Team Vitality player Robin ropz Kool gave an interview to Players reporter Sofiia Pikhalo after winning IEM Katowice 2025.
Congratulations with your win. It's your second win here and how do you feel about it?
I feel great, I'm speechless. This is something everyone wanted on the team and I'm really happy that we can deliver.
I feel that we managed to adapt in the team. How hard was it for you to adapt, play and win with a new team?
I think the work we did for one month now, we can be really proud of. What we did prior to this tournament, we showed here today and the days before. I think we worked our asses off to get a really good result in Katowice and I think that's the main reason.
We talked a lot about how to play. We had a lot of conversations with Apex about strats and how the vision is, how he likes to call, how he can understand me, how I can play. So a lot of back and forth between everyone. Not only between me and Apex, but me and ZywOo, me and flameZ, me and mezii.
Like everyone, we talked about how we want to play and I think we worked hard and this is the result.
As you said, you're almost a month in the team and Vitality already won a tournament at Katowice with you. Were you the lacking fifth element to have this win formula?
No one knows, obviously. It's nice to join a team like Katowice, as Vitality have had a rough result each year. This one feels different. Obviously, we won today, so I'm happy they got this result.
For me also, considering last year we lost twice to Spirit in the big finals, it's a bit of a sweet revenge for me. I'm just happy and maybe I am the missing piece for Katowice, but no one knows.
No one knows yet. You had crazy stats on the first map. Did you expect to have Dust2 that intense and quick in the second half?
No, I think we knew that Dust2 is definitely a map Spirit has been very strong on. I think there were 10 wins in a row, so we expected a very tough fight, but I think the whole story of the game was that we played really well in terms of individual excellence. We had the firepower to match and at times we were just better, I think, individually. I think that's why it was maybe so easy in the end, but yeah, I didn't expect to have a good game with Dust2.
I think that Dust2 gave us a lot of confidence and me as well, so it was a great start to the first half.
A lot of people saw Spirit as a winner, especially after their yesterday’s NAVI match, but not Vitality. How do you think, why was that?
Spirit definitely was the favorite, I think everyone can agree. They have Donk in an incredible form. They have a major win from two months ago, they have a BLAST win from one month ago. All the signs are pointing that Spirit can win, they are the best team in the world.
Obviously, when we have Vitality with me making a roster change, it's tough to expect it to win, but NAVI do otherwise and show everyone that we can do it.
Spirit also needs to expect that you can still win. What was on the third map? You were winning 8-4 and after that it was almost overtime. What happened there?
Mirage was a great start, yet again. Even when the pistol round ended it was 11-4, if I remember correctly. It was really close to being a dominant Mirage as well, but I think they played well on the CT side.
I think we threw one or two rounds, I think we had a 4-2 on the T side, which we should win. But I think we had a few mistakes on the T side. I think Spirit capitalized and did well on the CT side, it got really close.
But I think in the end we took a breath of air and just thought about how to close out the game and I'm happy we did it.
Were any of you emotional in the last two rounds?
No, I wouldn't say no one was emotional. I think everyone, many of us have already been there. Obviously Vitality won Cologne last year. All the players won many trophies, so I think when you are in the grand final it's not over until it's over. And they are lifting the trophy, that's when it's over.
So I think everyone was focused on winning and the emotions were not showing in that sense.
My question is about CS in general. What changes can be made in CS to make it better to compete in it?
I think thethen start changing your calls in the game and adapt and adapt and improvise. But now with MR12 t biggest change I disliked about CS2 is MR12. I miss MR15 because the games are way too short. I think Karrigan said once, or someone said it once, that now it's really different to be an IGL because when you had MR15 you could build up the game, you could build around how you call and he game is over so fast that it doesn't even matter what you call, it's just you need to show up and win the pistol rounds.
The pistol rounds obviously have a big impact, so I would say MR15 - to bring it back.
And what about economics? I saw some thoughts about the changes from 1.400 to 1.900 [loss bonus] and what do you think about it?
Yes, the idea for the first loss bonus is being 1.900, I think it can be good. I think the economy is the toughest for the CT side.
If you get a bomb plant you might have a better buy on the second force round. The CT side economy can be really rough, it can help if it's 1.900. I also think that can help, but even if you bring an MR15 for example, you have more rounds to work with, you have more rounds to play with. It's maybe much easier for the CTs in that sense.
But yes, I think the economy can be improved, but we'll see.
And last week a lot of thoughts around the internet about Valve's ranking system, how winning and losing in it boosts your points. What can you comment about it?
The Valve ranking is probably not optimal currently. But I think the ranking is something that's going to be good because Valve is involved and they have a dialogue between players in the majors, they're having a dialogue with tournament organizers. So I think the ranking is something that can be fixed very easily. It's just about tweaking the formula and making sure that everything is fair. But yeah, I think it's going to be fixed.
Then, the last question, it's more about you. What can you say for your fans that are watching you?
No, nothing crazy. I think everyone watching the game, supporting me and the team, thank you.
It goes a long way and people like those things and I'm grateful for that. Yeah, I hope the people supporting me stick around and see us win perhaps another trophy soon, we'll see.