“I can show some bicycle kick”: pashaBiceps on the football match vs SK Gaming
On the day after ESL One Cologne 2017 ends, Virtus.pro and SK Gaming will play a football match in real life. pashaBiceps, who first came up with the idea, has told us who the best player on his team is, whether he’s going to seek advice from Robert Lewandowski, the captain of the Polish national team, and why Poles play football better than Brazilians.
Back in February, a photo mashup was posted on SK Gaming’s twitter, depicting their CS:GO players wearing the uniforms of the Brazilian national team, with an invitation to play some football; there were two free spots for the following day. pashaBiceps showed up in the replies, and escalated the idea to a bold proposal: “We can show you in POLAND what is football. VP vs SK PRIZEPOOL 50K $ 6vs6 stream included! Deal?” FalleN wrote back immediately proposing to double the prize pool, to which pashaBiceps replied that only Neymar could save SK Gaming now. ESForce Holding managing partner Anton Cherepennikov and ESL vice-president Michał Blicharz joined the discussion. The idea was approved, and the match was initially scheduled to follow the IEM Season XI World Championship, but was later postponed until the summer. Eventually, the date was set to July 10, and the home stadium of FC Köln was chosen as the venue.
We asked pashaBiceps a few questions.
Jarosław, how did you first come up with the idea of a football match against SK Gaming?
I just saw a tweet from FalleN that they were in Cologne, looking for an opponent to play some football, so I replied that we were ready to play anytime, anywhere, and show them what real football looks like.
Your tweet sounded a bit bold, what with Brazilians considered some of the best football players in the world.
Man, what are you talking about? In 2014, we won 2-0 against Germany, but Brazil lost to them 1-7!
Who’s the best player on your team?
The best player is obviously Snax, best technique, perfect dribble. I am good too. If someone passes me a good ball, I can show some bicycle kick.
Does your team have a special tactic? Is your football going to be skill-based or power-based?
We will play like Polish national team – pressing all the time, and no more power for a defense.
Have you sought advice from the Polish national team coach, Robert Lewandowski?
Robert has a rule: “after work, we don’t talk about work”. I didn’t want to disturb him.
How often do you watch football, and who’s your favorite player?
I do watch it if we have free time from our practice routine. My favorite player is of course Lionel Messi, he is a god of football, like me in CS in 2014. I am coming back this year, watch out!
In his interviews, pashaBiceps has often mentioned playing football as a kid. In 2015, he paid a visit to the Polish football blogger TRENUJ Z KRZYCHEM, for whom he performed various tasks — such as testing the strength of a bar and almost breaking it with a powerful strike. The resulting video validates Jarosław’s statement that he knows how to handle the ball and will be just fine on the field during the game against SK Gaming. As for Virtus.pro’s Brazilian rivals, they, too, are fond of sports, and even know Neymar personally. On top of that, during a bootcamp in the US, they played a football match against Na`Vi and won 2-0.
Author: Gelb Chernyavskiy