Nifty: "We can can win this tournament"
After beating Luminosity in their opening match, we had the chance to speak to Noah "Nifty" Francis about his team's recent form, the styles of teams he faces, and his life as an in-game leader and AWPer.
Last week you won the Starladder Shanghai Invitational, beating the likes of Hellraisers and Virtus.pro in BO3s. What are your expectations for this tournament given your current form and the primarily NA competition?
It may sound cocky or whatever, but we do believe we can win this tournament as well. It's just about Cloud 9, Liquid, and Optic because more than likely we will face one of them, maybe even two of them.
So, you guys have been on the road for a couple weeks now, with Dreamhack Denver, the Asia Minor, the Starladder Shanghai Invitational, and now here. How are you guys holding up with the packed schedule?
So, we haven't haven't done practice in a while. Our only practice has been playing official matches.
Having played to back to back events in Asia, what do you think is an issue that teams from the region face?
It's kinda the same that anyone would really say. You know, it's like their practice, they aren't practicing against good European teams or even NA teams. It's also their map pool, it's actually the opposite of us when we played them and they need to start extending to Cache, Mirage, and Cobble and get really good on those maps. They have some good individual skill coming up, and it's not bad, I think it is coming along.
As an IGL and AWPer, what do you find is the most difficult team or style of team to play against? Why?
Sharpshooters, like Cloud9 for example. Like I said in the interview on stage, even if they aren't tactically working the map perfectly, they are just so sharp. All of their players are just really good and really skilled and talented, all playmakers basically. It's really hard to deal with that because you really have to be on top of your game and it doesn't matter how well you are playing tactically, you still need to be able to hit your shots everytime against teams like that.
The NA scene has a shortage of two things, good IGLs and good AWPers. Seeing as you are both, what do you think is the biggest problem for NA in developing those key roles? And how can this problem be fixed?
I would say mentality because there are a lot of people who do not really approach these roles the right way. It takes some time, you have to go through and learn, but you have to be open to changing the way that you think.
Renegades next match will be against Cloud9 in the winners' match of Group A, with the winners of the best-of-one clash advancing to the iBUYPOWER Masters playoffs tomorrow.
