When we talk about the best regional CS:GO teams, we always mention the trio of Blink, lvlUP, and Good Game. The team that is often left out of such conversations and but has made immense progress day by day is the Shock Bomb squad. Although they played in the shadow of lvlUP and other regional favorites, Luka “c0llins” Živanović and Shock Bomb continued to train and in the end, it paid off – they became the first team to qualify for the playoffs of the sixth season of A1 Adria League.
A few days before their victory against Blink, I contacted Ivan “pTKKK” Popov and we arranged a short interview. pTKKK talked about his team, the sixth season of A1 Adria League, and c0llins’ controversial Tweets regarding 22CMincoldwater.
Shock Bomb has been around for several months. You played together for the first time after the fourth season of the CSadria Clan Championship and have been steadily advancing ever since. Whose idea was it to form this team? And since you have been playing together for months already, are you looking for individual offers from organizations or would you like to stay together as a team?
This is all started when Luka “c0llins” Živanović and Dejan “Katalic” Koprivica approached me and asked if I wanted to make a team with the goal of working on a team game and breaking through. I was a little skeptical, I won’t lie to you, but I accepted because I always give a chance to new projects, so I accepted this one as well. As for the organization, we are actively looking, but certainly if someone is interested they can contact me on Twitter or by e-mail at patakcsgo@gmail.com.
pTKKK’s team is also regularly playing tournaments in the European CS:GO scene. They play in qualifying cups and the team also competes in the ESEA Open League. The young players in the team – Nikola “Dragon” Bosković and Vladan “Kind0” Mandić gain invaluable experience from playing in such leagues, and as they are less known names on our scene, their development of team play will enable Shock Bomb to achieve unprecedented things for the team.
Shock Bomb were part of the fifth season of the A1 Adria League. A rather unknown team during the fifth season was not one of the favorites, and their 1-3 SWISS league finish showed that the team needs to spend even more time training. One of the players of the team at the time, Aleksandar “HLEB” Todorović, left the team after the fifth season of the League, and his place was filled by one of the above-mentioned young talents.
HLEB left the team after the A1 Adria league, and was replaced by Kind0. What led to this change? Who is the leader in the team and how are the other positions divided?
As I wrote in my previous answer, there were small disagreements in the team and HLEB decided to leave the team – I fully respect his decision. After that, we decided to rejuvenate our roster even more and bring a generally unknown person to the team. Kind0 is a guy who invests a lot of time in CSGO, who wants to progress and I really like that, he is very good individually as a shooter which you can see for yourself. The leader of the team is without a doubt Luka “c0llins” Živanović, but of course we all have our say and we respect each other. The positions are – ENTRY – pTKKK, IGL – c0llins, SUPPORT – Katalic, AWP – Dragon, CLOSER – Kind0.
The CS:GO scene has made the transition to online tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From time to time there is a competition that is played on the LAN, but the biggest action and top tier tournaments are adapted to the current situation. The CSadria Clan Championship S4 and the fifth season of the A1 Adria League were transferred online due to COVID, but the region also had a small number of LAN tournaments. Thus, the Portal E-sports center in Mostar held its first LAN during the summer and we recently saw the Click N Play LAN tournament in Niš. Shock Bomb was the favorite of the Click N Play tournament and the guys definitely managed to justify this role.
The Click N Play LAN tournament was something unusual in this period with the pandemic and all the lockdowns. How was it to play on the LAN again?
Uhhh, the best feeling of 2020 for sure. Our game on the LAN was phenomenal as you could see if you were following, also we honestly didn’t have any competition since all the teams that came were mixed squads, but of course, I’m very glad that we were on the LAN and showed a calm and beautiful approach to the game.
In the Serbian CEE Champions qualifiers, 22CMincoldwater eliminated Shock Bomb from the cup. Shortly before the qualifying cups for the CEE Champions began, Shock Bomb had dominantly defeated the 22CMincoldwater core at the Click N Play LAN, so this loss for pTKKK’s roster was quite controversial. One of Shock Bomb’s players, c0llins, posted several Tweets on Twitter emphasizing that their opponents had violated the tournament rules and sent evidence to the organizers, Klan RUR and CEE Champions. In the end, the evidence was insufficient and 22CMincoldwater together with lvlUP are currently representing Serbia at the main CEE Champions tournament.
Shock Bomb participated in the CEE Champions qualifiers and you were eliminated by 22CMincoldwater. How did these players manage to upset you as the clear favorites? c0llins posted some quite interesting Tweets addressed to the 22CMincoldwater players. How did the demo analysis go? Is there a possibility of stream sniping?
Yes, we were eliminated by 22CMincoldwater, and after watching the demo and everything we did I can only say all the best to the guys and I hope to see you at one of the LAN tournaments again to show just how stronger we are – just like in Niš. (win on LAN 16: 3,16:5 – semifinals against 3 players from that team). There is a bug on YouTube that you can speed up the livestream, but I have no idea honestly, they won, we are going to keep on playing and let them celebrate that one victory.
One of the things that surprised us all was your phenomenal win against lvlUP. How did that BO3 go against the reigning League champions? The first map was a stomp for lvlUP, so I guess it was even harder to get back in the game. Which teams do you think will make it to the playoffs?
Well, it went like this – the veto system went as it went, we banned Train and we knew they liked to play Nuke, they picked Vertigo and there was a stomp on the first map. The atmosphere after the first map was great, as we knew that on the Dust2 map they don’t have as much in-game depth as us and the result on that map confirmed it. The third map, as everywhere, was Inferno, which could have gone on both sides, but we were calm and composed until the end and showed a very good game. As for the teams that will reach the playoffs, I expect Good Game, Blink, lvlUP, and us, of course, as the first with 3:0.
Shock Bomb were the first team to secure a place in the playoffs of the sixth season of A1 Adria League. This is one of the biggest achievements of the team, and next month we will see what share of the €11,000 prize pool will the team take home. This squad with a huge potential is actively looking for a home, and interested organizations can contact pTKKK.
Lastly, are you negotiating with any organizations? When can we see ptKKK in a new jersey?
We are talking to a couple of people / organizations but nothing is serious yet. We need to achieve more results so that people can take us seriously so that they can offer us something. Of course if someone is interested, as I said above – twitter.com/ptkkkcsgo and patakcsgo@gmail.com. Feel free to contact me and we can have a talk. Thanks and greetings to all the viewers and our fans if there are any hehe
