G2 have looked undeterred despite big changes to their roster after the arrivals of malbsMD and Snax, and now find themselves in the quarter-finals of ESL Pro League Season 20.
With a big clash against Liquid awaiting them, we spoke to NiKo about the development of the new team, risk of burnout ahead of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, and the state of CS2 as we approach a year since the release of the game.
You’ve been going from event to event since the season began, how are you feeling?
Yeah, it has been a pretty hectic season so far, but overall, we are feeling pretty good, we had some decent results, I think know that we had some more time together with this lineup, it is time for us to go deeper at the events and lift trophies.
With the Major being the final event of the season and players typically complaining about burnout towards the end of the seasons, what are your thoughts on the Major being the last event? Do you think having such a big event as a motivator could help aid burnout?
I usually don't have issues with being burnt out or so, I got used to this lifestyle now and I have pretty good balance in life with playing and making sure that I rest enough to not get burnt out.
It should be a positive change but again, it could feel pretty bad going into a major event after having a rough season and teams usually start thinking about roster changes before the end of the season. So we will see, you can ask me again after Shanghai.
Now that you’ve had some time to develop the roster with Snax and malbsMd, how do you think that is going?
I think that we had some decent results, we had one really bad game versus MOUZ at Cologne, which we could learn a lot from.
Now that we've had some time to play together and to get to know each other a bit more, it is time for us to have better results as well. We have made those roster changes in order to lift more trophies and being more consistent.
Where do you think you sit right now compared to the other teams? Valve has you 3rd and HLTV has you 4th, is that fair? Which teams would you say are your biggest competitors in terms of the ones you have the best match up against and the weaker match up against?
I think that we sit just about right in the rankings, I think we are up there with the best teams, but we didn't lift a trophy in a while unlike NAVI, Vitality or Spirit, so being around 3rd/4th place seems fair to me. I think our biggest competitor is NAVI, we had some tough losses against them.
You’ve been in incredible form recently but a lot of people were saying months ago that perhaps you hadn’t adapted well to CS2, what do you think has been the key to your recent form?
I'm not really sure, but I'm glad that I have found my form again. I think it was a lot up to adjusting to the new game, which took me a bit longer than some other players. But most importantly was my confidence, I never lost trust and confidence in myself.
Speaking of the adaptation to CS2, now that it’s been out for a year, what are your thoughts on the game?
I'm pretty disappointed in the development in CS2. It's pretty sad that with a new game we have made a step back instead of two steps forward. It has been a year now without major improvements with a gameplay, still a lot of bugs, anticheat etc. It is not in a good state.
How are you feeling about Fall Final?
Feeling good, looks like an exciting event with a lot of good teams in there.
You have a tough opening match against FaZe, how do you feel about that? Is it it a good match up for your team?
I would say that it is a good match up for us, we have beaten FaZe last couple of times we played versus them. They also don't seem to be playing that good lately, so we will see. I see us as a favorites, but still, you should never count FaZe out.
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