4nalog: "When things aren’t going well, it’s impossible to play together, let alone win a tournament"
João Gabriel "4nalog" Giannini Santos sat for an exclusive interview before BLAST Slam I. He talks about Heroic's victory at PGL Wallachia, the ensuing drama shortly after surrounding Parker, their chances at BLAST Slam I and more.
Did you expect to win PGL Wallachia Season 2?
We didn’t think about winning when we went to play the tournament. We were rather focused on playing well and giving it our best without thinking about the results. The end outcome was entirely dependent on how we played as a team, executed the game plan in the right way and played better than the other team.
DreamLeague Season 24 was a disaster. What went wrong?
We started having problems with our team during this DreamLeague. We were on a break for a week after winning PGL Wallachia. A week later, internal problems started brewing within the team and the situation spiralled out of control. When things aren’t going well, it’s impossible to play together, let alone win a tournament, and those issues start affecting our performance.
Please elaborate further!
PGL Wallachia S2 victory was our “honeymoon” phase as a team. Winning a tournament should boost confidence but sometimes players take it the wrong way and create expectations. When these expectations are not met, players become frustrated. One player's particular frustration ignited the internal team issues.
Does Heroic lack consistency?
It's an individual issue. Each player needs to identify their inconsistency and address it. While Heroic isn't consistently bad, we've had some poor tournament performances. We need to figure out what makes us better and brings us consistency and we are actively working on it.
Talk to us about the ESL One Bangkok qualifiers. What went wrong?
The first four games were super easy to win but the series went to the decider game five. The last game was hard, particularly for me, as I wasn’t having a great time. We couldn’t win the series because the internal problems started shooting up.
In hindsight, we can always contemplate what could have gone better but ultimately, nothing much could be done about it. We didn’t lose any qualifiers the entire year but somehow lost this one. That one mistake, the overall collapse of the team, the bad mental state – that resulted in our loss.
What are Heroic’s chances at BLAST Slam I with Yuma as a stand-in?
I’m very confident even with Yuma standing in for us. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think about the result but rather focus on things that lead us to those results – playing well, giving it our best and executing our game plan. I do believe we can go far in the tournament.
What kind of meta do you expect at BLAST Slam I?
We'll likely see a fast-paced meta where teams aim to end games quickly and punish slower opponents.
Heroic is up against Parivision later today in the first elimination series of the day. Can they overcome the odds and advance to the next round? Stay tuned to BLAST.tv for the latest updates.