Maybe it wasn't as easy to get here as a lot of people expected it to be, but how are you feeling about the performances so far in the Major?
I'm feeling okay. The goal in the group stage is not to be shiny, it's to go through. But that's done, so now we're focused on the playoffs.

Now that you're in the playoffs, you're looking at the harder side of the bracket. How are you feeling about that?
It's going to be a tough one. We know that we're on the nastier side of the bracket but if you want to win a big tournament, if you want to win a Major, you need to beat whoever you face. That's life, if we lose in the quarters or in the final it means we don't deserve to win the trophy.

Let's say you do make it to the final, I don't want to say the other side of the bracket looks like an easy path for FURIA, but they are the favourites to make the final. Since it's FalleN's last Cologne and second to last Major, do you think there's a special chance to deny him another Major win?
At every Major there are surprises. You can't be sure that it's going to be FURIA, you can't be sure that it's going to be Vitality or Spirit. It can be G2 as well. That's the beauty of the Major, so let's see how it goes. If we play against FURIA, it would be nice to beat them for sure.

I noticed you didn't mention Falcons there, would you say that's a reflection of your confidence?
No, it could be Falcons as well. I don't want to disrespect them, of course. They are looking good and getting better and better with karrigan. They can for sure also win the Major, I just said a few teams I had in mind but Falcons are one of the big favourites here.

Out of all the teams Falcons have one of the better records against you. Are you preparing any differently against them this time around?
I have an answer to that question but I won't say what I think. For me right now I'm just focusing on this game and we'll see how it goes. If we win the Major we’ll have another interview and I will tell you what I thought.

You guys talk about pressure a lot and how good you are at handling it. But given everything you've achieved and the fact you have the chance to win three in a row, how is the pressure different to previous Majors?
At the Major, if you really care and really want to win, it's the same pressure. I think at Austin it was a bit higher because people had really high expectations from us winning six events before the Major. Coming into this one we've won only five, so I don't know if we are such big favourites [laughs]. If we had no pressure it would mean we don't care, which would probably lead to us losing in quarters. The pressure is high but we're able to deal with that, so let's see how we're able to deal with this one.

People talk about pressure a lot in Counter-Strike and how it impacts teams, but do you feel like it actually just fires you up for playoffs?
Pressure is key. Pressure is part of being human and it's part of fear. Without fear you do crazy stuff. I think we need to welcome it and just accept pressure is part of life and it's about how you handle it. I think that's something we've been good at, so if we can show we're good at that, we're gonna win this Major.