FalleN: felps has specific skills

SK didn't have an easy time versus a Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand-less TYLOO as the Chinese side got 10 rounds on Mirage before the Brazilian's strong Terrorist side kicked in and allowed them to close out the match 16-12.

In our interview with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, SK's in-game leader talked about his individual slump, the team's game style and João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos's window room plays on Mirage.

Your last event was Katowice, what were you doing in the meantime, what was your focus and how did you prepare for this event in particular?

After Katowice we just went back to the way we used to practice before, trying to shape the strategy, trying to play on a more team-game style. We played online matches for tournaments such as ESL and did a lot of practice for this tournament.

Talking about playing as a team, what is your current thought process on that, have you figured out how to use all the players with felps coming in?

I think it's more felps adjusting himself to how we like to play, so he feels more comfortable. He's been doing a great job from the beginning, he is an amazing player and I think we are starting to feel better playing with each other. Sometimes changing one piece can change a lot inside the game, but I think we are getting close to how we would like to play.

Your individual game, probably since you change fnx for fox, dropped off a lotconsidering you were the second best player of 2016. What do you think is the cause of that and how have you been dealing and trying to improve?

It's hard to describe why this is happening and I just try not to think too much about it because otherwise I'd just burn out. Of course you want to be the best, you want to play on your top level every single time, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. I think when we changed to fox, I was a little bit concerned about how he should play and tried to adjust myself to try and give him space. For some reason, it could be coincidence, my individual game dropped a little bit. I've been trying to get back in shape, I've been practicing very hard, I've been giving my best, I think it's just a matter of time before the performance and the results come back.

Do you think the fact is worsened by you being the AWPer? Seeing that the smallest of margins change the outcome a lot?

Trying to in-game lead and being an AWPer sometimes is really hard, because normally teams have the other players playing for the player with the AWP and on my team it's normally me, even with the AWP, doing something to help others accomplish what they want. That is not an excuse, it's always been like that, it's just that it felt more natural in the past. I think it's just a question of time before it becomes natural for me as well with this new lineup and I'm pretty confident I'll be back to my level soon.

A thing a lot of people noticed about felps on Mirage is his play in the window area. You seem to give him a lot of freedom there, how does that work inside of the team? Do you leave them there and let him do his thing or do you expect him to do a certain thing?

felps has specific skills you don't often find in other players. Window on Mirage is one of the finer points of his game in which you can really see that he is different from others. In our team, sometimes it's specific, we want him to do this, sometimes it's just timing when he sees an opportunity and he makes a play. It really depends on what we want to do. And we know more and more teams are paying attention to how felps is playing Mirage so of course, we don't want to leave felps alone every single round.

About the match against TyLoo that you just played: in general, when you play lower ranked or less experienced teams they tend to play scared. It didn't seem like TyLoo were scared at all, did that catch you off guard?

Yeah, definitely, I think it was our first eco round on T side when we were doing a fake B to go A and suddenly there was a player with a shotgun pushing B - I was like "OK, this is something we are not prepared for". I think they played a good game, they are an opponent we always respect, we lost from them in the past, recently we've been beating them but they are a team you can never count off.

They have good players, good skill, it seems like they are missing something but that is normal, they are playing in a far away region and the only way they can develop is by playing tournaments. If they keep getting experience, they are going to be a scary team.

How are you approaching this event, is there any pressure to perform, do something big? What are your expectations?

Expectations are always to win to be honest, but I think our real expectation here is to play a team game. The way we played two tournaments, one we could've won and the other one we went out of the group stage. So there is so much difference when we play like this. This time we just want to play our game, get out of groups first and then start thinking about the title. Expectation for everyone in the team is to win titles and we work hard for it.

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