I caught up with Saikosys from Arial Arise. We discussed winning Stage 2 of Challenger League, the In Game Leader role, some of his current and former teammates, and more.
I figured the best place to start is the most recent event that you competed in with Arial Arise, which was SCS. I think it’s fair to say you guys didn’t get as far as you wanted to. But what do you think of performance overall? How did you guys do in SCS 7?
Well, we honestly did horrible by our standards, and we weren’t happy with the performance at all. We evaluated ourselves and we’re pretty certain we found the problems with our roster.
On that topic, a lot of what the analysts and casters said was that Qrtz was the engine of this team, but he’s also on the hard breach. At least during SCS, you guys essentially lived and died off of whether or not Qrtz was shooting back. Was that identified as, he shouldn’t be on hard breach or those role changes were more substantial just moving one player.
From our point of view, it wasn’t like Qrtz was like the heart of the team. We all played equal parts. It’s just I think the roles were optimal at all. Because during Stage 2 obviously, I teamed with Tra stage and I’m teamed with Tra now. And me and Tra, we were on opposite rules that we were on Stage 2. I was on Tra’s roles and Tra was on my roles. And obviously, if we won Stage 2 with the roles that we are on now after the revamp, then we should’ve just been on those roles to start with.
Talking about Tra because you are playing with him again. What can you tell me about him as a teammate? I think he’s had an interesting journey and meeting back up with you is very interesting. Because he gets dropped going into Stage 3 and then Aqualix has a very hard time in that stage. So what does Tra bring to the table? Because clearly, he brought something otherwise there wouldn’t have been such a significant drop off, right?
Yeah. Well, our Stage 3 performance for aQ, I do think that dropping Tra was a mistake in hindsight. But that’s not at all why we did bad Stage 3. I think the main reason why we did bad Stage 3 is that we had no identity as a team. Everyone had a different way that they wanted to play the game.
Too many cooks in the kitchen kind of deal?
Not exactly. It’s just like, we wanted to play fast. Not everyone can play fast. We wanted to play slow. Not everyone can play slow. Stuff like that.
So that’s Stage 3, where things weren’t going right. Let’s rewind back a little bit to Stage 2 then because I think winning Stage 2 is a pretty big deal. You guys were really dominant in that stage and the only times you lost were 7-5s or max overtimes. So obviously putting up a great fight throughout that entire stage. What was it like working with players like Beastly? Storied career there. You’re working with Gasher, he’s on TSM killing it now. You know, you were working with Tra, and Apher. But you’re working with this really solid team and you’re doing really well. How do we get there?
Our Stage 1 performance was obviously not that great. So we needed to make roster moves. And Gasher wanted to have less pressure on him in terms of like, micromanaging the team and everything, so we wanted a player like Bex which complimented his weaknesses very well, and that allowed him to enable himself more. And it also helped me because naturally, I try to help the team out as much as possible. So if the team is missing in a certain department, then I naturally tried to fill it. And in hindsight, that’s really not the play, I should just keep doing what I do best. So Bex helped there. He was like the glue. He was like the glue for the team.
Everyone always likes to talk about the Gasher system, right? The mid rounding and all that stuff. What are your thoughts on it having played in the Gasher system?
I mean, the “Gasher system,” I kind of had a system like that on all my past teams so it’s not that different. I can get all the info and make all the plays from my point of view myself. So during Stage 2 me and Gasher would be the main shot callers and calling everything and then Bex was the green light. And then we had Apher and Tra as the fraggers. I was still the primary fragger, but I definitely was also calling. Like I made a lot of plays in everything that involves people. Gasher did too. So me and him just had a two way system with Bex as well.
Was there anything that set the Gasher system apart? Or was it just kind of like very, very similar to those past mid round calling systems that you had experienced in your past teams?
I mean, the one thing that I did notice is that Gasher knew what needed to be done. He knew what needed to be done and what he needed to accomplish it. Which wasn’t really the case before.
That was Aqualix. That was working with Beastly and Gasher, two very strong IGLs. In Arial Arise currently, I don’t think you have anyone that fits the traditional IGL mold. Is there someone filling that spot right now? Or is it more of the Xset model where everyone’s having a voice and participating in the shotcalling?
