malbsMd: "Whenever Wildcard don't have a ping advantage it's just easy for us"

M80, despite playing with their coach, have made a far deeper run than many have expected, with the team now in striking distance of claiming a spot in the first CS2 Major. A key part of M80's success has been Guatemalan phenom, Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa, who played a starring role in M80's 2-1 win over Wildcard.

Following the win, Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore spoke to malbsMd about the victory, the post-game incident with Wildcard coach Matt "Warden" Dickens, M80's run in the RMR, and the state of the Guatemalan scene, among other topics.

Please note that the full interview can be found transcripted below while also being available on YouTube here.

To start off, how are you feeling right now?

I'm doing pretty fine, but we had a little bit of a funny moment at the end but just cringe people.

Oh yeah? What happened at the end of the match?

Their coach didn't fist bump me when I was like this [malbMds holds out fist] and then at the end he splashed water on me. It was a little bit questionable but yeah it is what it is. They're eliminated but we're not.

Does it feel good to get the better of your rivals, Wildcard, on LAN?

On LAN is a different thing. Whenever they don't have a ping advantage it's just easy for us. Yeah it was pretty fun for us to win and we expected it a little bit.

I wanted to ask you about incredible performance on Mirage, ending with a 2.05 rating and 134 ADR, what went into such a dominant performance for you there?

I was really feeling it, and they underestimated us on Mirage. We were pretty ready and we practice a lot on Mirage because we knew it was going to happen. We were ready and I was feeling it in the aim_botz, I was warming and I told dephh my aim is so crisp right now I think I'm going to own and he said the same thing so it happened.

A lot of people were worried about dephh having a rough time here in Mexico, but he's actually done quite well. Were you surprised by how he rose to the occasion?

He's doing really well and he's having great performances. Not just with kills, he has been killing anyways, but he's been having a great impact in calling so he's doing a really good job and I'm pretty confident for the Major slot. I hope we can get it.

We heard that the team will be moving on from maNkz after this event. Can you give us any idea of what kind of player you will be looking for in a new IGL?

We don't really know. We are trying to get a European IGL because we don't have IGLs in our region and we don't really know much about South America. So, we're looking for an EU IGL but we don't know anything and it's probably be after the Major.

We literally have an event two weeks after the Major so its going to be tough but maybe we can find someone.

M80 will be heading to IEM Chengdu soon. How is the preparation going for that? Are you excited to head to China?

Yeah but the thing is that we don't have an IGL so it's tough as I said. But, it's going to be insane, and China is going to great. The only thing I don't like about it is that the travel day is going to be insane but it is what it is.

M80 will almost certainly have a difficult match tomorrow. Despite that, this is closest you have come to a Major in your career. What would it mean to be the first Guatemalan to qualify to a Major?

I really want to do that. I've been in seven Minors already and it's frustrating to me that I have been never been to a Major. I think I deserve it and my teammates deserve it as well, dephh deserves it, everyone deserves it so I really want to qualify to the Major.

Being the first Guatemalan would be insane and I hope to give some motivation to more Guatemalan players to keep it up and try to go pro because if I can do it many people can do it.

Is there Guatemalan players we should be looking out for?

Of course. I already mentioned StAgE one time, he's a really good player. He's a little bit old because most of the players that play Counter-Strike with me are the people who were playing 1.6 with me back then.

I would also like to see cruzN come back, the Guatemalan guy who used to play on FULL SEND with me. Also guallitoxstyle, probably fearest, and psycko who just came back. There's so many players that could be potential players but we got to keep looking at them.

M80 will look to make the Major tomorrow in their final match against Legacy at 02:00PM.