We’re fast approaching the playoffs here at IEM Cologne, and that means we got to sit down with some of the tournaments best players.

NiKo, apEX, huNter-, and KSCERATO all gave us their insights on their teams runs so far, and now that we’ve spoken to them, we’re pretty sure they’re all going to be lifting the trophy come Sunday. Just have to get past the problem they all play for different teams first.

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16 years later…

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.

Bringing the boom

For some reason unknown to all of us, BetBoom have made the Major playoffs here in Cologne.

They’re up against Aurora (1.66) in the quarter-finals, and considering how hot and cold Aurora’s form is in these do or die stage games, we don’t think there’s as much upset potential in any of the other playoff games in comparison to this matchup.

If you believe in the BetBoom magic, back them with odds of 2.12 on Razed.

Hunting the Major

It was a long road to the playoffs, you had a stressful game against NAVI. How are you feeling after a night's sleep?

I feel really good. It was hard last night, I just wanted to chill, sleep, and not listen to anyone. But, the morning after feels amazing.

NAVI clutched up to take map one, what did you say between maps to come back from that?

We just spoke about resetting as fast as possible; we'd lost one map but we hadn't lost the game. We'd knew that we'd f-cked up a lot of rounds on Dust2, so we needed to reset mentally and to focus on Inferno, because we knew we'd lose some bad rounds again, and that's what happened. We were always mentally strong and we always stayed in the moment, that's the most important thing.

You've had some issues closing out close maps, especially when it comes to qualification for playoffs, what was different this time around?

I think we had mental resilience. We didn't think about what could happen or what had happened before, it didn't matter, we were always focused on what was in front of us and every round that came.

Do you think part of it is also tied to your own growth as a leader?

Definitely. I'm getting a lot of experience during those games now, especially in events like this. I have a lot of experience as a player, but it's a bit different as an IGL, it's been helping me a lot.

What's your philosophy towards your positions as an IGL? You remained in rotator roles on the CT side for the most part, but people would say that maybe some others in the team are better suited to them, what made you stay in them?

I'm trying to help with mid-round calls on the CT side, and I need to understand what the openers are doing to read the game. I think it's also better to have players like MATYS and HeavyGod on the sites to multi-kill when people are coming to them. I'm good at rotations, and I feel comfortable doing it, too, I think it's good for the team.

Do you find the calling hurts your fragging ability, though?

I've been having a good time on the CT side lately, which I hope isn't a jinx [laughs]. It's easy to focus since NertZ came, because he calls a lot of things around himself. He plays in the prime roles on most maps, so I can just focus on my crosshair.

The T side isn't easy, though. I have to focus on the whole picture, so I'm not having a good time, but it's the same for all IGLs and especially when I want to go first and take space sometimes. I have to not care about killing or dying. It would be better for the team if I can manage to focus on calling and my crosshair, though.

I interviewed HeavyGod after the match and he said the team doesn't feel close to its peak. We saw what that peak can look like back at BLAST Open London, so do you think not being at the peak here is down to how you're playing or still an impact from not being with NertZ for very long?

It's a bit of everything. We need more experience with NertZ, it's only our third or fourth tier one event with him. With me as well, I didn't play at Rio.

We're getting there, we look better after every game. It's hard to say what's wrong, but there aren't so many wrong things anyway. I hope during playoffs we'll be the real G2, even though I'm not unhappy with how we've played so far.

Vitality like to give a percentage of how close they are to their peak, what percentage would you say you're at right now?

70%.

Can you win the Major with 70%?

No, we need 100%.

Do you not think you could benefit from a slip up from anyone else and might not need 100%?

No, especially with the bracket we have. There's Spirit, Falcons, Vitality, all on our side. We need to give it our all.

You play Spirit next, how are you feeling about it?

Spirit are a great team, they had a day off against 9z, but they still won. They're in their best form now and they have donk in the team, playing really good CS, but maybe not having a coach is a positive for us.

When you see a team do what Spirit have done in this tournament where they've blown some teams away but also had struggles against another like 9z, is it important to look at what went well in their blowouts, or look to exploit mistakes that may crop up like they did against 9z?

The most important thing is to focus on ourselves, you can't know how your opponent will wake up that day, how donk, sh1ro, or anyone else might be. It's random if you want to focus on their weaknesses because they can fix them, especially when they have five or six days between their last group game and playoffs. They'll fix their sh-t, 100%.

You've won the trophy before, how are you feeling about your chances to do it again?

People aren't giving us much of a chance, we're definitely an underdog and especially in the bracket we have. We don't care about that, though, our goal was to qualify but now we've made it to playoffs, the pressure will be on the opponents more than it will be on us, so we'll give it our all and enjoy it. Whatever happens will happen.

apEX discusses his chance at history

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.

NiKo on why this might finally be his moment

You made it to the Playoffs, back in the LANXESS. How are you feeling about it

Feeling good. It was a difficult road. We had some tough matches getting to the Playoffs, but I'm happy with the way that we advanced in the end. Winning versus NAVI in such a close fashion really is going to mean a lot for us in the Playoffs. I'm super excited to be in the LANXESS this time. It's also a Major in this arena, so it's going to be even more special.

