mixwell: "We've been good on Cache"

OpTic seemed like a team destined to walk the plank after two tough losses to SK and fnatic yesterday at ESL One New York, however the Canadian-American-Spanish team rallied today with a surprise elimination match takedown of G2 on Cache.

HLTV.org spoke to the player-of-the-match, 20-year-old Spaniard Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas, about the team's current mindset and the way in which newly integrated caller Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz and rifler Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik are functioning for the squad.

So what was the main thing that went wrong yesterday against SK and fnatic?

Well...one of the things that pissed me off was that I didn't have a chance to warm-up at all because my computer was broken or something. So I joined the server and I played without warming up against SK and I had a really rough game.

And Train is a map where a lot relies on me because our playstyle on that map is that I have to get entry kills all the time and if I play bad we just lose by a lot. There's a lot of pressure on me.

Are you normally okay with that pressure?

I have to do it because otherwise it's a bad map for us and we ended up trying everything [versus SK].

So why did it come through as a map again versus fnatic?

I said "I can play better than this. If we play Train again, then I will play better." Then I played bad again and we lost.

Switching over to the good stuff, were you guys satisfied about Cache coming through against G2?

We talked last night and we thought that Cache was a good map to play against them. Online we've been playing really well on it...I think we've won every match on Cache. It used to be a bad map before tarik joined but right now it's one of our best maps.

We knew that G2 are really good on it but we destroyed them individually today.

One reason you destroyed them was no doubt your performance but I also noticed RUSH doing a lot of clutching and flexible roleplay. Has he developed beyond being a strict entryfragger?

He is an entryfragger but he's changing a bit though. People say that he's an entryfragger but I see him more as a support, clutch, orchestrating kind of guy. Not the first one in.

He's always talking to you like, "I'm watching your back. I'm watching your right side. I can flash you," his communication is really good so in my opinion he should not die first because his communication helps the others.

What is something about stanislaw's leading that is different from how daps might have done it?

stanislaw is a guy that prepares a lot before the game, he thinks a lot about what he's going to do, and when he has information, he reacts mid-game. daps was more that he had a plan from the start and everything was planned. Sometimes he wouldn't necessarily adapt to mid-game information.

stanislaw has an easier time to do that but I think that he needs more time because when he doesn't have some time to anti-strat someone or prepare to their playstyle, he has a rough time. But still, I think it's a better choice.

Does having tarik on the team add to your mid-round, explosive mixture style?

Yeah I think so because he [tarik] takes risks and in our team I was the only one taking risks before so now if he does something and if he gives the information, even if he dies, stanislaw can then call effectively for the others. So it's a good fit.

You're one of the most vocally ambitious people I know. Are you satisfied with the way the team is going and for the future?

I can tell you that when I first joined, the team wasn't as professional as I thought it would be because they didn't prepare themselves to win. I feel like they got the winning mindset after losing a lot of tournaments and seeing that if you don't work hard you will never win anything.

And right now, stanislaw has 120 hours in the past two weeks, tarik as well, RUSH as well. I actually am the one with less hours than my teammates so it changed a lot.

And what I really like about stanislaw is that he works really f****** hard. At night he plays Rank S, in the morning he watches demos of the teams that we are going to play, then he trains, and everyday it's the same pattern.

How is the OpTic house?

The house is insane. It has a hockey rink, a pool, all kinds of crazy stuff.

But is it a good place to play Counter-Strike?

Yes it is. The only thing that we struggle with is not having a car because we cannot go anywhere. We have to wait for H3CZ [OpTic's owner] to drive us places so it's like you are in a mansion but you cannot move from the mansion you know?

What team would you ideally like to take on next here in New York?

Liquid. Of course.

Do you feel like a North American player now?

Yes, I feel like a NA player. Being Spanish I didn't feel like I was from Europe anyways because we were like...in a ghetto. The Spanish scene internationally is almost zero. We have no chance.

Any shoutouts?

Shoutout to the sponsors, my family, the crowd, H3CZ. And you *laughs*

Day two of ESL One New York is still ongoing as teams fight in the Swiss system to advance to the best-of-three semifinals so keep reading HLTV.org for new interviews, photographs, and match coverage.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter