‘We were fighting for the whole country’ – phygital basketball champion Shalva Shatashvili on his victory over the Americans

When the entire arena is cheering for you, it empowers you, and you feel like you get that extra energy from the fans. This is what Shalva Shatashvili, member of the Liga Pro Team and winner of the phygital basketball tournament at the Games of the Future, said in an interview with RT. According to the athlete, the final match against R10 Team USA was the highlight of the entire competition. Shatashvili also admitted that he had not held a gamepad for eight months after the qualifying stage, recounted his talks with his father after the games and struggled to decide how he will spend the prize money.

– What does it feel like, to win here at the Games? For some of your teammates this is a massive accomplishment. I do know, though, that you’ve had your share of success in streetball before.

– To be honest, I don’t think I have fully grasped just how big this thing is. The entire competition looks very solid to me. The vibe in the stands is incredible, and the organization is top-notch. Needless to say, the opening ceremony was a thing to remember. It feels like you’re at the Olympic Games. And that’s awesome. Anyway, it was a success for us, and emotions ran wild. For now, we’ve calmed down a bit as exhaustion sets in. We’ll have our chance to celebrate later.

– In Kazan, Liga Pro Team advanced through the tournament very confidently, and in the semifinals you didn’t give team MDMX a chance. Did you expect that the game against R10 Team USA would be so close and that your team would be leading by just two points?

– For one thing, we certainly did not make the mistake of underestimating them. From the start, we knew the American team was considered the strongest at the competition. Before the games, we spent a lot of time studying them. Their lineup has professional basketball players from around the world, and the esports part is handled by Matthew Robles. We anticipated a close and hard-fought encounter. And it truly was. But I’m sure the audience enjoyed it: the matchup was the highlight of the Games.

– Did the sign saying ‘Russia vs. USA’ give you any extra motivation?

– It’s always fun to play basketball with the Americans – they have the best players in the sport. Ironically, despite all my experience in basketball, I have never faced off against them. This is probably because I mostly played in European tournaments and never got the chance to compete at the World Cup. Which is why it was twice as exciting to challenge the US team.

– When the audience started chanting ‘RUSSIA’ did you get the feeling as if you were playing for the national team?

– Naturally, emotions were running high. When the whole arena supports you, it gives you strength. It’s like you get extra energy from the fans. And we were not fighting for ourselves, we were fighting for the whole country.

– When you lost to R10 Team USA after the part on the simulator, was there any feeling of anxiety?

– It was no big deal. We had a very clear task – not to let our opponents get a significant lead in the score. In that case, it would have been much more difficult to make up for the handicap on the court. We would have had to find additional resources. And losing one point in phygital basketball is not critical. It’s not something you can’t get back. It goes the way it goes. We planned to score the maximum number of points in the cyber part and then finish what we started on the court.

– Seconds before the final buzzer, the rivals took a timeout. Everything seemed clear at that point. Liga Pro Team led 34-32. Didn’t you think: “I don’t want anything to go wrong”?

– In streetball there is always a chance for such a miracle. Believe me, I’ve seen teams saved like this many times. It even happened in the World Tour Finals. A freaky shot somehow decided the fate of the trophy. A guy just threw the ball without looking, almost from the seats. I should have converted the second penalty and the intrigue would have ended. But I got up, I seemed to send the ball into the ring, but somehow it bounced back out.

– Did your family come from St. Petersburg to support you?

– Unfortunately, no. My wife couldn’t make it because of work, even though I really wanted her to come. And she wanted to come as well. And my parents don’t like to watch my games. My mother has a funny attitude. She thinks that if she turns on the TV, my teams are doomed to lose. I guess the omen worked. She didn’t watch the Games of the Future. But my dad did. We called each other regularly. He congratulated me and gave me advice, saying, “Keep up the good work, keep fighting”.

– What do they think about phygital sports in general?

– Honestly, they didn’t really understand what I got myself into (laughs). But for me, it’s simple: wherever basketball is played, I’m there. And it doesn’t matter in what format.

– During the qualifiers, you said that you had a Sony PlayStation at home for several years and that you could play Spider-Man on it. Has that changed? You looked good in the finals.

– After that tournament in October last year, I didn’t touch the gamepad for eight months. But Liga Pro Team had a very serious preparation program for the tournament in Kazan. At first, they arranged individual training sessions for me. Then we all went to the training camp for 15 days where we played the simulator for two hours every day, followed by two more hours on the playground.

– And, I’m guessing, Mikhail Panchenko, the leader of the team in the digital domain, was helping you, right?

– He was indeed. He gave a lot of useful tips and explained what to do and how to do it.

– Before the finals, we saw Panchenko shooting hoops with everyone else and he was pretty good. Did you perhaps show him a thing or two as well?

– Of course. More than that, he trained as hard as the basketball players at the training camp. At first, he didn’t look too impressive in comparison, and had to take breaks every now and then in order to catch his breath. Three days in, however, Mikhail stopped taking breaks and trained like everybody else. If you’re wondering whether we thought of having him do the physical part of the tournament at the Games of the Future, of course, we didn’t. It wasn’t worth the risk. After all, we were up against some powerful opponents. If something were to happen to Mikhail our team would be left without our strongest digital player.

– Would you say that you and Panchenko were the strongest phygital duo in Kazan?

– I’m not really used to singing praises to myself. The key factor here is that the two of us have been training together for a long time and we know each other. It is very important. We’ve been training together ever since we got selected for the Liga Pro Team. But I must say that other athletes have obviously improved their skills in digital games and are worthy opponents.

– By the way, teams from other countries never even got to play against Russian teams at the qualifying tournament. Were you surprised that many of them didn’t get far? For example, Ramboot Esports, once a winner, did not even qualify this time.

– We were shocked ourselves. My guess is they simply did not prepare well enough. What’s surprising, they failed in both parts, both digital and physical. Serbia’s Partizan Esports and France’s Paris Phygital did not live up to the expectations, even though they have some really strong cyberathletes on the roster.

– How are you planning to spend the prize money?

– People keep asking this, but I can’t really say anything for now. We have not received the prize yet, and making plans for something you don’t have is a little premature. We’ll see. We’ll have to think carefully about how to spend it.