s1n: "With the new Valve system, every game matters"
M80 started their ESL Challenger Atlanta run with a best-of-one win against NA rival Wildcard, but a loss to BIG now forces them to play Wildcard one more time in a best-of-three to make playoffs. At the event, M80's in-game leader Elias "s1n" Stein spoke to Dust2.us about the NA hierarchy, the team's breakout run at ESL Pro League, and prepping for the upcoming RMR.
The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets from the interview underneath.
What is the mood in the team camp after a strong showing at ESL Pro League?
Obviously we had a really good result. I wouldn’t say we got lucky with the draws at Pro League, but we did draw against not the usual opponents for such a deep run. In general though, we’re feeling strong, we beat everyone that’s ahead of us. In Challenger we lost some games we shouldn’t have, but we don’t value those too highly since it’s just the regular season. We just have to lock in for the LANs, lock in for Challenger playoffs, but we’re feeling good.
Another win against Wildcard today. Do you consider them your rivals?
As soon as I came into the team, I knew that the boys wanted to beat them. I think we have the upper hand over every NA team other than the big three, or Liquid or Complexity at least. We wanted to beat them because they beat us last time, but overall we have the upper hand.
It feels like all the NA teams are looking ahead to the RMR specifically. Has the team been getting mentally ready for that event?
The RMR and the Major are the biggest goals, obviously. Now with the new system from Valve, it’s also important to just take it step by step because every game that you play matters. We lost a lot of points during Challenger by losing to low-ranked teams. So we know every game we play matters towards our seeding at the RMR, so we want to get that as high as possible. We’re also going to have a Europe bootcamp before the Major. We’ll fully lock in.
You’re the first true IGL for Mason "Lake" Sanderson at the pro level. What’s it been like working with him?
In the beginning, he always played full throttle, not really changing up his timings. He wants to do stuff, and I’m free to let him do his stuff whenever he wants, because when he’s confident he’s a beast. I have to slow him down at some points, and say “maybe this isn’t the round for you.” But we still try to enable him, and he’s adapting to everything we do as a team, and step by step he’s getting stronger.
M80 and Wildcard square off in their best-of-three tomorrow, Today 01:45PM.
