keen on standing out in Oceania: "It's not as easy as it would seem"

SemperFi has been on the grind lately, and has been very close to making it to Tier-1 events like PGL Astana 2025 and the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. The Australian team had added the Latvian Kristers "keen" Dārznieks to take control of the reins, and he’s done so with quiet authority, while also being the highest rated player for the side.

In his 11 months tenure, he has dragged the team from outside of 200 to being the second best Australian team. We sat down with the in-game leader to trace his grind through the trenches, the rise of SemperFi into a regional juggernaut, the European discipline he’s brought to the lineup, and the final leaps required to turn potential into permanence on the world stage.

Dust2 India had a chat with the Latvian, who spoke about moving to the Asian region in comparison to Europe, the competition in Oceania and much more, including what he thought of going up against Gods Reign.

What exactly was the reason to switch to an Australian team given the lack of opportunities in the APAC region compared to Europe?

Main reason was the path to a Major is more feasible than through Europe. Through Europe the competition is just so high that unless you can get into one of these super competitive teams, you're kind of just wasting your time in Tier-four lineups, playing random leagues and not really getting closer to the end goal, which for me is going to a Major and maybe one day winning it.

What were the first kind of signs of differences you noticed in the meta compared to Europe when you joined the region?

I noticed people played slower, but not in a good way. People would play less reactive. So if I do something and they had a counter, like they could just counter me by running to the opposite side or something, they would choose not to, and they would try to play it out, and I'd have time to run back type of deal. Meanwhile in Europe, I feel like if you overstep a boundary to the left, they're already running to your right. It's much faster-paced.

What were the key challenges you faced in trying to make this work? Was it more of you adapting to them or them adapting to you?

It was more of them adapting to me. The whole idea was I join and bring a European mindset to this team. So the ball was in my teammates' court to adapt and try to play more European, which they've done quite well. I reckon that was quite a big challenge, because the first iteration of the team was kind of tough. But then we bootcamped in Europe and learned.
If I had to TLDR, mainly playing faster. That probably was the biggest challenge. Nothing else really comes to mind.

How hard is it to break out or stand out in this region, especially in Australia where FlyQuest is the main dominant force?

I reckon it's not as easy as it would seem. There are quite a few teams where I feel like they can’t really do it. To do that, they'd have to not only be competitive with FlyQuest, but also with us. And without us, they'd have to be competitive with Rooster. I feel like the top three, top four is quite set, quite obvious. So if you're below that, the region's kind of locked for you. But that being said, you wouldn't do much in Europe anyways.

The scarcity of tournaments has become much better. It was quite scarce last year, but this year it feels like there’s a bunch of events. Quite a few of them are Asian ones where we have to play on really high ping. Like one of these PGL events, we played an OCE qualifier and then immediately there was an Asian qualifier where we had to play with 84-90 ping. Qualifying to that against teams based in China is very hard. But still, we get the chance, which we’re happy about.

There's DFRAG, who made a LAN, and I reckon they're going to make another one. This year is just much better. I think CCT is coming back. There are quite a few things, this year’s kind of packed. So it’s good.

Regarding the PGL Astana 2025 event 2025 Closed Qualifier and the Austin Major OCE Qualifier, where SemperFi fell short at the last step, how are you working towards making sure your team makes that final leap?

We’re practicing really hard and we have a bunch of time now until our next tournaments. We’re watching a lot of demos, bringing in a lot of stuff, and working on individual play. Honestly, we’re just grinding really hard and working really hard, trying to unlock that next step, where we just gel and enter a flow state.

Have you played against any Indian teams? What do you think of them? Where do you think they’re lacking or what can they do to improve?

We’ve definitely played Indian teams. I know we’ve played Gods Reign. I’m having trouble remembering exact scorelines, but we’ve practiced them.

But, compared to some of these better teams like JiJieHao and other top Chinese teams like Rare Atom, they never really seemed that much of a threat.

Where they should improve, it’s really hard for me to say. But they’re definitely not as good as JiJieHao, Rare Atom, Lynn Vision, and TYLOO. Those would be my top picks in the far eastern region. We’ve played all those teams and yeah, Gods Reign never really... I feel they would fight back and have nice rounds, but consistently speaking, they didn’t feel like top of the region.

Really hard for me to say exactly what they lack. Maybe better strategy, maybe just better aim. Maybe aim’s a problem because they don’t have the right gear or something. I don’t know the players that well. But they do not play bad, just to point that out. They don’t play bad. It’s just that you can’t compare them to the top dogs.