ANDROID: "I've been dreaming of this moment for so long"
After falling short at the Americas Minor again and again, compLexity are finally through to the playoffs of the Major after going 3-0 in the group stage following a victory over BIG on Nuke. With the North American team taking the next few days off to prepare for the single-elimination bracket, our local Michael "Duck" Moriarty caught up with Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor to get some insight on the Canadian player's first Major playoffs appearance and his team's journey there.
So ANDROID, you've just gone 3-0 in the main stage of the Major. What's going through your head?
The word "finally". I've been working towards this goal for so long. I've never had this kind of success any time in my career, so for it to happen at a Major... I just feel like I'm dreaming now. First tournament I've ever been to where we got through groups... I got so used to losing in the group stage and getting knocked out right away, so it feels like I'm dreaming.
You and your team's performances have been described as miraculous by some people, because you had the 3-1 run in the Major Qualifier, with the only loss to Astralis which makes sense. Then you had the 3-0 run here and you're the first team through to the playoffs, which is mad itself. You've got results against teams who are pretty good as well, so getting wins off the likes of Fnatic, G2, and BIG again. Surely that's a tick off the list?
In previous rosters and stuff, we always struggled against G2, Fnatic, and all those big names like even BIG. Even when we're at the bootcamp, we're getting destroyed by Fnatic, destroyed by BIG, like everything. We were kinda discouraged for a moment there at the boot camp, but we learned a lot from that and we're just trading so well this tournament. Peter's been calling out of his mind, reading teams so well and, I know people are like we got lucky with the draws and stuff, 'cause we didn't have to face teams like Na`Vi and all that stuff. I dunno. You can't really take this away from us. We've been playing really good.
Talking about the BIG game. You had a seven round start at the beginning of the game, which is a very good lead to have. What was going through your team at that point?
We had a lot of reads. Like, we went out upper most of those rounds that we won, they weren't expecting it at all and we took those rounds pretty cleanly and after seven, I guess they kinda realized what we were doing, so they started adapting and that's when gob b started getting triple kills. But, Peter's calling really well and they just kinda adapted and we didn't adapt, but it was still a 9-6 half. I dunno, I was thinking that we got this at 7-0.
In the second half, you dropped around two rounds in total, so that's a strong CT hold of Nuke.
Yeah, Nuke is pretty CT-sided at times if they don't really know our setups. They had no demos really on us, we had a demo of them, so we kinda had the upper hand I think. I think after we picked Nuke though, someone on their team yelled "woo" or something. We had some excellent reads on them and we just played so well on the CT-side; we knew exactly what they were doing.
Speaking of Nuke, you've played it twice in the past three months before this game. When it came up in the veto and you had the choice between Nuke and a different map, why did stanislaw go with Nuke?
Based off our maps and their maps, we just knew it was going to come down to Nuke. Last time we faced them, we vetoed down to Inferno, which is a comfortable map for the both of us and it was either going to be Nuke or Inferno last time and I think they picked Inferno. I don't think they wanted to pick Inferno again just because we beat them on it, so we prepped the whole time for Nuke.
So you were confident that was the map you were going to 3-0 on?
Yeah, we knew the second we drew BIG, it was probably going to be Nuke, so we prepped right from the get-go.
Just onto yourself, you had a pretty pivotal play towards the end of the game, where you got the match point. You just sat on A site, picking up a 3K even though it was effectively against a force buy. When that round ended and you realize what you've done, what was going through your head?
I said right after, I'm like "yes, I had the impact round this game!" So, obviously we were trading well and it doesn't matter the score, but I'm just glad I could get that match score for the team 'cause I knew after that they were broke again, so it was basically won after winning that round.
So, this time next week, you're going to be walking off onto a stage. What will be your thoughts going through that moment in the quarterfinals for the first time in your career?
Uh, jeez. Like I said, I've been dreaming of this moment for so long. I just hope we can do some damage, like getting to this point is just a crazy point in my career honestly.
Just put "Major Legends" over your head or over again and again. Just keep thinking of that.
Major Legends, yeah. Like, I'm not gonna settle for "okay we made it this far." I know a lot of teams who made it this far are just like "wow we made it this far." Like, they go out and maybe they're not as hyped up for that, but this is the first time ever I'll be playing in front of a crowd like this. I couldn't be more excited.
