innocent: "It's smart to [play] every map"

PENTA began their journey at the Minor with a tough start on Inferno against iGame.com losing 1-9 before clawing back to win their opening best-of-one by the skin of their teeth.

innocent's PENTA now have a 17-2 record on Inferno

The European side played Inferno once more against Dignitas, and this time managed to pass their second test with relative ease, clinching first place in Group B with a 16-8 scoreline.

After PENTA advanced to playoffs, we interviewed Paweł "⁠innocent⁠" Mocek and asked him about their rough bootcamp, among other topics:

It was mentioned on the stream that the team didn't feel comfortable with their bootcamp, can you tell us more about it?

Actually, the only thing that was really an issue at the bootcamp was that our internet provider had some problems and we had like 100 ping after 8 PM, so it basically killed the rest of the day of practice. So, we were just focusing mostly on the strats. I think it wasn't that effective as it could have been, because we always first do some strats and stuff, and then we test them. But it was simply impossible because of that, because we didn't wanna waste time on doing strats before when we could play.

So we just had to adapt, but in general, I think we made progress anyway. We're still improving in pretty good fashion, I would say, we improve day by day. It kinda surprised me that we still progress this fast, because normally you basically get to one point and then it goes slower and slower, and we're improving for four months straight, so I'm really happy and excited about that.

With that in mind and that your group seemed quite wide open, how did you feel going into the Minor?

I think we're really confident. As you said, we have a pretty even group, we cannot underestimate anyone, but we're confident that we'll advance to playoffs. Our goal is at least top three here, so it's like the only mindset we can have here.

I actually think if we play at our normal level, not choking like we did against iGame. We basically were looking really lost in the first 10 rounds, but then we called a timeout, we talked about this that we aren't playing our game, because we had some problems with communication at first. It was like the first game on LAN, so it's always shaky.

How much impact did suNny's plays towards the end of the first half against iGame.com have on the remainder of the match?

It was crucial to win the game, the whole game was about individual plays, we didn't play well as a team, I don't know what happened there. These two rounds of suNny on the T side really kept us in the game, that we knew we could win it, and it also helped us in the T side, because one round really wasn't enough. I think we had six in the end, so basically those two rounds won us the rest of the half.

How do you think you'll fare against EnVyUs in the upper bracket semi-finals?

I guess everyone feels pretty excited about this game, because we actually never faced EnVy since the creation of this lineup. They were actually looking pretty sloppy in the group stage, they weren't playing as well as I expected them to. I'm looking forward to face them in the playoffs, I think it's gonna be a good game. Their map pool kinda fits us I think, so I guess it's gonna be a pretty intense match.

Possibly your biggest rival, BIG, whom you played quite a lot of times in recent times, also made it through to the playoffs, how do you see them as a potential opponent later on?

I actually think they are the team that will qualify from this tournament. The match against them, if we get to this point, it will be super amazing, everyone in our team and I guess in BIG are looking forward to play. I guess it'll be a three-mapper, a really intense best-of-three if we face each other. It could even be the best game of the tournament.

I noticed you are the only team who play all seven maps, can you explain the thinking behind that, not going the usual route of avoiding one map completely and playing the rest?

We just thought that it's pretty smart to have something on every map, because then if you see the opponent is super strong on any map and you are not that good on it, then you can just ban it and rely that you're gonna play pretty well on a map that you don't play that much. Our map pool is pretty wide right now thanks to that, you're also hard to predict in that system and it just helps you eliminate the best map of the opponent.

You played two Infernos today, was there any focus that you put towards Inferno before the event or are you just this comfortable on it from previous tournaments?

I think we only played Inferno once throughout the whole bootcamp, but when you look at our stats on HLTV, we had like 19 matches on Inferno and we lost two in this lineup. So, statistically, it's our best map, but we faced lower tier teams also. Somehow teams are not afraid to play us on it, so I guess they just thought we just play it against lower teams, so they're not afraid to take that chance.