OG degster: “I analyze everything in my life and that gives me a chance to improve.”

From CIS to Europe, Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov made a huge shift in his career this year as he left Team Spirit to join OG back in the summer. Five months later, the transfer seems to have been a great move for both OG and degster himself, with both seemingly thriving. 

Thanks to multiple respectable showings in the second half of the year, as well as the most recent 3rd-4th finish at the BLAST Premier World Final 2022, OG have shown all the naysayers that they belong among the world’s top CS:GO elite, and that they aim even higher.

That said, it wasn’t an easy journey for the 21-year-old Russian, who, according to his words, is doing everything in his power to get him on his team on top.

In our latest interview, Fragster spoke to degster about his journey in 2022, his move to Europe, and his approach and impressions of the new team.

Always striving for improvement

Fragster: Moving to a European team is undoubtedly a big thing for CIS players. On the one hand, it can be a dream come true, but of course, it’s can be quite hard. How was it for you personally? 

Degster: It was hard to change the language because I’m always taking a lot of space in communication. Whenever I’m playing the game, I’m taking a lot of responsibility by saying what I want to see from my teammates. And of course, it’s harder for me in English. But I take it as an opportunity to improve and be better as a person and also as a player. 

At first, I was working on it by myself a lot. I was asking a lot of questions, how I should say this or that. Which fast words can I use for my teammates to understand what I want from them? Now, after the season, I think for the next year I will start to work with my own English teacher for some specific stuff. 

I will not say that my communication is my weakness but it will be super good to improve these small details because after I’m finished finish with that, we will have more success in our games. 

That’s something that I like in my life — to improve everywhere where I see that I have some weaknesses. I always analyze everything in my life and that’s something that gives me a chance to improve.

You have now had the opportunity to play in both, European and CIS organizations. What differences in their approach have you noticed? 

I think it depends on the team that you join and what people you meet. Overall the most interesting difference is always the mentality of people because in CIS, it’s completely different. 

I can talk about vibes. When I was playing with my previous teams, we had sometimes really bad talks because you need to fight for your own opinion. But here, it’s going much easier for me, because I’m just joining, but I’m not the guy who is saying “I don’t know”. Instead, I’m saying, guys, I feel like this one can be good for us. What do you think?” And they give me other opinions and we decide what we use. 

And that’s something that I really like and I enjoy, because it improves you as a person. 

What it takes to be the best

How would you sum up your 2022 season? How satisfied are you with your performance this year and what are your goals for the next one?

It was actually very hard. If I’m being honest, and I know some people might start to hate me because of it, but that’s how I am —  always honest; but I believed that I will be the best player in the world by putting in tons of hours of training. 

I was playing eight hours of death match in a row, streaming two days in a row playing CS, and I was expecting myself to be the best player in the world. Meanwhile, I was losing everything else. I didn’t go to my family on Happy New Year because I was grinding the game. My coach invited me to his family at least, but I felt bad that I didn’t go to my family, so I put all my time into being the best even during that special moment.

I sacrificed everything to be the best, it’s my goal. I’m not scared to say it. That’s why I work a lot with my teammates, because if I will explain to everyone in my team what I want to achieve with them and what we can achieve, what we can do better, it’s gonna improve all of us. 

I feel like I did a good job in 2022. And in 2023, I need to step up even more. 

Sounds like you’re working really hard. How do you prevent burnout, do you have any getaway games? 

I prefer to read books or to go somewhere else in the real world. I started shooting with real guns. I improve my shooting with real guns and then I take it to CS. 

Know your ambitions

And how do you cope with so much pressure? Do you still think that such an immense grind is the way? 

I know myself, and no one was playing as much as I was, and I’m fully okay with that. 

I understand why I did it and I cannot say that it was a mistake. Sure, it was not the best approach that you can work with, but I was putting all that I had to achieve one thing. I was looking in tunnel vision. But I didn’t think that because I was doing this, others needed to do the same. You don’t need to grind that much, just do what you’re supposed to do. 

It comes down to everyone’s ambitions. You should play as much as you think you need to play in the game to be a good player.

So what’s your approach now? 

After all of the stuff that happened to me this year, I get more balance. I got more professional and I know when I need rest and when I need to work more. 

And I think that’s a beautiful thing, the whole stuff that happened with me this year and everything I went through. Now I know what was good, and what was bad. And I stick with it. I analyze it, and I live with it.

Header: OG