zonic: "We're a bit behind the meta"
Although a Falcons era may have been on fans’ lips following the win at the IEM Cologne Major, the team are yet to win a trophy following the Summer break.
Now in their third tournament of the new season, the team has carved out another chance to win one, advancing to the quarter-finals of BLAST Open Porto following a group stage that wasn’t without its hiccups.
At the event, we sat down with their coach zonic to discuss these hiccups, including the losses on their own map picks, the shaky form in general, and whether or not the Major win affected his team’s motivation.
“I think this is the classic mistake”
We're here at the BLAST Open Porto playoffs. How have you been feeling about the tournament so far, in the group stage?
A little shaky, to be honest. Not what we expected. Had a little bit of a rough start to the season. I think it goes for a lot of the top teams.
Obviously I'm only focusing on my team. I'm happy that we made it through, but obviously a bit disappointed that it's not more smooth, to be honest.
You said it was shaky there. How do you feel about that? What do you think is causing it? Is it a thing where, subconsciously, maybe players do take their foot off the gas a little, following a big win?
I think it's too early to say. I think before the Major, when we got karrigan in, it just felt like a two-month-long bootcamp, to be honest, obviously with some tournaments, but everything was set for the Major.
After that, we could obviously also see that we played a lot of the same maps. We were not really aware of our map pool. I think that's also why we, during the Major, recognised that OK, Anubis could be a pick that we just bring up.
I think a lot of the realisation came after the Major: what is it that we actually need? Right now, we are just trying to get a bit smarter around our map pool, which is also why we are experimenting. We are picking maps that are good in practice, but we don't know how good they actually are when we come into officials.
I think the group stage also proved that. I don't think that people have taken the foot off the gas, but I think from a more mental perspective, if you take players like NiKo and kyousuke: NiKo has been hunting the Major for so many years, and kyousuke just got it, it's also important that they figure out what is the next step, and that Maxim also knows that he's still a young player that needs to improve and evolve, and that we don't relax.
But so far I've not seen any one of us relax; it's just a bit more that we need to set our goal for the team, and taking it step by step. It's been some long months before the Major, and I think maybe some of the top teams are feeling it.
When the Major is there, and it's also Cologne, and we did everything we could to be as ready as possible for EWC. It's been some long months.
You brought up the map pool, so I wanted to ask about Ancient. Obviously those maps haven't gone the way you would have wanted them to, so what's been your takeaways from those losses?
I think obviously, when it comes to the map itself, I think we're struggling a bit on mid; maybe we’re a bit behind the meta, to be honest, so we need to look at that when we get some more time.
Obviously now we're facing G2, and they're not in a good spot either on the map, so we'll have to see how the veto goes on that one. But I think we are slightly behind on T-side; maybe we need to be working a bit more in different directions, and we need to have the basics in place.
At least this is what the three matches have shown: that we barely get to take mid, and if we get mid, we are a bit clueless on how to approach the mid-round. And this is something we have to align the team on after, when we get a bit more of a break, because now it's been a month on the road.
When you do get that break, what’s the plan? Is it just you go as hard on Ancient as possible, or do you have to still divert resources into other areas?
I think this is the classic mistake. One thing that we did well when karrigan joined was that I talked with the players; I talked with karrigan: what are his comfort maps in terms of picking? Where do we see the team fit really well in terms of his calling style? And then we immediately put effort into working on those two.
Before karrigan came in, it was one of our weaker maps, and looking at the roster, it should be one of our stronger maps, and we put a lot of effort into that. But we can't just keep doing that — we need to work on all maps, and it goes the same here for Ancient.
I think Ancient needs a bit more attention, but we also had rough T-sides on Nuke and Mirage, so you have to work on all maps. But of course, you put a little bit more focus on the maps you feel would suit us, and that we should be better on.
As you said, you play G2 in the quarters. They've just made a change, bringing in r1nkle, that really did change their playstyle in terms of comparing him to SunPayus. How does that affect your preparation?
I don't think it affects the process that much. I think fundamentally they're still playing the same style, but they now have a different tool in r1nkle. He seems a bit more aggressive, which is also what I've heard they were looking for, so obviously he's going to go for more plays and stuff like that.
I think the only thing that might hurt us a bit is to actually see how our opponent is playing and what picks he likes to do; this is what's going to hurt us in the preparation. But I think from what I've seen, a lot of it is the same. They just have a different set of tools that they can use during the game, where they can pace up a bit faster.
