Devilwalk: "[nuke] was so random"

fnatic's quarter-final match with Natus Vincere got to expected three maps, although the third map was de_nuke, which neither of the teams practiced. Coach Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg showed us the team's point of view on the match in the following lengthy interview:

Your team is now through to the semi-finals, let's start by talking about de_inferno, which was your pick, can you walk us through the match?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "Felt really good going into the match, obviously they got a lead 9-1 as CT, but even though they were in the lead by that much, we still felt confident. Every T round we basically made was good, we got the afterplant situations we wanted, but we couldn't just close them out, they had good retakes and we were sloppy in our communications. They got the lead and after that, we had an eco where we talked things through, I pushed the boys to not be sloppy with the communications, talk to each other, what you're holding, what's happening and all that.

Eventually we just got rounds and just bloomed out from there. First half was 9-6 and then we got five rounds in a row as T, everything was just looking very very good after that. We won the CT pistol and then we just crushed through, they got two rounds and we just smashed them right after. They never got money control and things were just good for us, we were very confident about the CT side on inferno."

There was one round where your guys were on a full eco, with only a few CZ75s and you ended up winning the round without anyone dying.

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "I think it was just that we got information that they were trying to go for an antieco in B pretty early, flusha got a fast rotation, Olof got two entries and then we kinda had control everywhere. JW hid in mid, so we had early information in middle, we could have fast rotations with two CT spawn and two still in B just waiting for them. After that we just crushed them with the numbers. Even though it was a clean eco, we kinda pushed at the same time, so it was fine. It was great play from Olof in the end, killing two and surviving the whole round, that's pretty amazing, good play from him."

The second map was de_dust2, obviously Na`Vi's pick, what do you think you could've done differently?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "We should've forced A pushes a lot earlier than we did. We got some close rounds, got some afterplants that we lost, but we forced going out middle as T too much and they just punished us for that. We could've played it slow, go for an A push after a while. I think they were really good, they're really strong on dust2, one of their best maps together with mirage, I think. We were just looking ahead for the random nuke, they got such a strong lead on the CT side and it was impossible to make a comeback."

Let's talk about the last round where GuardiaN got the only ace of the tournament as of now, there was obviously some miscommunication, what happened in the round?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "It was a bit of miscommunication in there, because we thought the last guy was pushed towards B, everyone pushed out and he was hiding mid doors. Everything got very confusing, as we had some information with the last guy being towards B. GuardiaN made a very very sick round. Amazing play from him, miscommunication from us."

What did you think going into de_nuke, because it's obviously a map you haven't played a lot, and Na`Vi are known for not practicing it ever. What was your thinking going into the match, did you think it was going to be easier?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "Going into the last map, we felt we had a bigger advantage than Na`Vi, just because of our individual skills and creativity playing rounds. Obviously we haven't practiced the map at all, so before the map we decided who holds where as CT, where they want to go on standard rounds, we just made the tactics on the fly. I felt we had an advantage, but it's so random, so."

You were at 14-14, when you had to eco, and you won an eco once again and after that flusha won a one-vs-three, can you talk about those last two rounds?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "I was having a heartattack, so I'm not sure if I'm able to remember everything. Us as CT, being on eco, taking a lot more risks could be something we're better at than defensive play, because we didn't have every rotation figured out. I think both teams had a pretty sloppy CT side, they got the momentum with the pistol round. It was very very close rounds, they had only one member left pretty much every weapon round they won. That 1v3 with flusha, I thought it was over, this is overtime, we've gotta think of something to do. But I just had a heartattack and flusha exploded, that's what happened basically."

What do you personally think about the veto, for any team going into a third map it's basically random, do you think that's going to have a big impact on the outcome of the tournament?

Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg: "Obviously it's gonna have some impact. In our game it was kinda like nobody wanted to ban nuke, they wanted the other team to ban it, it was a chicken race. It was both teams' fault, someone should've banned it. It's basically a flip of a coin at this point. Obviously everyone picks a map each, so they have to play their best.

I personally like the first part of the best-of-three veto, like ban one, ban one, pick one, pick one, but I think it should continue like in DotA, ban two more after that. I think it's good that you pick early, otherwise it's gonna be always three maps that every team is kind of good at, but not their best maps. You wanna see every team's best map against each other and then a good map for both. I think the veto system could have improvements, but I understand the thought of it, that they want overpass and cobblestone to be played."

fnatic will meet dignitas in the semi-final taking place tomorrow, but there are still two quarter-finals left to be played today.