SmithZz: "We aren't completely ready at the moment, but we are getting there"

On the media day ahead of the FACEIT Major New Legends stage, we spoke to Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux to catch up with what G2 have been up to for the past two months, how they've progressed since July, and how confident they are ahead of the Major.

The last time we saw G2 was at DreamHack Open Valencia, where the team crashed out of the group stage despite showing promise with a playoffs finish at ESL One Cologne just two weeks before.

In our interview with SmithZz, we asked him about those two tournaments and how he has progressed individually, as well as G2 as a whole, since then:

Let's first go back to your first couple of tournaments, Cologne and Valencia. Two very different results, making it to playoffs in Cologne and crashing out in groups in Valencia, what do you think went wrong at DreamHack? Why weren't you able to replicate some of what we saw from you in Cologne?

I think we didn't go into the tournament in Valencia so well. I didn't either, individually, and we were trying new things. I was not so hyped by the level of the teams, I guess, that's my bad. But yeah, Cologne was really prestigious and I really wanted to do well there, and I think we reached our objective, it was good to go to playoffs.

And in Valencia, the preparation was light because we didn't play for four days after Cologne, we had the weekend and then went straight to Valencia, so we didn't play at all. We had a slow start into it and it cost us the tournament, basically.

Run me through the following two months, then, up until now, what have you been up to and how much did you prepare for this?

Like Ex6TenZ said, we are here for the long run, so we're building really slowly, but we are building surely, the basics, a really good game. At the moment, we aren't totally ready, but we are getting there and we are starting to get some really good maps.

But I think in two months we'll be better, in four months we'll be even better, so, yeah, we are confident we can do something here for sure. At least in the best-of-ones, in best-of-threes it will probably be a bit more complicated, but I am really confident with the team in best-of-ones.

So you're not very confident with the depth of your map pool?

Yeah. The map pool depth and even the depth of our game, like I said, we are building slowly to have more depth and a deep map pool.

At what stage do you think you are in in that process, maybe percentage-wise?

I don't know... 60 to 65%?

That's not too bad.

Yeah, it's good, it's good.

How do you feel about your personal form now that you've had a few more months since coming back?

I feel pretty okay. In Cologne, I did an interview and I said that it's that confidence-wise I'm really fragile. I can do really good games and I can do really bad ones. I think I'm getting more and more consistent, every day I'm evolving, so that's the good thing, I'm better than in Cologne.

I see the progress with my new position and my new roles. It was pretty rough at the beginning, but I think that's normal, it's a process, I need to accept the process. I stopped playing for a year and a half, so what can you expect after two months? I'm doing a good job at the moment and I hope I'll prove it at the Major.

Speaking of the Major, you'll first meet HellRaisers, what do you make of the matchup?

We didn't practice them so much, but I think we had the chance to play against them, compLexity, or Astralis. We played compLexity a lot in practice, so I think it's better for us to match up against HellRaisers. They are a pretty strong team, but I think we have the cards to give them a good fight and beat them.

How confident are you regarding the whole tournament and making it to the next stage?

I think if we can recreate the level we had in practice, we have good chances to pass the best-of-ones.

More interviews from the FACEIT Major New Legends stage media day:

RUSH: "Hopefully, after the Major, our ranking will reflect how we actually are as a team"