In a year where Eternal Fire and The MongolZ have been stealing the headlines with tournament wins, SAW have quietly been ascending the rankings and becoming a more regular fixture at tier one events.
The Portuguese squad has already gone further than any of their players ever have before by reaching stage two at IEM Cologne 2024, and they now have one foot in the playoffs door after a 2-0 win against G2.
The interview was taken and written by Sam "AN1MO" McKenzie
A great win for you over G2, how are you feeling?
I'm speechless, to be honest. When we are at these events we need to believe, and of course, there is a little possibility we can win. But, winning this way against a great team like G2 after they look so awesome after their changes... I don't know... our team just played amazing CS. As the captain, I'm so proud.
Does the win mean more because of how Spring Final went?
Of course, when we were at BLAST, it wasn't our best moment as a team. After the break, we came back with clear minds and right now we are playing really well. This event has come at a great time for us, we are here, we are hitting our shots, and we have a good chance here.
At BLAST you said that some people were sick or burnt out, how much of a refresh did the player break give you?
So much, we are a team that is trying to raise our level and we've never had so many tournaments. Right now, we have the opportunity but that means we are also adapting to this life. Everyone feels okay, we are getting used to it in terms of how we eat and sleep. It's working.
We spoke to BERRY earlier in the event, and he said he can feel his ideas coming into the team more now that you've had more time, how has it helped from your perspective?
BERRY is fixing the little details that we always failed on before, and for me, that's really good because I don't need to worry about them anymore.
He's trying to help with everything, but mostly the mood on the team since his arrival is really good. We needed a month or so to adapt to the English speaking because we are a Portuguese team now speaking English outside of the server, it cost us some time, but right now, we have adapted and it's great.
It's really good to have BERRY because he always brings a good mood and the players trust him so much, and the results show he's doing a great job.
When you went with BERRY, why did you initially choose to look outside of Portugal for a coach?
Everything we did until now was with our own experience, it was good to bring someone in who had a lot of experience in other places and comes from a different background.
Denmark has so many good IGLs and coaches, and we expected that he would be able to bring new stuff into our game. He controls everything outside of the server in terms of how we pracc and how much we pracc, it's different, but we are enjoying it.
Was getting an extra style to add into your Portuguese style something you needed?
For sure, as Portuguese players we have some bad habits, and he came and told us what we need to stop. Of course, it's hard for him to fix some communication things because we speak in Portuguese, but he already understands what we are talking about from seeing the game and seeing what we are doing.
Are you feeling more comfortable in tier one now?
Of course, I think in some tournaments we were doing really good but at the Major we were 2-0 and ended up 2-3, we had never experienced that so it was a new situation.
Right now, we are growing as a team and everyone is getting more experience. I feel like we came to play against G2, and everyone was nervous, but that went away with some rounds very quickly. That's really good for our future because the kids are growing and me and roman can be there to support them.
You're now a win away from the LANXESS, we saw Movistar Riders make it in 2022, are you allowing yourselves to dream of it now you have that first win?
If we are in the middle of the big teams, we need to dream. Of course, if we are then able to get to the playoffs then we are achieving our dream because playing in the arena would be awesome.
As I said before though, it was just one win. It was a great win and we need to be happy, but let's see what happens tomorrow. If we win again, of course, it will be a dream come true and especially for me, I have been fighting to be in Cologne for so many years and we have done it now so I can't really describe how I'm feeling.
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