Magisk: "I still feel like we are not 100%"

Vitality's run in Washington didn't start off on the right foot with a 2-0 loss against Imperial. Since then, the team has been slowly coming back to their Major-winning form after wins over Cloud9 and now FaZe.

After Vitality's win over FaZe to book them a place in the semifinals, Dust2.us' Samuel "Draik04" Popkes talked with Emil "Magisk" Reif about the squad's recent struggles, the timeout usage on Anubis versus FaZe, and the team's upcoming match against G2.

How are you feeling to get the semifinal appearance?

It's always fun to win, so I'm glad we played some good CS today. I think the first game of the tournament was a little bit rough for us. I'm glad we are getting better and better throughout the tournament and I think the most important thing is that we started badly and we still managed to get better throughout the tournament.

You guys were down a bit in the first half of Anubis. You took a timeout when at 7-3; I was in the audience and I heard dupreeh talking a lot. I'm curious what you guys were going through during that timeout because you won the rest of the half, afterwards.

They wanted to exploit B a little bit and I think we were ready for it but we needed to adjust throughout the game and that's what we talked about. He had some ideas about how we should do it and in general we needed to adapt to the way they were playing because every time we play them they switch it up a lot. We adapt throughout the half and we had a good solution, that's why we started to come back. It felt like after we figured out the way they were playing, we had a good read of how to play against them, so yeah, obviously it was a good timeout, it was needed because they were winning a lot of rounds, so we had to stop the bleeding and we managed to do that in a good fashion.

During the second half you were also at a deficit for a while. Was it the same thing where you just needed time to adjust?

I think in the beginning, we fucked up a little bit, which gave them a bit of momentum on the CT-side. We heard the AWP on the B-site and we still went through with our B execute and we should have canceled it because that automatically means there are going to be three B, so we made a bad adjustment call and they got a little bit of momentum but after that, I feel like we were still in charge and having good control and some of the round were chaotic and close, but I had a good feeling throughout the whole Anubis, I felt like we were in charge, even though we were behind, so that was really good because we managed to pull it home and win the map.

Mirage was a lot easier for you. Did you have a good game plan going into Mirage? What was working in your favor?

Well, I think first of all, we changed positions on that map, to get back to the level we want to be, and I think it's paying off right now. We are trying to do our best to have a good Mirage because a lot of top teams are good on the map, so we have been working a lot on the map to make sure that we can compete with the best and I'm glad the hard work is finally paying off on the map. Other than that, I think we had a really good game plan in general, how they were playing, they were taking duels, stuff like that, we were prepared for that and other than that our Mirage is just getting stronger, that's a good thing.

After the Cloud9 game yesterday, I talked to dupreeh and he said that after that match you guys were still far away from where you want to be, considering you guys just came off that Major win. With this 2-0 win over FaZe, are you feeling like you are a lot closer to that level that you want to be at?

As I mentioned before, we had a bit of a rough start to the tournament and I think we needed a good talk about what we needed to do better and also being at the right place mentally. As we talked about, we need to do one step better, against Cloud9 yesterday it was not pretty but we did a lot better compared to the first game, and today I felt like we were doing better, better communication, more initiative, and playing with courage. The most important thing is that we are getting better game to game and that's sometimes what's needed. I'm happy about the win.

You mentioned to HLTV that you needed to reassess the team's goals. I'm just wondering if that's an ongoing process for this tournament or if that's something that you are waiting for to talk about during the player break.

As I also mentioned in the interview, we have been having a plan for a long time and suddenly having no plan can be difficult. The other thing I mentioned in the interview was that after the first game we sat down, and had a good team talk about what is the goal for this tournament and having the same alignment of what we want to achieve and there was no doubt that everyone here wants to win the tournament. We are here and it's the last tournament before the player break, so the goal is to do as well as possible and that also includes going for the trophy. I think overall we need a plan but that doesn't mean we don't have a goal and the goal is to go and win the whole thing and it's not going to be easy, there are good teams left in the tournament, and we need to play our best if we want to go all the way. There's no doubt that we want to go for the trophy.

You are facing G2 now. Haven't played them often this year, really just the Major and the RMR. How are you feeling ahead of that match-up?

I think G2 can always be difficult to play against. They have really good individuals and also, in some way, it's going to depend if they are performing, then we need to perform as individuals as well. I think on paper we are the better team but that doesn't mean it's going to be an easy game. Whenever we play them, it's always close games and sometimes it's overtimes and small margins that resolve the games. If we want to beat them tomorrow we need to play better and better than today, I still feel like we are not 100%. For me, it's all about taking small steps and making sure that every time we play, we do better and if we want to beat G2, we need to bring our A game, otherwise, it's going to be tough for us.

Vitality return to the server today at 04:15PM with G2, in a fight for a grand final spot.