mixwell: "Tired of online CS; We are excited to play on LAN"

After a two-month wait, OpTic are finally set to make their first offline appearance, at the Europe Minor Championship, for which they qualified with three straight victories in the closed qualifier, beating AGO, TEAM5 and eXtatus.

Since the team's creation, OpTic have been busy competing online, and results have been encouraging, especially in the ESL Pro League, with the European mixture being close to securing a spot at the season finals.

mixwell believes OpTic will be at the Major

Read on as Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas discusses his first months with the new OpTic lineup, the obligation to fly to North America to compete in online leagues, his expectations for the Europe Minor, and more.

You already have two months behind you with this lineup. What are your thoughts on this team, now that you will finally attend a LAN event? Are the players anxious to play in an offline environment once again?

Last time I had a full lineup was 10 months ago, at the ELEAGUE Major, I am excited to play tournaments with great players and good preparation. All of my teammates are really experienced, you can feel it in-game. Even though we had never played together before, it really is easy to play as a team with them. We are tired of online matches, the team is excited to play on LAN.

You came through your group in the Minor qualifier rather convincingly, winning three straight matches. Did you expect such an easy route?

Not being at the Major would be a big fail on our part, we will qualify no matter what. We knew that bo1s could be tricky, but we have a solid style.

How are the players dealing with all the travelling between North America and Europe?

I think that it helped in the end, living together and getting to know each other is really important. We want to play in every league we can and grow as a team. The main goal is to reach the Major, a brand new team with no league spots will improve slower, so that is why we made this decision, even though flying back and forth is a pain in the ass. Plus, we had to play some online matches from Europe as well, it was not ideal but it was for the best.

How have you prepared for this tournament? What are the aspects that you have been focusing on in practice?

We have been practicing a lot ever since we created the team. We are on having a really solid gameplan and a good map pool.

Who do you see as the biggest threats at the Minor? Do you see some upset potential in teams like AGO and eXtatus?

EnvyUs, GODSENT and SpaceSoldiers are our biggest threats. I think AGO are better than what people think, they could even make it to the Major qualifier.

You are currently second in Pro League and seventh in ECS. Do you see this sort of inconsistency as something normal in a team that is just taking its first steps? What are your thoughts on the results in this league?

Considering that we had to play matches from Europe, I would say we are really consistent. We have almost secured our spot at the Pro League finals already. In ECS, we have faced the three best teams in North America already and we are currently 4-4, if we play solid we should grind the rest of the season and qualify for the finals, in Mexico.

mixwell had nothing but praise for friberg's ingame leadership skills

What is your opinion about the ingame leadership of friberg so far? How does it differ from the leadership on the previous OpTic rosters you were part of?

Adam is a determined person, organised and responsible, he works really hard to become one of the best in-game leaders. [OpTic coach] Chet works with him to improve our game, and they have really good synergy, I’m impressed. We have different players, so it is hard to compare our game with that of the previous OpTic lineups.

Last weekend, you qualified for the WESG Iberia LAN alongside players like loWel and Kairi. What are your expectations for this team?

We wanted to play with upcoming Spanish players that I had never played with, but Clash Of Nations was running at the same time as the qualifier so we just did the best team we could. I think that we have a really strong lineup, I missed playing in Spanish! My expectations are to win the WESG Iberia LAN and play in Barcelona to qualify for China. That would be an amazing experience! We will do our best to represent Spain and make our fans proud of the team.

Will Chet "ImAPet" Singh be with the team in Bucharest? What is your opinion about his style, and what do you think that he has brought to the team?

Yes, he’s going to travel with us to every event. He has a really good idea of how to play the game, works a lot tactically with everyone and keeps everyone in good shape. He is really important for us.