I would say that was switching a lot lately. Or, it did switch a lot in the past. But I think the main person, IGLing now is slothi since he’s on the hard breach role. But everyone does their part.
Everyone’s communicating to give all the information and kind of build the picture and give ideas. So what are your thoughts on the IGL role then? Because I think it’s one of the most under-talked about but very important roles in Siege. You look at Mr.B, Canadian, Fabian, Gasher, these are very prominent players, when they show up and in the impact that can have in game. But at the same time, there’s not a lot of discussion about what makes a good IGL. So in your thoughts, What is the IGL role, what are they supposed to do, and why aren’t there more IGLs?
I think the main issue with IGL is that they need to know what the team needs and that is what makes a team accomplish the most. Like, if you look at Gasher, no one would have thought that our Stage 2 roster would win, but we had everything that we needed to do that. And I feel like Mr. B also looks at it in a similar way. He knows what he needs so he gets the players that he needs, and he can work with them off of that. I feel like that’s what’s needed the most, because if you’re an IGL and you control the team, and you know what you need and what you want, and you have those pieces, then you can IGL all you want. Because you literally control, I guess what you’d say is like you control the board.
Okay, so do you think part of the problem is, at least in T2/T3 those IGL type players aren’t given the control they need, or do you think it might be an issue of like, they’re not willing to take control? Because that’s a pretty big burden to bear. Because if you screw up, it’s all on you. Right? So what do you think it is? People are unwilling to step up to the plate or more there’s just no one able to fill that void?
I mean, I’ve tried being like the IGL in the past. I’ve done it a few times and it kind of sucks because at the end of the day, you are doing the dirty work and you probably won’t get appreciated for it. The only reason why Gasher And Mr.B got appreciated for it is because they won CL. It just matters if your team does good or not and that states if you are a good IGL or not, from an outside point of view of course.
At the end of the day, everyone wants to do good stat wise. No one wants to have a 0.7 rating so everyone naturally tries to be a fragger. Whenever you’re first starting the game, there’s very few players that are just like, “yeah, I want to be able to control the team and like, igl them,” right? Most people are just like, “oh, I want to be like, Beaulo, I want to be like Shaiiko, I want to be like Nuers.” Everyone wants to be that star player rather than IGL. And of course, the IGL can be a star player, but it’s much harder and it’s in a different way.
Having looked at people you’ve played with or had coach you, you’ve had a lot of really big name people. So I would argue Kilo’s on the up and up, but then in Panik Gaming in 2021, you were playing with Gotcha. And you had Fett as a coach. And then in SCS 6, you had Bio and Forrest on the team. So you’ve played with some pretty big names. Have some of these people influenced you? Like Gotcha or Bio or Forrest, how have these people influenced you or changed your mindset on the game?
I’ll start with Fett because he’s coached me the longest out of everyone. Probably I have like a year of experience with him. Last year I did Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3 with him. So that’s pretty much like an entire year despite Stage 3, he was technically a player. But I’ll start it with Stage 3 Panik overall because like, I’m gonna be honest, it was something. So from Stage 2, me and Chris, wngs, we got along really well. And as players we worked really well together. So Gotcha came to me and said, hey, I want to try you out. I’m like, alright, you need 2, can we try out wngs? And he’s like, yeah, sure.
I’ll say it went way different than that, we had an interview and etc. And we did one night of tryouts and we got picked up on the same night. And it went really well. Um, so like, we left the team [SH Esports] which disbanded the license, which kind of sucked but it is what it is. But then right before the stage started, wngs got banned. And he could have appealed the ban because he just got banned with Vladr. But he didn’t want the stress of playing with the rep.
Yeah, that kind of thing does not disappear quickly or easily.
So at that point, my mental was kind of chalked because the past three stages before that, it was really rocky for me mentally, just because of the team environments I was in. So going into Stage 3, with no offense, but we had a coach as a player, which was Fett. And then we had Gotcha and Oasis, who are really good support players, and then we had me and Barring as fraggers. So like, fragging power was split between just me and Barring and of course, we wanted a three fragger system, right? But we can’t do that anymore. So my mental was kind of chalked to be honest and I feel bad because I did let the team down in that regard. I didn’t put in 100% effort. I don’t know, looking back, I wish I would still put in 100% effort. But I think I was just burnt out and everything on top of that.
