ash: "I've been biting my tongue a little bit sometimes, like, 'Okay, this is the way we play'"

Early days have been difficult for the new Aurora lineup as it has struggled to replicate promising showings in practice in a real match environment, the new coach says.

Aurora's loss to BIG was "hard to watch" even if struggles were to be expected in the LAN debut, ash told Aurora 's first match at Esports World Cup did not go to plan, as they lost the opening best-of-one affair to a match-fit BIG that came into the main event fresh off their campaign in the last-chance qualifier.

It was the new international squad's LAN debut and came after mixed results in its online matches in BLAST Bounty, where it went out early to FOKUS , and the StarSeries closed qualifier, where it went all the way to ensure a spot at the Barcelona event.

After the match, caught up with Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye to ask him about the new roster, how the Turkish core and the new players were chosen, and early days into the project.

The coach spoke frankly about some of the issues the team has faced in its first month together, with the Turkish core having to adjust to a new language, a new system headed by ash and Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski , and another new addition in Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo .

"It's been a challenge," he said. "That's three or four cultures coming together at the same time. So for me, I've been biting my tongue a little bit sometimes watching things like, 'Okay, this is the way that we play.'"

It has become particularly challenging once pressure entered the equation in their LAN debut against BIG , he went on.

"I can't believe how many rounds we kind of threw away, how many free kills we missed as well. It showed how bad it was at times, and then the amount of rounds we were leaving spawn, no idea what we were doing, and I haven't seen that so far at all in practice.

"It was hard to watch, but I think it was expected in this first game."

ash is, however, hopeful about the future once the new Aurora gets over the early jitters and finds common ground between all of the cultures.

"I still feel like what we're showing, again in practice and how we're feeling in the game and how people are fitting together, the dynamics and everything, it feels very promising," the coach said.

"We just need to get the first game over the line, and I think from there we have potential to cause a lot of upsets for now, and in the future something that's a bit more stable and can be more consistent at the top level."

You can watch or read the interview in full below:

All right, ash, new colors, that's where I would like to start today. From what I understand, it took quite a while for it to become official since the talks with Aurora first started. Can you walk me through how that whole process happened and what eventually made you say yes?

They came to me quite a while ago, and they said that basically Fabre wanted to step down, he was feeling a bit burned out, and he was wanting to do some personal things. So they were looking for a new coach.

There's not so many coaches in Turkish right now and they just wanted to look for someone else who they felt had good experience to help take them to the next level and look to go international at the same moment. It just didn't make much sense really for them to have a non-Turkish-speaking coach and then Turkish five players as well. It's very hard then for a coach to have any input. So that's kind of the way it started.

And then everyone was kind of aware of it for quite a long time in the organization. I think there was no bad will or anything there. I think they probably maybe would've stayed with Fabre. I think there's a lot of respect for him. But in this moment, this was the best option for them.

Can you tell me about how then the process of choosing the new players started? There was a lot of stuff flying around about what trio would stay from the former Aurora core. Can you tell me about that and what made you end up staying with this core of the Turkish players, first of all?

I think it would've been kind of foolish for me to have full control over all the changes straight away because they knew the players significantly more than I did. We had a lot of talks about which ones would make the most sense and which players we could get. In the end, the conclusion was these are the three we should work on the most, and we can get some good options as well for the new players.

So I think it's been kind of a mixture where they've been trying to assess what would work the best for the future. Then also MAJ3R came and said, 'Look, I've been doing this for a long time now. Maybe it's a good time for me to step back as well.' So it lined up a little bit, and then I was saying, 'Hey, I think this person could work well. This one could work well,' and then we just met in the middle.

How many options were there out there for the replacement of the two players then?

Well, luckily, we got the two that we were really going after. So in that sense, it was good. But there were other options for positions we were maybe considering, but then we thought this one was the one that makes the most sense. I think everyone in the team right now has a lot of ups and a lot of potential here. We're very happy with the ones we took, and I think we were kind of lucky in a way that the players were available that were available.

ash looks to Jimpphat to become more of a star from his supportive positions Can you tell me about how kyxsan fits into this? He ended up being left off from Falcons and there would've been kind of a sense of that he wasn't the right in-game leader for that sort of a lineup. How does he fit into the style that you would like to play?

Really well, actually. I like the way he does things. I think he explains things really well. He has a really good feel in what's happening around the map. He remembers everything really well as well. So having a guy that's super motivated and hard-working, that's always going to be a bonus, and I think we kind of see eye to eye on a lot of things. We talk about things, and we gauge his feedback on what could work, what couldn't work.

So for me so far, he seems like a fantastic in-game leader. I think also the way he does things is very different to MAJ3R, so it's a little bit of a change where right now people need to remember specifically what they're doing, and we're trying to work around in practice what we have, and in officials just tweak it a little bit. I think that side of things, it still needs some improvement and getting used to, because I'm not sure they did it this way in the past. But so far I've been very impressed by him.

How has that been going, trying to mesh everything together? It's always a question of different schools of Counter-Strike as people talk about when it's a new international team, new coach, new in-game leader coming in, it feels like it's probably the biggest change you could possibly have while retaining a core. How has it been handling the difficulties that come with that?

