nitr0: "[Inferno] comes down to using your utility to the fullest"

After losing their map pick, Mirage, to start off the series, Liquid were in a tough position as they found themselves 10-5 down going onto the CT side of Cobblestone. With inspired performances from Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, the North Americans took the win in overtime, forcing map three: Inferno.

nitr0 avoids buying the AWP on the T side of Inferno to limit the CT's

The decider was a one-sided affair, as Liquid ran away with the game with a near-perfect Terrorist side, taking the series 2-1.

Let's start with drawing SK and going into the veto, what was the thinking like, what did you expect to be playing here?

Obviously, going into the draws we wanted Renegades because they are the weakest team here, but we were happy with SK, we just beat them at the summit and also they are really good for our map pool. And we are a brand new team so we are working on it, but they fit our map pool really well so we were happy with the draw.

You obviously both don't really play Nuke, did you expect SK to maybe play with that and ban it later, potentially switch up something?

We thought that they could potentially pick Overpass, because they have a decent history against us on that map in the past, but we just knew that they were going to ban Nuke because we already had the idea of maybe playing Nuke at the last tournament, since they are one of the best teams in the world and we weren't that confident in our map pool [back then]. So here we banned Cache since they don't play Nuke and ultimately it worked out for our maps.

On Mirage, we saw FalleN not AWP that much on the CT side, it was TACO and coldzera picking up the AWP while FalleN plays under balcony with a rifle. Do you have any idea why they decided to go for that approach? And how was it for you to play against it?

I think anyone on that team can AWP, first of all, but obviously, that is FalleN's strong suit. The way they are practicing recently, I know for a fact that they are very confident whenever coldzera has an AWP in his hands, on any map. I'm not sure why they are switching like that, maybe it has something to do with how they are feeling, but honestly, I have no clue.

Going on to Cobblestone, I think you were 10-5 down in the first half. What was the key to the comeback there?

It's just like any other game, doesn't matter what the score is, any team can win, whoever gets to 16 first wins. We had some really clutch rounds and those guys are always tough to play, but ultimately we knew how they played and we knew boltz is struggling in this tournament, so we wanted to... not abuse him, but we know for a fact that he is not playing that well this tournament, so whenever we were running out of ideas we just said: "Let's split connector, boltz is struggling right now". It just came down to everyone putting forward some ideas and stuff.

On that map, especially in the overtime, you were having some great AWP rounds. So how has that part of your game been, playing with the AWP more and more?

I've always been a second AWPer, on most of the iterations of our lineup, but right now, I think I'm most comfortable whenever I have an AWP in my hands at A on Cobblestone, because it helps out steel who never played A on Cobblestone before this lineup. I mean, we just go over what we are most comfortable with, and that is what we are most comfortable with right now. It just works out because that is what we have the most practice with.

I interviewed zews before and he said that you are focused on having more rifles, is Inferno the perfect map for a five rifle combo, especially on the T side?

Yeah, Inferno is definitely good for that because everything is close quarters, we have a lot of set executions that require close range stuff and obviously, I was an entry fragger pretty much my whole career, so I can just entry and let my guys win the rounds. We don't need the AWP in the server on T side Inferno, and I think that the AWP on the CT side is important, so why would would I buy it as a Terrorist? If we lose a round they can get an AWP for free and start establishing their economy. So I think of it that way, I'm not just thinking of it like "I'm weak with my AWP on T side Inferno". It's the entire thing, considering every player on the server.

What are your thoughts on this version of Inferno? It's kind of T sided, I think 55% of the rounds are won by Terrorists, which sets up a weird dynamic with all the retakes and saving, and we saw SK force alot, so their economy was pretty bad...

I think it's just like the old iteration of Inferno, where you could just rotate smokes around, if you are able to get banana control early in the half, teams are going to use all of their utility to fight back for it. What it comes down to on this map is using your utility to the fullest. If there are 30 seconds left, you throw a molly or a smoke down, they will have to go through it and you can get two-three kills there at the chokepoint. So I think that is what Inferno is right now, being to establish banana control and also saving your utility for late in the round.