iBUYPOWER: "Too many mistakes"

iBUYPOWER went into Gfinity 3 with high expectations after winning ESEA Invite Season 16 Global Finals with wins versus OverGaming, compLexity twice, and Virtus.pro.

At G3 they had mixed results as they beat NiP and Epsilon in the group stage while tying fnatic and Infused, and losing to London Conspiracy. In the playoffs they went out at 5-8th place after a loss to Titan.

Now the team is bootcamping at the G3 studio in London for the next week, trying to prepare for the next major event ESL One Cologne. Continue reading for their answers.

How have you prepared for ESL One Cologne so far? Do you have a bootcamp planned for the final days leading up to the event? Do you feel adequately prepared?

Keven "⁠AZK⁠" Lariviere: Gfinity was nice enough to allow us to bootcamp at their studios in London for a week. We are here until the 13th and then we fly over to Germany. This is our first bootcamp with this line up so we’re excited to see how much we can improve from it. We know what we did wrong at Gfinity and we’re working hard to fix our mistakes.

After a long hiatus from international competition, G3 took place last weekend. What do you make of the results? Were you surprised by anyone? What comes to mind when thinking about the event?

Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham: We definitely should have placed higher then what we placed, (5th-8th) we weren't caught off guard or surprised by any team. G3 was a good warm-up for us, it showed our mistakes and things we can adjust before ESL to improve our gameplay as a team. We made way too many mistakes and our primary goal is to fix all of those before ESL, and to play at our highest level for the event.

At ESL One you’ve been placed in group C together with fnatic, Virtus.pro and dAT. Can you go through each team one at a time, and tell us what you think about them, and your chances against them?

Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce: Well first there is fnatic who won the first 250k event, DreamHack Winter. We played these guys at GFNITIY and tied, though it was a bad tournament overall for us they played great. They are definitely a highly skilled team and a threat. I do think we have a fairly good chance against these guys since we're so used to their playstyle from playing in NA! :D

Next is Virtus.pro, the team that looks the best right now. They won the most recent 250k event EMS Katowice as well as Gfinity last week. This will be the hardest team to play against. They are all amazing players and tend to play even better when theres more money on the line. We did play these guys at ESEA Lan and won in a close 2-1 series, Snax having issues probably didn't help at all though. These guys are the biggest threat in our group and at the tournament. I do believe we can still beat them again after this bootcamp which should help a ton!

Last but not least, dAT, the underdogs. I'm not too familiar with these guys but I'm sure they are great considering they are at this tournament. We can not underestimate anyone and have to bring our A game at all times. I believe this is the one team we have the best chance against and will be one of the easier teams to play.

What are your expectations going into the event? I realize everyone will say they are in it to win it regardless of stature, but would you be happy with a quarter-finals exist? Top four? A spot in the grand finals?

Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan: We were all joking that we finally made it out of groups so the next step is to make it past quarter finals. Baby steps right? 

Do you have a clause in your contracts regarding the sticker money that will be coming in from ESL One? Is that something you had added later on specifically with Cologne in mind, or did it exist in the first place?

Derrick "⁠impulsivE⁠" Truong: We do not keep any money made from the team -- we give all of it to the players. I understand why other organizations do keep it, but we’re a bit different since we are a company on our own. We don't rely on sponsorship money to fund the team, we use our own marketing budget.

It’s now been weeks since ESL announced the new map pool, featuring de_cobblestone and de_overpass. Now that you’ve had a chance to practice them, what do you think about them? What do you think about the new map veto system? Do you think these changes will work for or against you?

Sam "⁠DaZeD⁠" Marine: We still haven’t had a chance to practice the maps. We’ve just completed our first day of bootcamp which involved playing CKoTH and haven’t had a chance to play any teams on these maps yet. If we’re able to get really good on these custom maps we will be able to pull some major upsets but it comes down to which team is more drilled on a range of maps.

We don’t think we should be forced to play a map but it would be good to have each team veto one map and pick one map each and then veto the rest.

At both of the previous majors we saw a new team win a title (fnatic, Virtus.pro), propelled by new players rising to stardom (flusha, schneider, byali, Snax) . Do you expect another new team to rise up this time and if so, who could it be?

Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan: The top teams are already set. Any one of them could win on any given day. One day a team can lose out in quarterfinals and the next day they can win the entire event. I don’t think we’ll be surprised by a team outside of the current top 8.

You took down NiP and Epsilon at G3, tied Infused and fnatic, and lost to London Conspiracy. You then lost a big lead to Titan in the opening map, and lost the series 0-2 in the playoffs. How do you measure your own performance? Were you expecting more? Is this a disappointment, something to build on, or a success?

Sam "⁠DaZeD⁠" Marine: We definitely felt we were right there with the best. Silly mistakes led us to lose some matches or else we would have finished first out of our group and who knows what could have happened after that. We feel like this is something we can build on because we know what we should be working on with this bootcamp.

Considering the investment by iBUYPOWER to keep you in Europe for nearly three weeks, do you feel added pressure to perform in Cologne? Can it affect your performance? Have you talked to your organization about what is expected of you?

Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan: We don’t feel added pressure. The only way it can affect our performance is in a positive way since we are able to practice against the best teams in the world. Our organization has not set upon us performance expectations.

iBUYPOWER will face off against fnatic in their opener at ESL One Cologne where they share group C with the Swedes, Virtus.pro and dAT. ESL One takes place on August 14-17.