Edward: "The main problem [vs. Gambit] was mental preparation; we just f*cked up"

Natus Vincere have now joined the 1-1 pool following a crushing loss to Gambit in the first round yesterday, with a poor showing on the CT side of Nuke, before dominating BIG on Inferno.

Edward discussed the Gambit fiasco in the first round

After the match, Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev talked to us about the earlier fiasco versus Gambit and their inconsistency here and at the qualifier, as well as the huge win against BIG and their future at the tournament.

Going back to yesterday and your fiasco against Gambit, did you expect Nuke to be played when you left it in the veto with Train?

Nuke was one of the expected maps, not the first one. There were only three maps, Nuke was maybe second or third.

Would you leave Nuke in again if you had the chance now?

It's a hard question, I don't know. Every time we lost in such a way, we've done some work on the map, and of course we want to improve our game and test it next time. Maybe, who knows, we might pick Nuke next.

Tell me about the match itself, why do you think it was so hard, especially given you started on the much-favored CT side?

The main problem for us was mental preparation. We just f*cked up (laughs) with this.

I know your last encounter with Gambit at DreamHack Winter was quite nerve-wracking considering the history between the two of you, did that play a part as well?

Exactly, that's where it came from, the mental preparation.

Were you more ready for BIG?

We focus on our next opponent in a way that we don't care who we play. We're just focusing on our own game and try to show the beautiful chaos. We don't care who we play.

Was the game as comfortable as it seemed from the scoreline, 16-1?

electronic shone, his performance was really amazing. There were many situations when were three on B and only two on A and BIG went to A and the trades were five to zero in our favor, it was impressive, really impressive by him.

Can you tell me about electronic's evolution in the last three months he has played with you? How has he been fitting in?

We spent a lot of time at bootcamps, so he adapts really quickly to us. He's a young guy, his will to win is really big and he's doing everything well.

Is he calm in pressure situations?

He's not a calm person, but his emotions give him more power, he's that kind of a person.

Throughout the qualifier and the Major so far, you've had such inconsistent results, what does that come down to? Is it the maps, or perhaps the mental preparation you were talking about earlier?

Well, even if we had a lot of time at a bootcamp, we made a lot of mistakes in preparation. Of course this is all about our preparation, that's why we are so inconsistent in our matches. We're trying to work on it here, we're discussing our game and always trying to improve it.

How confident are you in your ability to advance to the playoffs?

It will depend on our opponents and maps that we're going to play.

Who would you be confident against, then?

I don't know the pool, but... well, like I said before, I don't care who we play. It's only about us.