Stage 3 was like the stage to make PL, right? And whenever everything goes wrong before the stage starts, it just kind of takes a blow to the mental. After that, I took a long break. Played Valorant comp for a bit and then came back with way better mental,, I turned a 180 and everything. But I wish I still took Stage 3 seriously.
What was it like working with Gotcha as a player? Obviously, as a coach he’s got a lot of plaudits, but what was it like playing with him?
He enabled people really well. He was really strict at times, but I feel looking back that was just kind of needed. I didn’t care that much about the game and I wasn’t putting in 100% of effort so him being really strict didn’t settle well with me back then. But I see why he did it now. Overall, it was pretty good.
What was it like working with Biologic and Forrest? Because those are two other very prominent names when you think of IGLs. Forrest with his time in Astralis and Bio with his time on OXG.
I loved Forrest honestly. He’s a really funny guy, he’s a good player and a good teammate. And overall, it was a really good experience teaming with him. And Bio, it was also good to experience teaming with him. But the way he IGL’d, it wasn’t the playstyle that fit me. So I didn’t really want to stick with his team for that reason. He got the license from Stage 3 from Gotcha and he said the spot is mine if I want to. I’m like, I’m gonna look at other options because I just wasn’t performing well, with his form of IGLing.
What is his form of IGLing? Is it like super strict Gotcha style but more strict or is it like super loose?
I heard that he loosened up a bit but back then, if I wanted to make a decision and set up a play for myself, which is the player that I am, I really couldn’t do that. So I guess it was kind of strict.
So it was almost micromanaging. Like he’s a chess master or something.
Well it’s more like, you go to this position and then I need to problem solve that position. But I’m better at looking for openings, and then problem solving those openings with the team. It just didn’t really sit with me
Not, not every style works with every player and that doesn’t mean that the style doesn’t work or whatever, as well.
I heard the way he IGLs now is different from back then because slothi worked with him.
And also that was like, what a year, year and a half ago? So he’s definitely had time to change how he operates.
Like a year ago almost.
So towards the tail end of this, are there any operators or strats or playstyles you think are kind of underestimated? My go to is always Echo shotty. But is there anything like that that you think isn’t in the meta but probably should be?
I think one thing that is really good right now, especially since Mute shotgun got nerfed on roams, is bringing Alibi and Doc for the Bailiffs on the roam. It’s just super strong. Because if you run an Alibi and Doc with a Bailiff, and then a set of impacts that’s really all that you need to make all the like site stuff. Now your two supports can play fraggers and you have a Jaeger, maybe even like Orxy or an Azami or something. Like you have all the util that you need and Doc has also barbed wire, Alibi has a shield, utilitywise it’s just super strong to not really run traditional shotguns anymore.
On the topic of traditional stuff but for the Attack, do you think hard breach is as necessary as it has been? Obviously the traditional theory of Siege is you bring at least one hard breach. You always have to open up reinforced walls and all that stuff. But we’ve been seeing on like Villa and Kafe and occasionally other maps too, we don’t bring a dedicated hard breach op. Somebody will play Buck or Zero with a hard breach charge but we don’t have a Thermite or Hibana or an Ace all the time. Do you think that’s like a permanent thing? Do you think that’s like the future of Siege or is it just kind of like a temporary thing?
Well, there’s different styles of teams. Some styles just are better without a hard breach because like Buck hard breach, let’s say Villa, right? You have a Buck hard breach, you open up vault wall, right? That does literally the same that Ace and Habana would do on an Avi attack. So you don’t need a hard breacher there. But at the same time, let’s say like Clubhouse, a map that you always need a hard breacher. I’m not saying you shouldn’t bring a hard breacher, definitely should on Clubhouse. But let’s say you don’t. You have like a Ying, a Sens, and fraggers and everything, and then you just flood through server windows and up staircases with Yings. Everyone’s on site flashed, so you don’t really need the wall open. You just walk in. Of course there’s Warden and stuff so that’s not practical, but like that’s just like, an extreme example.