Your team's record in overtimes has improved a lot since karrigan came in. What does he bring specifically in those scenarios that was maybe different to what you had before?

It's a bit hard for me to talk on this topic because I haven't really focused too much on it. It's more of a question for zonic. But what karrigan brings is just a lot of experience. He has the right approach when it comes to the overtimes; he knows how to use his experience.

FaZe won a lot of close games as well, so he's probably pretty confident going into overtimes. That's one of the reasons why we brought him in as well. Obviously not just because of the overtimes, to get us over the edge, but just his experience as an IGL and, you know, he has won a lot. He has a good track record, and we believe that's something we've been missing in this team. I would say there are a lot of positive signs so far.

A lot of people have spoken about his lack of impact in the fragging department, but what kind of impact does he bring to the team in general throughout the game, even if he's not getting those kills?

I think he's aware that his individual level is not the best, and he knows that he can do much better. He's just struggling now to find a balance. He's new to the team, so he wants to make sure that everyone else is comfortable, that he's up to speed with everything. So I think this is why his individual level is taking a bit of a hit right now.

After this season, once we finish this, this is where he can focus a bit more on himself because he was playing much better individually in FaZe, and the individual level shouldn't just disappear within one or two months. I believe that he can play much better, and I really hope he will because he can do it, he has done it in practice.

But we are not too worried about his individual level because we can see clear signs of why we brought him in and what it means to have him on the team. The players are feeling very good following his voice. He's a very vocal IGL, everyone trusts him. He's sacrificing a lot for the team. He's giving people space, especially for players like m0NESY and kyousuke, they're feeling much more comfortable. kyousuke had two great events, in Astana and Shanghai. He's also helping me a lot on CT-sides. As I said, he's just a vocal player, and he brings a lot of good things.

It's also worth mentioning the atmosphere and the energy he brings on the stage and in the matches in general. It's something that we have lacked in the past as well, and it's nice to have this kind of mindset in the games.

You've been playing incredibly well here so far. I've spoken to you in the past about your preparation for Majors and this kind of event and how you are hoping to find something extra in that preparation, now that zonic is your coach. Has anything changed in the run-up to this tournament? Did you prepare differently than you have to Majors in the past?

I actually prepped a bit differently. I honestly played a bit less [laughs]. I always tried to overdo it for the Majors. I just always felt like I was never ready enough for such an event. I always wanted to do more, I wanted to play more, I wanted to have more setups. I wanted to play more DM, I wanted to make sure my aim is always better and better.

For this Major, I was just focusing a bit more on the mental state. Just remembering who I was before and doing the things I usually do on the server. The individual performances that I had in Shanghai have kind of shaken me up a little bit, and I think I learned a lot from it. So it's been good so far this Major. Hopefully I can keep it up for the Playoffs as well.

kyousuke had previously struggled in Playoffs but had a really good showing in your last Playoffs run. How important is it for him and for the team that he had that prior to coming here? Do you think that will help him once you get onto the arena

Definitely. He will have more confidence now as we're getting into Playoffs. As you mentioned, he had great showings in the Playoffs recently; it's something that we have been missing in the past. He's a key player for us; he's the one that is taking the space, taking the charge in most of the rounds on the T-side and CT-side. We need him to feel comfortable and confident.

I'm not sure how he has been playing at this event so far, but I'm not too worried about him. I would say he's just feeling much more comfortable with Finn, now that Finn is always up front and he just needs to follow him. Finn is also very good at developing him, teaching him different ways of playing. So it's been good so far. It's just a learning process for him. kyousuke should get even better than he is.

You play Vitality in the quarterfinals, and you guys have a better record than most teams against them. How are you feeling about that matchup?

I'm feeling pretty good, actually. Obviously, it's going to be a very hard match, there are no easy matches in the Playoffs. But I'm happy that we got to face them early on and not in the final, mostly because of the map pool.

Our map pool is not that strong right now, and Vitality is one of the only few teams that are pretty dominant on four or five maps, right? So it's very hard to exploit any weaknesses in their map pool. I'm happy that we got to play them in BO3. We have a good track record, but this is a Major Playoffs, so I don't think it matters what happened in the past. We haven't played them in the Playoffs of a Major, so it's gonna be a crazy game.

I just want us to go in, have fun, and enjoy, and then bring the same energy that we have done for the game against NAVI. I believe we can win.

Finally then, you've lifted the trophy before. What's going to be the key things for you to do it again this time?

It's still a long road ahead. There's a lot of games to be played. For me, I want to mostly focus on how to get there, not really on a trophy. I need to stick to the things that I promised myself before this event, and just make sure that once I finish this event, I have no regrets.

I just want to say to myself that I've done everything that I have agreed on with myself, and then whatever happens happens, but I want to just make sure that I have no regrets.