In between games, our video essay extraordinaire, Fuffy, caught Boombl4 for a quick talk in the musty press area at IEM Atlanta.

How are you enjoying the US?
I really like the US My first time in the US was for the 2018 ELEAGUE Major, and last year we were in the Austin Major, so it’s a really great time when I’m visiting the US.

How did it feel to be one of the only teams to beat Vitality?
In the first few hours I was really shocked. Of course, Vitality said in interviews that they didn’t practice a lot for this tournament, but still its a great result for us. We are a mix with FL4MUS and we showed we can beat them individually.

Your last big playoffs were with NAVI in 2022. How does it feel to be back?
It’s like four or five years without playoffs or semifinals. The new guys, the new team around me, this is crazy emotions because I’m back to tier S tournaments.

You’ve already made the semi-finals. Do you have any other goals for this event?
I don’t think so, no. […] We’re already in semis so what we can do is we can try and win the tournament.

You recently had zorte swap for ArtFr0st, and FL4MUS standing in for d1lidez. Has it helped bring new energy, or is it just pure chaos?
The first thing is we are playing without pressure. We have four or five days practice with FL4MUS. For me, the purpose of this tournament has been to feel the competition at a top-level tournament because the next tournament is the Major. I just wanna feel the game and show the best result we can do.

Would you rather face NAVI or Vitality in the semi-finals?
I wanna face NAVI, this is my ex team and it’s every time fun to play versus B1ad3.

Speaking of ex-teammates, we saw s1mple at this event. What are your thoughts when you see him play? Is he back?
He has a really good chance to come back when you see him play, but the first thing he needs to fix is to play like a team better. It’s a lot of roster changers and they are trying to find the players they want to play, so I think they just need time.