nitr0: "We need to make that stage, bottom line."

In a heater of a 1-1 matchup, Liquid took on Stockholm Major winners NAVI to determine who would be one game away from elimination and who would be one game away from playoffs. On the battlefield of Ancient, NAVI stormed to an early lead at the half, but Nick "nitr0" Cannella's soldiers fought through fire and fury to completely turn the game back and win the map.

After the game, Dust2us' Ryan Friend talked with nitr0 about that game, their qualification chances, and the Rio Major.

Coming back from a 12-3 deficit against NAVI on Ancient, the pick was a little interesting. Do you have any idea why it came down to Ancient?

Honestly, I'm not sure. Coming into the match, Ancient wasn't really an option in our heads. The last time they played it was against Endpoint with Kjaerbye, and they lost that game. I guess they were feeling good about their practice coming into this event, which is why they chose it. We actually played Ancient against them a week ago and it was pretty even to be honest. We weren't expecting them to leave the map open. We didn't have as much prep on Ancient against them since the last time they played it was two months ago. In EPL I think, group A or B. We were surprised as well, but I'm just happy we closed it out.

How do you feel about your own Ancient? That and Inferno were the two maps you've been looking forward to playing here, so did you feel comfortable when that surprise gift fell in your lap?

We were definitely happy overall, like "alright, let's play Ancient". We've been putting a lot of time into this map during our bootcamp. We know how strong out CT-side can be and our T-side was pretty decent as well. It's a pretty CT-sided map, one of the most CT-sided maps at some point, before they made the recent changes. We were happy and pretty surprised.

Obviously the game didn't go the way you were hoping on the T-side, you only got 3 T rounds and those were towards the beginning. Were you guys worrying as the T-side just kept lingering on and on and you weren't able to secure as many post-plants as you wanted?

Going into it, I knew it was going to be a pretty scrappy game. Even the rounds we won were super scrappy affairs, one alive, two alive, that sort of thing. It was a bit worrying, 12-3 is a tough deficit to come back from, but we all know that Ancient is so good on CT-side, so we said "alright, let's win pistol and just roll this" and that's what happ ened.

About that pistol, I heard you had some computer problems there. Were you at all concerned when those popped up?

I think it was a 4v2 or 4v3 when I froze. I froze twice actually! The first time I came back and it makes that water noise, like "splsh", and I said "alright I'm back its all good", but I was in mid in the middle of a duel. The next time it froze, it was during freezetime, so they swapped out my PC.

Do you think that CT-side would have went that way if you didn't get that pistol round? How lucky were you that the PC issues didn't cause you to lose that?

It would have been really hard, especially if they won the following two rounds, it would have been 15-3. It would have been mental warfare. Obviously, they have really good players and if at any point one of their five players popped off for a single round, they win. Thank God we won that pistol.

Was there anything you guys were picking up on their playstyle on the CT-side that you tried to adjust for in the second half? They seemed to be really aggressive, and even on the CT-side they were playing aggressively in donut. Can you talk about that?

The current meta of Ancient is controlling mid and controlling that liane area. Honestly, we didn't see anything new. I just wasn't making the correct calls in the moment. A lot of the calls I was making were getting shut down immediately. It was a hard game to play, but that's just part of the game. You're never gonna make the 100% correct call, and even if you make a call and it wins, it might not have been the correct call. It's just the game of Counter-Strike. We scraped through with three rounds and apparently, that was just enough.

YEKINDAR is obviously a major part of this team in getting the guys going. He had a slow beginning to this game. EliGE helped out by taking control, but was there any concern with YEKINDAR's performance in the beginning?

Honestly, his mentality was great this game. I didn't even notice he had 3 kills at the half. He was still fully into it, so good from him. He doesn't have many confidence issues. He's pretty confident in himself no matter the score, which was reflected in the CT-side. I'm proud of him.

With this surprising win versus NAVI, now you're headed into the qualification BO3s. How do you feel about your chances against whatever opponents are in your pool?

After NAVI, we see FaZe as the team to beat, and we've been playing well against them in practice. I'm not really worried, I think we're in a really good spot right now, and as long as we keep playing with confidence, reassuring each other, and playing the game, we're going to be fine.

So Mister Captain America, I see you guys have some new jerseys on. Can you say a little bit on the new kits today?

That's the new Captain America drop that we just had, so I wanted to represent us on the stage and it looks sick, so I'm super happy to wear it

This Rio crowd, you've only been here for two days, but they are loud. How much do you love this crowd and how much do you think you're gonna be feeding off of it.

Honestly, it's so electric, I want to make the next stage just to witness the greatness. It's going to be three or four times as many people, oh my God I can't even imagine. We need to make that stage, bottom line.

Is there anything else you want to say to the fans out there today?

Thanks for your support and thanks for believing in us. Hopefully, we'll continue to keep doing well.