NBK: "Trying to find form again"

After the French team won their first match of the tournament defeating Spirit 16-2 on Dust2, we talked to Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt to hear his thoughts on everything that happened in Atlanta so far.

Let's start with your first map, against immortals on Cobblestone. How were you feeling throughout the match, what do you think went wrong?

We definitely fucked up our T side, there is no way around it. We won the pistol and then just didn't perform. Cobblestone is a map we've had a lot of success on and we usually have very very strong T sides. We had a strong CT side though, we even lost to an eco once, so we could've came back but we did not deserve to win the match after that T side.

The next match was against G2, on Dust2. Some people were maybe questioning you not banning Dust2 seeing that is probably their best map. What are your thoughts on that?

Dust2 is probably our best map as well, we kinda new what we were going to be playing, it was either Dust2 or Nuke, so it was up to us to leave Dust2 or Cache in the map pool. Our Cache has been tested and we couldn't find a solution while on Dust2 we know we can adapt if anything goes wrong.

I think we played a decent Dust2 game, on the CT side we were always one round away from breaking their economy and going up 14-9 or something. It was literally down to nothing, we should've won the T pistol against them… It's in the details when you play such a game. 

The last game was against Spirit, Dust2 again, seemed like a pretty easy match in the end. Did anything feel like it was going out of hand at any point?

Yeah we have a bad thing of starting to play better when we are with our backs against the wall, and that's a huge problem because we are down 1-2 and we have no room for errors anymore.

We came in all guns blazing, we are at a point where we have nothing to lose. We played pretty good, obviously they are not at a level of G2 the other big teams at the qualifier, but it's the kind of game that can give you the confidence back. That's why it was very important for us to play a flawless game, we didn't really have a lot of mistakes - our CT pistol round could've gone terribly wrong but happy managed to win his 1-on-1. We played a very good game and hopefully that will give us the confidence to make the comeback and go 3-2.

Talking about happy and your team dynamic in general, there was some talk about happy calling on one side and NBK- on the other. How much truth is behind it and how does it work?

Yeah, he calls on the T side I call on the CT side, that's pretty much how it works right now. We are trying to find a balance right now. We did it from a team standpoint and what would make the team better.

We had decent results, managed to qualify for ECS, and improved the small things. We managed to play better. It's not really the fact that he calls, I call, it's about coming into the last two games with good spirit. Also hopefully being lucky with the draw, obviously it's easier to face a team like CLG or Vega Squadron instead of facing NiP, there is a massive difference between these teams. Yeah, we are praying for the draw and then it's going to be up to elevating our level. Because, if we lose a game to Spirit or CLG we do not deserve to qualify for the Major anyway. We need to step up are game, we know how much we are worth and how we can play. It's up to us to bring that level - if we do that I'm quite confident we will make it through.

Your last change had been removing DEVIL and adding SIXER. From the outside, there wasn't a big change on your game, at least instantly. Slowly, your results improved a bit, but individually from a standpoint, or statistically, it doesn't seem like a big change. What do you feel in that regard, was it kind of underwhelming in the end?

We have definitely became better with the addition of SIXER because he was able to unlock the players to play better. That was mainly his role - he would come in with a support role, in and out of the game, taking the hits for the team sometimes. That's what he brought to the team, now he has lack of experience, we've been playing on a higher level internationally for a few years, compared to him playing five years ago. It's quite different, what you need to bring to the table. It's all about fitting into the gamestyle and having the team move forward. Because if the team goes wrong, the players, no matter who they are, they can't really shine anyway. It's all about finding the pace, everyone in the right spot and working for the others. It's a grind.

When you create a new team, or make a full roster change, 2-3 players, that's much easier and you can see the results much easier. When you change just one player it's just a grind trying to find the form again - and that's what we are trying to do.

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