max: "I dreamed of this when I was a child"
An unlikely champion, 9z was the sole South American team to make it out of the first day of competition flawlessly. Despite a loss on the second day to Evil Geniuses, today the South American side struck back with a 2-0 utter trounce over ATK. Dust2.us interviewed max of 9z to get his thoughts on his teams run and his future appearance at the Rio Major.
Coming into this, did you think you were going to be able to do it again and get to the Major?
Yeah, the expectation was the same as the last one to qualify for the Major by winning here again so I'm very proud of my boys. I'm very proud of all my team, the manager, the CEO and all the people in 9z who support us. I am very grateful.
Can you put into words what it means to go to another Major and specifically, a Major in South America.
Everything. It means everything. I dreamed of this when I was a child so now it is a dream come true.
You have a new team with Buda and your AWPer. How does it feel to make another Major with two different players?
That was hard to adapt with the new members of the team and we need a lot of time. We worked a lot, like 12/13 hours per day so I think we did well here against Isurus.
Can you tell me about your two new players and how they've fit into the team?
They entered into the team so well. They want to win a lot and they want to work all day which is very good for the team because we need that .
Is there anything you want to say to your friends and family who have supported you?
I want to say thank you. I am speechless right now but thank you for supporting us in the bad moments and now it makes it easier to support us in the good moments. Thank you for everything.
And the fans?
Thank you for watching all the games. It is very early in the morning in Argentina so all the fans have to wake up early so that is very good for us.
You weren't able to overcome EG, but how did you reset for this game?
We saw the demo last night and we talked a lot last night and today as well, so I think we fixed little mistakes that we did yesterday and did better today.
What is next for you guys and how high can you go?
We are aiming to be one of the top five teams in the world.
How soon do you expect that?
Next year maybe?
Any final thoughts?
Thank you to all the fans, to my family and to my girlfriend. Thank you.
9z will going into the IEM Rio Major as the only American Challengers team. They will be playing in the opening Challengers Stage with the rest of the Challengers and Contenders.
