So you guys made it to the arena pretty comfortably. How are you feeling about how the Major’s gone so far?
It feels great to qualify for playoffs, it’s my second playoffs in the LANXESS arena, so I’m pretty happy about it. We will try our best to be different to the last time.

The bracket is looking pretty favourable for you guys to go on a very deep run here. How are you looking at that? Do you consider it to be fortunate or like it wouldn’t have mattered either way?
I think no matter the match, even if there are better teams on the other side of the bracket, I think everyone who qualified for playoffs deserved it. They’re playing very good, very, very good, so we’ll have to give our best even if it’s the “best” bracket for us.

9z have proven themselves to be a pretty solid underdog team at this event, they’ve picked up some upsets, but getting to the arena is very different. Do you feel that being in that arena setting might be a big advantage for you?
Depends. I think it depends on a lot of things. I think it depends on their mindset, and I think they come in with a good mindset to play these playoffs, so let’s see what happens.

Looking at the end of last year, you played incredibly well and did some things no one thought you would. This year, it’s slowed down a bit, with only one grand final appearance. What do you think has been the main difference that has been holding you guys back further?
I think the meta changed a lot. Last year, we were a new team, so we had a lot of new stuff that nobody knew how to play. Right now, it’s pretty stable, and we are creating new things as well. But I think the meta changed a lot, in Counter-Strike the meta changes pretty fast.

Do you think some of the other teams also got better and picked up in form, or maybe their changes benefit them?
Yeah, I think there are also better teams, like Parivision won the first tournament of this season. Some teams are beating Vitality as well, so it’s not easy to be on top and win all the trophies. I think that’s pretty much Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike is never just okay, it changes all the time with meta changes and gun changes. There can come big changes. That’s why Counter-Strike has been around for twenty years.

A lot of people have been talking about FalleN’s announcement that he’ll be retiring at the end of the year, and that maybe it puts some unnecessary pressure on you guys as a team to maybe win more trophies before he ends his career. Do you feel like that’s true at all? Have you felt more pressure since the announcement?
Not really, it was expected. FalleN has been talking a lot, many times, usually we live in the same apartment, and we talk a lot about it. I don’t feel any pressure, I just feel joy to be a part of this, and I’ll try my best to make him retire with a bit more trophies.

Obviously, you want to win a bit more trophies before he retires. What would it mean to you to win those trophies, and especially this one, ten years after he won his last Major here?
This one is special because ten years ago he won his Major in this city and this tournament. It would be really nice to win the second one because he would be the first guy to win two Majors in the same place. It would be really nice, we’ll try our best to do it.

Obviously, FalleN is a legend, not just in Brazil but for the whole of Counter-Strike. You’ve now been playing with him for a couple of years. What has he taught you, and what does he mean to your career?
He taught me a lot. I met him, like… damn, it’s been a while. Sixteen years ago? When I was a kid, I was eight or nine years old. He started Games Academy, so then we started talking. He taught me a lot, he was my professional leader, the teacher of the Games Academy. He taught me a lot. We live together, so not only about Counter-Strike, but life as well.

Are you worried at all about the future when he’s no longer on the team?
I don’t need to be worried right now. I just need to enjoy the moment during this tournament. I don’t need to be worried at all, for now. But that will be a subject we will talk about later.

When it comes to winning the tournament, I think, maybe, because of the year not being as strong as the end of last year, that people don’t consider you an underdog, but they don’t consider you a favourite to win the tournament either. Do you think they’re maybe mistaken to not consider you as one of the favourites?
I don’t care what they think, actually. We just need to be ourselves and believe in each other. What people say on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok - it doesn’t matter at all for us. Of course, we like the Brazilian fans because they are cheering for us. They know our potential. To everyone who knows our potential, we’re very thankful, but we have to focus on ourselves and also the tournament we’re going to play.

And what then is going to be the most important thing for you guys to do in order to lift that trophy?
Do our best, for sure, and also give everything we have to win it.