Every sports fan loves a good Cinderella story and that's exactly what PSG Talon is offering us in Manchester. The players are heading to the third day of Manchester's Phase 2 with two victories and one defeat, which is the best result by any South Korean team since BLAST's arrival to Rainbow Six Siege's esports scene.
When the organization unveiled the three-time world champion Fabian "Fabian" Hällsten as the team's new coach, the community's eyes instantly rolled to the South Korea League 2024. For obvious reasons, the fans were excited and curious regarding the Swed's project in Asia.
However, it was hard to know what to expect from PSG Talon. In an interview with SiegeGG at the beginning of the season, Fabian was deeply honest regarding the state of the team before his arrival, admitting that "we’re talking about really building everything from scratch, it’s like starting everything over from 2017."
Despite Fabian's harsh words, the South Koreans knew he was right. So, when a three-time world champion speaks, you listen. That's exactly what PSG Talon's players did.
The former G2 Esports coach wanted to transform PSG Talon and the initial goal was dethroning DPlus and FearX, with the Swed expecting to do so within the first three months of competition. No sooner said than done, PSG Talon qualified for the BLAST R6 Major Manchester after grabbing South Korea's first seed.
Heading to the first BLAST R6 Major of the season, the team was there for the experience. Every victory would be a plus, as that would get the roster more SI Points. However, PSG Talon have done way more than that as they defeated Team BDS and are one win away from a playoff appearance.
"PSG Talon's players have work ethic and work morale like nobody else, they work super hard, they listen to what feedback they are given," Fabian admitted in a written interview with SiegeGG after the conclusion of the match against Team BDS.
"My style of coaching is to put a lot of work on the players, especially when it comes to theory and VOD reviewing both themselves and their opponent, because that makes them see the mistakes, gaps, and opportunities in themselves and their opponents' team if I just give it all to them they will never learn how to adapt it on to the server which is where they are and I am not, I only have my 45 seconds."
"Because the region is so underdeveloped it has shown how well my boys are listening, of course, there is more to it, but these are secrets I won't be telling here. Everyone is very happy and when you have a team that has that mentality of everything we get here is a bonus, we never have any pressure," the Swed added.
Despite the team being so close to South Korea's first stage appearance at an international major competition since the Six Sweden Major played in November 2021, Fabian wants his boys to not be victims of what could and couldn't happen in the upcoming days.
"We have no change in mind at all, everything we have done now and will be doing for the rest of the event is purely a bonus and we are happy with all we can get, especially the SI points are of importance to us. We can always dream, but it is very important to keep ourselves grounded. We should in reality not be competing for the title, but we will do our absolute best to do it anyway, and I think it shows what progress we have achieved."
"No pressure, they know it, in the end, you can only keep telling them the truth, but I also doubt they will trick their heads into fearing to go out. We are just taking match by match, map by map. It was just as real now as it was when we knew we had qualified for the event. Nothing changed from our side in staff or from PSG Talon as an org. We all know where the goal is and that is next year," the Swed concluded.
PSG Talon's next match at the BLAST R6 Major Manchester will take place today at 5 PM GMT against the Six Invitational 2024 grand finalists FaZe Clan, with the Brazilians being the clear favorites to take the win against the South Korean roster.
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