Snax: "It's always close vs. OpTic"

In their first match at the ELEAGUE Major, Virtus.pro started with a 1-7 deficit but slowly climbed back into the match, getting a 6-9 half as Counter-Terrorists.

Breaking OpTic's economy multiple times in crucial rounds, the Poles came out victorious at 16-13 on the back of a fantastic performance from Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski.

The player of the match gave us an interview about the Cobblestone encounter with OpTic as well as VP's poor results at WESG. He also shared who he thought was going to be their biggest threat and which of the underdogs could go on and surprise.

You had a little bit of a rough start to Cobblestone against OpTic, where did that stem from and how did you come back into the half?

I think we always have a bad start at the beginning of the tournament, we had a bad start at WESG. In the pistol round, we could do it, but we got a bit mad because we lost the advantage and we didn't close it out. I don't know what the breaking point was, maybe it was the round where we stacked the B site and they just rushed it.

What about towards the end of the match, it got quite close, was there a key round or a play that decided it?

We have nerves of steel, so we managed to close it out. We always have a problem against USA teams on Cobblestone, last time in New York we beat OpTic 16-14, so it's always a close match against them. We're just more focused on the end rather than the beginning.

You mentioned WESG, what do you think your results there mean for the Major?

I think all of us didn't go 100% into the game like we should, we just underestimated the whole tournament. We didn't prepare for the matches there, we just played normal things and our attitude wasn't so good.

Did you have any time between WESG and the Major to fix things, practice some more?

Yeah, of course, I had like 12 hours on the plane to practice, I could play Hearthstone. No, actually, we didn't have any time, we just prepared before WESG and that's all, but I think we are well prepared.

In your practice before WESG, were there any teams that surprised you?

Even if they surprised us, we don't really think about practice results, it's only practice, you don't play your 100% game, you're trying new stuff and new tactics. Like I said, we could even lose 5-25 to someone and we wouldn't care about it, it's just practice, not an official game.

Who are going to be your biggest threats at the Major?

It's hard to say, there were a lot of lineup changes, SK have fox now, fnatic is different, GODSENT is different. I don't know, maybe Na`Vi and Astralis, they're a good competitor to be top one. We'll see, it's the Swiss system, anything could happen.

What about the underdogs, any dark horses?

I think Gambit can surprise us, they play very well with the new squad, and I like these guys, they're cool.

Stay tuned to HLTV.org for more interviews from the ELEAGUE Major, as we're hoping to talk to all of today's winners.