2017, they did make the playoffs but they had to play FaZe both times in their opening game, as well. That’s a bit unrewarding for them. It’s obviously very difficult to play against FaZe, but perhaps against all the other teams, Fnatic can prove their worth and maybe secure a Top 8 spot.

FanSided: The New Legends is also where we’re going to see some of the teams that ELEAGUE viewers are familiar with, like previous ELEAGUE Major champions Astralis. How do you think they’ll fare with dev1ce back on the roster? Is it that simple for them?

JP: Astralis has more issues than just not having Dev1ce for the end of the season. I think that’s very evident. Looking back now in 2017, they didn’t have as nearly as many championships as they were probably hoping for or that people were expecting from them, considering how they started off the year.

Obviously the rise of SK and FaZe is going to make life a lot more difficult for them and it’s going to be very interesting to see how they perform. If they don’t have a good showing here — not necessarily in terms of results but also in terms of how they play — you wonder if maybe some changes are on the horizon for the Danish lineup as well, seeing as how much talent they have in that scene.

Astralis is obviously a team that strives to be a championship-winning team. They’re not going to be satisfied with just getting top scores or just getting Legend status again or anything like that.

FanSided: Their competitors in that last Major were Virtus.pro, who have been on a terrible decline pretty much since Atlanta. They drew QB Fire in their first BO1. Could that be an easier start for them, or what do you think of VP’s chances at ELEAGUE Major Boston?

JP: I think the QBF matchup might be a two-edged sword, in a sense that if they somehow manage to lose to QBF, that would probably set the tone for VP coming out of the Major which is something that no one wants to see, including me. But I think it’s a great matchup for them to get into the tournament. Weaker opponent, you get the jitters off basically [in] the first official game of the new year and at the Major.

With VP, it’s very difficult to pinpoint them. The way they play Counter-Strike, the way they approach the game, it’s pretty much perfect. What has led to their failings in the last year has been individual performance which has been lacking. That’s the biggest question mark for them. You know that they’re going to have a good game plan, you know that they’re going to play well as a team. It’s [if] they will play at a good enough level individually to get those wins against some of the tougher opponents that they’re going to definitely meet in this stage of the tournament.

FanSided: Are there other ELEAGUE Major Boston: The New Legends matchups on your radar?

JP: I’m definitely excited to see Gambit verus Na’Vi, because of the whole grudge match situation. I’m also looking forward to Cloud9 verus G2 because those were the two teams that were the most dominant in the New Challengers stage.

Besides that, North and Vega. How is North going to look there? They’re a dark horse in this tournament, in the sense that they have been underwhelming towards the end of the year; when they initially added Valde, they were looking pretty strong. Seeing them and how they’re going to look after the player break is going to be very, very interesting.

FanSided: Let’s talk about your side of the analyst desk. Fans love the way you approach the game, like the “Weatherman” thing you’ve become known for or the bit of casting you did at the cs_summit. Do you have anything planned for the ELEAGUE Major?

JP: I don’t know. It’s probably best to just wait for it to show [up] on the broadcast. But I think it’s definitely going to be very interesting and very entertaining no matter what, simply because I’m sure that with the teams that are being fielded at this tournament, we’re going to have amazing games. Once you have that, that makes our job much, much easier and I think makes it much more interesting for the viewers back home.

FanSided: We have gotten to see you sit at the ELEAGUE Major Boston desk with different people, like Richard Lewis and Henry “HenryG” Greer. How has it been to bounce off different talent?

JP: it’s been an interesting new dynamic, so to speak. Because I’m so used to working with the likes of Machine, obviously, and SPUNJ at the desk. I think we did most of the events together, actually, in the past year. To get used to the whole dynamic, what people prefer to talk about and so forth, it’s a good change of pace in a sense of mixing things up.

And I just love working with Richard as a desk host. Just when I was starting out was basically when he was moving to ELEAGUE, so I only got to work a couple of tournaments with him. I always welcome a chance to work with Richard on the desk every chance I get.

FanSided: As the ELEAGUE Major Boston kicks off 2018 in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is there anything else you’d like to see for competitive CSGO this year?

JP: I think the format at the Majors has been relatively the same for a while now, and something that I would like to see moving forward at some point is moving away from these best-of-ones. I feel Counter-Strike has evolved so much, all these teams have evolved so much that you’re taking away a big advantage for a team if you force them to play one map.

I think that’s what separates good teams from great teams, being able to play well on maps that may be third, fourth, or fifth on your depth chart. I think that’s something that you can rarely see in a best of one because of the ability to just veto three maps out of the four.

I think that’s something that would be a very much welcome change, even though I understand all the logistics problems and everything that goes with that. The games will still be good even if it’s a best-of-one. But to the results and everything would be definitely different if you were playing full best-of-three series instead of best-of-one.

Next: Jason "Moses" O'Toole talks ELEAGUE Major Boston

ELEAGUE Major Boston: The New Legends is now streaming live on Twitch from Jan. 19 to Jan. 22, starting at 10 a.m. ET each day. For complete coverage of the Major, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.