MSL: We will practice like never before

The only Danish team at the qualifier went through with a 3-1 score, beating Spirit, CLG and G2 on the way.

To learn more about their road to the ELEAGUE Major, we talked to Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen about the matches, Nuke and using Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså at ECS.

The opening match against Spirit should've been an easy game on paper but it didn't look like that in the server. What do you think was going on in that match?

Honestly, we were not on point, we could feel that something was wrong. We got eight rounds on the T side of Mirage or something like that, so it was fine because we knew we could win on CT with eight. We still felt after the T side that it was not a good half, we should've been 11-4, 12-3 if we were on point with our communication and players hitting our shots. It was ok, but we went out of the map feeling that we should've done much better.

DavCost was a real factor in that match, picking up a lot of triple kills but his team was unable to finish off rounds. Do you think if they had their real lineup it would be an even harder match for you?

It's hard to say because then the game is a totally different one, because people maybe play with more teamplay and don't do so much yolo stuff. It's hard to say.

Playing at ECS with valde and having to adapt to him, at least a bit - do you think that influenced you coming here negatively at all?

Not really, we know what we do with magiskb0Y and we are a good team with him. So not really, but of course if we would've played with magiskb0Y could've learned more from ECS and could probably be more comfortable here. Also, at ECS we got a lot of practice hours in, if we would've had him in we would have gotten a lot more out of it. Of course, it would be better if we would've had magiskb0Y at ECS, but that's how it is.

The next match you played was against GODSENT, you had a decent CT side, but on the T side they totally shut you down. What do you think was the biggest issue there?

Honestly our CT side should've been a lot better. If you lead 8-1 and have a lot of confidence and win all the clutches you should never let them in the match again. Our T side got totally wrecked, they had good mid control against us, they pushed us to do things we shouldn't do. Honestly, they played good and we were not in the game.

Were you surprised by their performance here, seeing how they were struggling online and throughout the year?

I'm not sure if I'm surprised, they have been underperforming hugely with their lineup. With their players, they should be up there with us, so they had to come up there soon. They kind of showed here that they can still play very good CS, I think they played with a lot of confidence that they didn't have in the past two months. I think the key was playing with a lot of confidence.

The last match was against G2, tell me about the T side first, what was causing problems for you?

In the first gun round, k0nfig forgot to buy a smoke, we were going secret and the smoke was not there. Their AWPer saw all five going down so that kind of screwed us up and we had a shaky start after that. But I think we managed an ok half, we should've won a lot of more rounds as T but it was enough. We knew that if we have good start as T we would wreck them. RUBINO and k0nfig played absolutely amazing on the CT side and won crucial rounds that made us win. Because of that smoke I'm happy that k0nfig stepped it up.

What do you think is the biggest part of your Nuke CT side? It's a map you're going back to a lot?

We are trying to shake it up now, everyone is looking at us, how we play T side, how we play CT side because we have been the best team in the world on it. So we decided to shake it up, let k0nfig play with confidence in yard again and… communication is the key on Nuke and we showed that today.

MSL is happy with the state of Nuke at the moment 

What do you think about the map in general, it's had some minor tweaks recently, do you feel it's in a good place now?

I think Nuke is in a good place, I think the sound has got a lot better - I use the new sound - and I think it was a good update, especially some of the railings inside so now you can see the CT's much better. I like the map a lot.

With you qualified we have 12 Danish players in the Major. Considering the size of the country, what do you think is the reason why Denmark has so many talent, so many good players?

I think we've had a good Counter-Strike scene from the beginning, and when you have great players that can teach young players you can produce a lot of good players.

Looking forward to the Major, what are your expectations and what will you do in the upcoming period?

We will have a good Christmas holiday with our family and then it's all about getting into the grind, playing a lot. We will practice like never before, we will also have WESG before the Major so we will focus a lot on both. Honestly we just need a break now, 35 days on the road, and then we will come back stronger than ever.

For WESG - will aizy be standing in, do you have any idea?

I don't think we will use aizy as they have the Major to prepare for, but we will probably announce it soon.

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