slaxz- on s1n's calling: "boss said 'You f*ck them on A, you just stay on A'"

M80 stunned Europe earlier today as they defeated G2 in an extremely close Bo3. However, the day is yet young for M80 as they must exorcise a demon of their past, BetBoom, before they qualify for the playoffs. After the marathon game against G2, which included five overtimes, M80's German duo, AWPer Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich and IGL Elias "s1n" Stein sat down on the EPL couch with Freya Spiers, Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez, and Alex "Machine" Richardson to discuss the match.

Do you know how many match points you had before you converted?

slaxz-: I don't want to know. We felt it. We felt we threw so many rounds. We always needed that one round; you can just see the experience that we are missing.

We saw these hurtful rounds you were losing. I thought for sure you were going to break. I thought emotionally you would be out of it. How did you stay in the game emotionally, even though you lost some silly rounds?

s1n: We had good energy the whole game, right. At some point, we noticed we were losing the rounds we should have won, I guess. We noticed the energy shift too, but we managed to get it back up, like a reload, you know? We had some nice words, Rory, our coach, had some nice words. I was saying "they are more afraid than us." I saw some clips on the TV just now where HooXi slammed something. We were still feeling good 'til the very end.

The round where they were coming back to A late and you pushed down the ramp. I saw your frustrations when you didn't convert. I understand you're in that weird place where you want to help, you still got one, but I saw your frustrations. Were you in your head?

slaxz-: Not really. That round, I think we had a crazy disadvantage. It was a three on four, we needed a crazy round to win. This round is not one of those rounds that make you feel bad. It made me feel bad because I made a crazy play and I just whiffed. If I hit my shots, I can make a crazy swing round, but I just missed.

We were memeing about how Swisher was having so much trouble on the B site. Was anything discussed between you guys trying to figure out how to stop these B lurks?

slaxz-: That's actually a very interesting question because we were not so sure ourselves. We had disputes on what to do. I was going A almost every round, and everything I did on A kinda worked, so I said to the guys: "I don't wanna go A now. I want to go B or mid because they are not coming to me right now." But the boss said "No. You fuck them on A, you just stay on A."

On Ancient, you've dropped three rounds in two maps of play so far. Is this a map you've put a lot of time into?

s1n: For sure. I think Ancient is one of our best maps. Also this maps suits the meta right now really really well. So for example, if you play the way we do, or other teams like TheMongolz, in CS:GO, you would go under very hard. For example, using three smokes in the beginning of the round, or four sometimes, you would get outplayed in CS:GO. But in CS2, it's more meta to play this nade-heavy playstyle in the beginning and just use everything to get the kills.

So in CS:GO why would that be punished, and less punished in CS2?

s1n: Since the smokes are longer, you can handle it better. For example, you smoke Donut, you smoke Window, you occasionally have a lurk smoke Mid, then you have the Cave smoke quite often, you have to delete the Orange molo, sometimes teams throw the mezii smoke we call it, the smoke on the B-site which you throw from spawn so there's danger of a B pop or something. When you mix it up, they have to throw their own nades and make a good mid-round decision.

Last question on Ancient, the conditioning on A must have felt so good as an in-game leader. The two times you called a direct A hit and nobody was on site with a 5v5 post plant. As an in-game leader, that must feel amazing

s1n: I mean, that's just what we prepare for. We prepare the game so they are conditioned to respond to our other stuff, our meta. Splitting heaven to mid, supporting the other mid guys, they have to be aware of it. They also have to take B control at some point. G2 is a top team, so we feel like when we watched their demos, they have every meta answer in the book, and it's just about when they hit it, we have to hit them with our stuff. We conditioned very well and on the right rounds.

slaxz-, you are our Air Force Aim High MVP for the series, there's one round I have to ask you about in particular in the second round of OT. It was when we thought this is the nail in the coffin where you guys would be closing it out, your 1v3, playing from sandbags. Tell me about that.

slaxz-: So sandbags is one of the best clutching positions and throughout my entire career on Vertigo I would always go sandbags. I already have so many clutches in mind. I have 10hp, so it's already a crazy round, not really mine to win, but they gave me a chance. I just jiggle a little bit, make them shoot, and I could tell the best player in the world was a little bit nervous. He shot on all my jiggles. But he is the best player right now.

Another game for you up ahead, what do you do in this interim time? It's a rematch against BetBoom.

slaxz-: I feel pretty good about that. The first time we played against them we lost like six anti-ecos. It was basically our game. Right now, we probably try to rest as much as possible to be sharp, then refresh and go.