As the Challengers Stage began, few would have expected to see Liquid begin life in the tournament in the 0-2 bracket. A close fought contest, the North American favourites needed all three maps to take down Brazilians Fluxo and live to fight another day.
After the game we caught up with NAF to discuss the series, difficulties on Nuke, and how Liquid will find their groove for the remainder of their time in Paris.
Was that a tougher game than you were expecting, how are you feeling now you've got the win?
Not necessarily, we expected every game to be difficult with the state we started the event in. Luckily we were able to come out with the win, we found some reads, we found some openings and at the end of the day, they played really well and we just played better.
Are you disappointed with the showing on Nuke?
Yeah, our Nuke has been disappointing for sure. I feel like we played really well in the FORZE game and just made small errors that cost us, but in this game it felt like we made way more big errors and just couldn't get into rounds. It felt like our Nuke regressed against Fluxo but then again, they did pick the map for a reason.
What do you think has been going wrong for you guys so far?
Honestly, I'm not too sure. We had a bootcamp and it went really well, we came up with a lot of things and a lot of them were working in our practice. Practice and officials are completely different things, but right now we're trying to find our footing and bounce back. A North American team has come back from 0-2 in the past so hopefully we can do the same.
This result means you face Complexity tomorrow, how do you feel about that match up?
Complexity has always been a good match up for us, we've only lost to them once if I'm right in saying. Usually we always get the upper hand versus them but I think they're also playing really well. We'll just have to wait and see, it's a domestic match up but I feel very confident in myself and my teammates.
Is there also an element of sadness related to that match up because of what it means for the NA region?
Yeah of course. I've got to go play against players I talk to a lot, and Grim used to be our teammate. It's always going to be a shame to have one of us eliminated. We'll just play, see how it goes, and I guess whoever loses gets a free drink from the victor.
Are you more confident now you've won a couple maps of finding your groove and getting back into the tournament?
Definitely, it feels good to win and that we're still alive and still playing. At the end of the day, Fluxo is a decent team but I don't think they're the greatest team. We're just happy to get the win and still be here.
It's always a case of taking it game by game in tournaments like this, but how exactly do you do that from this point?
Like you said, it's really hard because we can only look at it on a game by game basis. Reviewing our matches, talking about what went wrong, the small errors in communication, our positioning, stuff like that. When we lost our games we just went back to the room and instantly reviewed, asking ourselves 'why the fuck are we doing these things we're doing?' We just need to improve day by day and I think today it showed we're doing that.
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