TACO: "Focused on creating new things"

In the first event after the player break, SK looked fresh, picking up a smooth 16-2 victory over the Singaporean side BOOT-d[S] on Mirage. 

TACO hopes that the roster changes will make the competition tougher

After the match, we talked to Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo about the player break, roster changes and how that affects the competition here and moving forward.

Let's start off with, before the break, you guys finishing off that whole run with a top eight at the Major. How did you feel after that and then going into the break?

Before the Major we played three tournaments and we won all of them. Of course, it was a really good feeling but we still wanted to win the Major of course. But at the Major we had some problems, not in-game, but out of the game. In general—I can talk about me and my team—the tournament was bad, the computers... Everything was so bad for us, we were stressed. But it's not an excuse. We lost to Astralis, they are a really good team, they were really ready to play that match, every map, every round.

Going to the break, it was a really needed break because we played for two months in Europe, traveling, tournaments, it was a hell of a period. So we really happy going to the vacation because we won three out of four tournaments, which is really important, but of course, it could be better.

As the break was coming to an end, you were returning to North America to start the season - how did that process go? A lot of teams were changing stuff, you have the same roster, but still, coming back into the rhythm, practicing, what was the focus for you guys?

Yeah, we were focusing on creating new things. Of course, we are not a new team, but when you make a new team you have the advantage that other teams don't know how you are going to play. So what we tried to do was to change a lot of things. To create new strats, and of course, to play a lot of deathmatches because we were like without CS for 20 days. And that is what we focused on, creating new things, playing DM, practicing against other teams as well to feel the competition, to get that feeling back.

As we said, a lot of teams changed players, rosters, how do you think that impacts you as a team, the competition and how you will be faring against other teams? Does it make it harder or easier since you've been together longer?

I'm the kind of guy that likes difficult things, I hope that every team gets better and better so the competition would be better, of course. I think it's better for everyone, for the teams, for the sponsors, for CS:GO, for the fans that can watch the good competition, tournaments and a lot of changes. I think it's important to change, it's not a bad thing at all.

We didn't change because we didn't need to change, I really hope we don't need to for a long time. (laughs) But when you need it, it's really important. And of course it makes the competition harder, and for me, it's a really good thing.

To expand on that, do you think that most of the changes that were made in the scene made the teams better than they were before? That the competition will be stronger now?

Yeah, I think, in general, it's hard to say when you are not in the team, you don't know whats happening. I'm pretty sure that if they changed, it was really needed. That tends to make the team better. I think that they will be better.

Of course, if you analyze the playstyle, if he is a team player, if he is not a team player, if he is important, if he is good... we can talk a little bit more. But I think it's not my job. (laughs) But I hope they get better.

Let's touch on this match shortly, you, as the first seed, played against the last seed of the tournament, B.O.O.T-d[S]. Usually, when teams like that come to big tournaments they played scared or feel a little bit lost on the server? How did you feel playing against them?

Actually, we know it, that maybe they are playing scared, but also, we had a really bad experience against TyLoo here last year at DreamHack Malmö. What we tried to do was to take advantage of the pressure, we tried to play aggressive, but we also try to play our game. I think against TyLoo we thought a lot about the match, we tried to do a lot of things, tried to study them. But for this match, we just played our game as if we were playing a really good team, against Astralis or FaZe or whatever.