pino: "two of our players have food poisoning, I had to take one of them to the hospital last night"

Dust2.us' Dafydd Gwynn sat down with Rodrigo "pino" Manarino right after their victory against Party Astronauts and get his thoughts on a crucial game for the Brazilian side. As the screams of Bad News Bears and Case surrounded us, pino broke down how they were able to win, their expectations for the tournament, and the fact he had to bring one of his players to hospital last night, yet still managed to win.

That was a great performance to win your first game, obviously going into the half it was extremely close. Party Astronauts won the first half 8-7, how were you able to completely shut down their T-side in the second half?

I think we were pretty confident on Nuke, we decided on that map and besides, we knew we were starting on the T-side. In the first half they played really well, they are a really good team but we knew that we lost many rounds to clutches and there were lots of mistakes from us. We knew if we kept the communication up to and we just keep the flow going, we will find CT, the boys started really strong and just kept it going. We were really confident, this is the good faze of our CT-side so I am looking forward to playing more nukes now.

You mentioned to me before the interview that a lot of your players had food poisoning and you had to take DeStiNy to the hospital last night, what does this win do for you guys after having to experience all of that?

It means a lot because they put in a huge effort into the boot camp two weeks ago. We have been to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and they were gone from their families, and the day before the RMR starts and two of our players have food poisoning. I had to take one of them to the hospital last night. It could happen to anyone, but I'm really happy for them because they have worked really hard and we want to show our best CS. Doesn't matter what the final result is if we show our best CS possible. We did that in that game.

There's a lot of potential in this roster, what is your ceiling for these guys? What do you expect of them in the future?

I expect to be a top 10 team, to get to that there is a lot to do, I mean our scene is very far away from the European scene with having more chances with boot camping and tournaments, I think we can be a really decent team and our ceiling could be anywhere. The whole team is working an insane amount of hours, they put in a lot of work and have a love for the game. That's what I expect if you work hard and love the game, they will reach anywhere. That's my expectation.

For that game specifically, what was the difference-maker?

The difference-maker was on CT we were really aware of how they were playing and we reacted, it wasn't super specific but knowing their tendencies we were able to defend and use that to alternate properly and set up differently for different rounds. I think the difference was that we were well-prepared, also our communication was the key.

With this win over Party Astronauts, how confident are you against the other North American teams?

We have to feel confident, we want to show our best game and be confident in it. If it is good enough then we can beat teams, and if it's not good enough then we will have got to keep working. If we just focus on the game then we might be able to win, these guys are really dangerous which is such an advantage if we are a lower seed. I expect our team to play the best possible Counter-Strike we can, we have competed against some good teams here in Europe and it went well.

DestiNy has been playing very well recently, and for this match, he had a good game but didn't outplay everybody else. Does this show you are becoming a more well-rounded side?

Today we showed a face that everybody was hitting everything at the right times, and it makes it easier to play when we are doing that as a team. DestiNy is really good and everybody on this team can have that peak, it really depends on the match. Some maps we will need him more, others less. It depends on how we are playing as a team, he is ridiculous and everybody else is playing well and has learned a lot from the few weeks we have had in Europe.

To finish up, Imperial is here. What are you expecting if you go up against them or just from them in general?

I expect a lot. They are really experienced, actually extremely experienced and we all know what they can do. I know they have been practicing a lot and putting in a lot of work, they were boot camping when we were, so I expect them to perform well because they have quality and experience. However the Counter-Strike these days is really hard so let's see if it's tough for them or not. I hope and expect them to qualify because they are really good players and they should make it.

Isurus managed to win their opening match and will have to wait for all the matches to conclude this morning before finding out who their opponent will be in the next round.