FlameZ: “[Nexa] was in the flow state. And once the IGL is in the flow, you can’t lose the game.”

Considered the big underdogs for the event, OG was being overlooked even in this match against a stavn-less Heroic. But their firepower showed up, and Nexa called a solid game around it to edge Heroic out in a 2-1 victory. We talked to flameZ after the match to get his thoughts on the team's performance.

Arnav "xL" Shukla: A long gruelling series. How do you feel after winning that game?

flameZ: Feeling actually really good. Obviously, we have been struggling a lot lately and winning such a match even though Heroic with a standing, k0nfig's a really good player. So we take it. We're really happy with it and glad that we managed to get it done.

xL: Starting on Inferno, your CT side was pretty strong, and you shut Heroic out of the game. Was the performance of the team as expected?

flameZ: Yeah, the performance was as expected. We know our strengths on the map, and we know how Heroic like plays the game. So we just used that. We had a very good preparation coming into Inferno. It was very well prepared by the coaches. So we came in knowing that if we did our stuff, it'd work out. And yeah, it went really well.

xL: The defence that was so good on Inferno didn't work the same way on Mirage. The team struggled to string together multiple rounds together. What went wrong? Was it just k0nfig's impact on the entries?

flameZ: I think a part of it was k0nfig getting all those entries. I think we had the right idea, and the prep was really good. But we couldn't pull off the individual kills, and k0nfig was just killing everybody. In some sense, we had a good plan and good situations, but we just couldn't pull it off. We stack A, and they push A and kill us all. We stack B, and it's the same. These things happen, and you can't win those games easily.

xL: Talking about Anubis, were you guys practising the map already? 

flameZ: We had two days after we came back from Fall Finals. So we were confused between practising Nuke or Anubis. Then Kakafu had the idea that we had two days. We played Nuke one day and Anubis one day. Whatever goes better, we go with the other one. Nuke went well in practice, and Anubis didn't go that well because we played solid teams. We ended up going with Anubis cause Nuke is something we don't know individually so well. Anubis is a new map, so we don't have such gaps.

xL: How did the first official go on Anubis?

flameZ: I think in some ways it was very similar to practice. Heroic was peeking at B a lot which we haven't seen so much in practice, and I think to some extent, they played their style, but I don't think they were playing that well T side. And we had a lot of things to exploit on their CT side too. 

Nexa gave amazing calls. He was in the flow state. And once the IGL is in the flow, you can't lose the game. And yeah, that's it.

xL: What are your thoughts on the M4 changes? Is it significant nerf to the M4A1?

flameZ: I don't think it's that significant. I still play with the silencer, and I feel more comfortable with it. I don't think it's such a deal-breaker, it's just like you need to consider different positions. My idea is, since there are A1, A4 and AUG, I play with the silencer, and if I need some positions to play in the A4 style, I play with the AUG. So I don't think it's that significant change. I think in some situations I feel like when you go out of the connector on Mirage, it's so difficult coz you have to hit 5 bullets. But it still isn't a game-changer.

xL: Up next you have the winner of NaVi vs Vitality. Who do you think is gonna win that match?

flameZ: Well I hope Vitality wins that match, so I get to play against Spinx again. That matchup is always good. And NaVi I'm not so sure, how the 6-man roster will work. But NaVi is a team that can beat any team in the world any day of the week, and against them is Zywoo, who can do the same. So it's gonna be an interesting matchup, and whoever wins, it's gonna be a hard matchup for us.

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