A legend in the Norwegian scene, jkaem is no stranger to the Major circuit. Semi-finalist with both Renegades and G2, it’s against the latter of those teams where he and his Apeks squad would lose their chance at qualifying to the Legends Stage 3-0.
A tough game for them, afterwards we got the chance to talk to jkaem about playing a team of G2’s calibre.
G2 is the toughest opponent you've played yet, could you feel the difference in the level of opponent?
For sure. I can feel that we were playing scared, we showed them too much respect. If you do that against teams like that, they'll just abuse you. We felt that today. They outplayed us on Inferno. We had no chance.
HooXi said you had practised versus G2 on Anubis recently and beat them, are you disappointed you couldn't transfer that to an official match?
Of course we are. At 13-11 they had a low-buy round and then NiKo got an ace. If we won that round, it's 13-12, then they're on eco and it's 13-13 and we could easily win the game. Overall, if I'm going to be honest and realistic, I'm not that disappointed we lost to G2. This is not a game we were going to make it through in my opinion, there will be easier opponents.
What would you say went wrong on Inferno?
I don't know, honestly. I need to look at the game and see what went wrong. But at face value, everything went wrong. We were losing 13-2 on CT side Inferno, so not much was working. We did not play confidently, we were scared, we were sitting in site after 15 seconds of a round.
What's the plan now before you play tomorrow?
I'm not sure, but we'll definitely practise and rewatch the game to discuss what went wrong. The most important thing is that we come here tomorrow without being scared to play and unafraid of losing. We're just going to regroup as a team and say 'fuck today, let's reset'.
Are you confident about qualifying tomorrow?
Definitely. Of course we could be unlucky and draw FaZe if they lose. In my opinion G2 was the hardest opponent to face and now they're out the way so it's good to have that done and hopefully we get an easier game tomorrow.
If you get to the Legends Stage, how are you feeling about that prospect?
I haven't thought about it yet. I have to focus on being here and we'll get to the Legends Stage if it comes. We were 2-0 and now we're 2-1, we're feeling it, we want it. There's nerves, but you don't want to be the team that goes 2-0 to 2-3.
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