G2 came into this event in shaky form, having failed to produce anything close to the level they displayed at IEM Katowice early in the year.
Here at BLAST Premier Spring Finals they are showing real signs of improvement, bettering a solid opening win against Vitality with a shocking upset of the world #1 FaZe, spanking them 16-5 in the deciding map.
NiKo lit up the server against FaZe
With a semi-final in the arena on the horizon, NiKo spoke with HLTV to give his thoughts on the victory over FaZe, his recent performances, and G2‘s chance of winning the tournament.
Congratulations on a fantastic win. Did you really believe you had a chance coming into that series?
Yeah of course, we always think we can win against any opponent, it doesn’t matter who we play against. I think we have a team who can beat any other team, it’s just about how we perform.
Obviously after the first map it was a bit rough, FaZe played amazing, they had a really good start, and I am proud that we could reset and come back on Ancient and Dust2.
What was the mood like going into Ancient, knowing it’s not a great map for yourselves and having just been crushed on your own pick?
We kept believing, it really helped us that we started CT side on Ancient, that’s always a good thing, and I think we should even have got more rounds on CT side. The mood was actually pretty good because we had no chance on Inferno, they played really good, it’s not like we played bad or anything, they just had good momentum and kept rolling. We didn’t have much chance on Inferno.
We knew that we could win on the next two maps, we know that Ancient isn’t an amazing map for them rather they went for a punish pick for us, so we knew we had a chance of winning it. We practiced against them as well so we know what they are doing, and yeah we just played our game in the end and I am really happy with our T side on Ancient because that is something we have struggled with.
I wouldn’t say that we didn’t have consistency, I think we did good at Katowice and then did bad for three months…
It really felt like you carried that momentum into Dust2, akin to how you said you felt like you had no chance on Inferno, it seemed like they had no chance on Dust. Did it feel that way to you?
I think they had chances, if m0NESY didn’t pull off those two clutches for example they would have gotten more rounds CT side, and on T side they can reset us a couple of times and then they have a chance to come back into the game. Those clutches from m0NESY gave us a good chance of closing the game out pretty comfortably.
Overall we played a really good T side as a team, we were doing good things, I think we were even outplaying them in most of the rounds, but yeah those clutches were having a big impact.
How are you feeling personally? It seems like you are having a great run of form in this tournament, and in that series particularly.
Yeah I feel good this tournament, I felt good at IEM Dallas as well. I even felt good at the Major, I just felt like I didn’t have a chance to play my game, but yeah I keep improving myself and keep getting the better feeling in the team and feeling more comfortable. Obviously when we are playing better as a team, it allows me to play better individually, so I am really happy with the progress right now and from here on I hope I will keep this consistency and maybe get even better.
I think from Dallas on we can actually feel the improvement, we can see in our game that we are getting better and better, as a team and a unit.
Consistency seems to be an issue for the team overall, obviously Katowice was a real high, and you have been up and down at best since then. Is that a fair reflection?
I wouldn’t say that we didn’t have consistency, I think we did good at Katowice and then did bad for three months, there were not many amazing events that we played.
I think from Dallas on we can actually feel the improvement, we can see in our game that we are getting better and better, as a team and a unit. The way we approach the game, the way we react after a loss, all these kind of things we can see a big difference in ourselves. Maybe on the server you don’t see too much, but we feel much better now as a team, and that’s the big reason why we are stepping up and putting up some wins.
Do you think you can win this tournament, seeing as you have just beaten the favourites?
It’s a good confidence boost beating the best team in the world, but we are not thinking right now about winning a tournament. I am really happy that we are on the right path, we are doing really good this event, and I just want us to have the same mentality, energy and approach to the next game or next two if we get to the final. No matter if we win or lose, I just want us to react the same to each game.