It's been a challenge, I would say. That's three or four different cultures coming in at the same time. So for me, I've been kind of biting my tongue a little bit sometimes watching things like, 'Okay, this is the way that we play.' It can be a little bit random at times, but for me, I'm trying to make it a little bit less random, make sure if we do things, let's try and have some ideology behind it which connects things.

And I think instead of putting that on the players to understand, trying to create something that is just a little bit easier for them because also changing to a new language for the first time as well. It's difficult for them right now, so setting these little rules, at moments in officials like we had today, when the pressure is there, it feels like it kind of breaks down a little bit more. We forget these little things. I think it's to be expected, but for now, in practice, it's looking much better. But it's going to take a bit more time until things are clicking and we're understanding.

I think a big point of criticism towards the last roster and the way that MAJ3R was leading things was maybe it was a little bit too heavy on set plays, a little bit too pack heavy, four players coming in into bomb sites all at the same time. Has that been difficult to try to teach them a different brand of CS that would maybe be a little bit more push and pull?

I wouldn't say it's been difficult. I think they've been very receptive and open to everything that we've been doing and just welcoming the ideas, and I think they're really appreciating the way that Damjan's calling on the T side so far. And I think they're liking the way on CT side.

It's been nice for me because I came in thinking these guys have reputation. Maybe they could be hard to work with, et cetera, from the outside. But when you get to know them as people, it's completely not that way at all, and they really want to try what we're doing and give it a really good chance, and I've had no real problems with anything so far. So it's been a nice experience to start things. We just need to kind of show it from practice now into the official games.

I wanted to ask you about Jimpphat as well. Obviously, towards the end of the MOUZ stint, his stats went down quite a bit, and it was quite clear that he wasn't comfortable with some of the positions that he was in, some of the roles that he was put in after Spinx came into the team. What did you see in him that you could maybe utilize better and that made you think he's your top pick?

First off on the CT sides, he's a guy that you can rely on really well. He's shown a lot of experience there, and even when they were kind of struggling a bit more on MOUZ at the end, he was still doing a pretty good job, it felt like, and solid. But when I was watching his games, this wasn't the Jimpphat that I kind of remembered when he first came out of MOUZ. So I was kind of thinking, 'How do I get that back out of him a bit more?'

So we've been working on this, but I think there are still some moments where he's going maybe too supportive and a little bit too safe, but getting him out of his comfort zone a little bit again, this is the way he wants to play. And so far in practice he's been fantastic. In officials, it's probably going to take a little bit longer when he's getting used to being kind of a star player from a supportive position again. But he has it in him, and so far in practice he's been absolutely outstanding. It's just, can he transition that now into the officials? I have no doubt about this, but it could take a little bit of time to show his best, I think.

I sense a bit of a theme that practice has been going well, but the officials not so much. Obviously, you're now down to the elimination zone here at EWC. Also, in BLAST Bounty you went out in the first round, but at least the qualifier for StarLadder went well. Can you tell me about the first results that have come in so far early into this roster?

Yeah. The first game we played extremely nervous, and I think again, it was the first time we were playing on LAN again, extremely nervous. It's been kind of the same things. I think the thing I would take away from this game [against BIG] was, I can't believe how many rounds we kind of threw away, how many free kills we missed as well. It kind of showed how bad it was at times, and then the amount of rounds we were leaving spawn, no idea what we were doing, and I haven't seen that so far at all in practice. It's been really good. So that kind of shows, look, now the pressure's here and everything, we need to adapt to it.

But this is the biggest worry when you put a best-of-one against a team that's also quite hot right now. They've played a lot of officials and they've already got used to all the setup and everything. Our first game was always going to be a little bit scary, and unfortunately that's the way it was. We lose an unwinnable 1v2 at one point where the guy's basically saving. We have so many kills on the side that matter a lot as well, and we just never got going on the economy on CT side. So it was hard to watch, but I think it was expected in this first game. We were trying to sneak through maybe and then try and go from there. So we'll have to do it from the lower bracket, but I see no reason why we can't do it.

Expectations have to be tempered for the beginning of this roster with so many changes coming in. But I wanted to ask you about what sort of expectations you have for this five and for this team heading later into the season, into the next season about what we can expect out of Aurora, in terms of how far up do you have your ambitions set?

They're high. The team has been put together to try and win things in the future. This is going to take a bit of time right now. This is what we've been saying all along. The starting period's going to be difficult, swapping the language, swapping the culture, swapping the coach and in-game leader. Everything's very tricky at the moment. It takes an extra second to learn everything, and in Counter-Strike at the top level you don't have that extra second. So this is the part of the season where it's probably going to be a little bit up and down I would say, and we're looking for consistency after that a little bit.

For right now it's hard to tell, but I still feel like what we're showing, again in practice and how we're feeling in the game and how people are fitting together, the dynamics and everything, it feels very promising. We just need to get the first game over the line, and I think from there we have potential to cause a lot of upsets for now, and in the future something that's a bit more stable and can be more consistent at the top level. So yeah, like I said, this first period is the most difficult for us, but we're kind of hoping a bit more of the honeymoon period kind of kicks in and people are kind of covering their weaknesses a little bit in that sense.