NAF: "When we got into overtime I was so pissed off; I'm like 'F*** this, I'm going to buy an AWP'"

After Liquid denied Astralis' comeback attempt on Inferno to go 3-0 in the New Legends Stage and reach playoffs, we spoke to Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic who broke down the key moments of the match.

With the number one and number three ranked teams facing off for a spot in the playoffs, Astralis - Liquid was one of the most exciting matchups of the day. After an overtime game on Inferno, the North American team was victorious, continuing their flawless run in London.

In a conversation with NAF we heard how the pressure affected Liquid's communication, seeing them lose a couple of clutches, and how his tilt-buy of the AWP gave them momentum in overtime.

I'll obviously start with the T-side you had, which was pretty on-point, you lost just two rounds. Did you have a very specific gameplan that you followed here, that worked out so well for you?

Yeah, Nick (Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella) and Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado watched demos of them and I think that this time, compared to other times, we had a really good understanding of how they played. We even said stuff like "magisk is playing pit, let's get nades there, triple-nade him whenever we can", we had a lot of different B stuff that we were doing. We were able to research them properly this time and it was a lot easier for us. Obviously, you can tell that both of the T-side were really strong and both teams had weak CT sides. I'm not sure what happened there but it was definitely the battle of the T-side.

Going onto the CT side, did you have a feeling that you really wanted to close it out with a big scoreline, a big margin, because of the history between you two through this year?

I think we were a little bit afraid to lose. Towards the end we were just like "we should just keep stacking B and eventually, one round, they will come to us" (laughs). I think we were trying to do a lot of wacky stuff that just didn't work. LIke I said, we were just getting a little afraid that we were so close to winning, it kind of got out of hand and it went to OT...

Does that also affect the communication and the decision-making? Because there were two big rounds from them, there was the gla1ve 1v3 and the last round of regulation where you had a 4v2 on the A site?

I think with the gla1ve 1v3, I don't remember who died first but I know that TACO and Twistzz were alive in the 1v2. And they knew that gla1ve could only be on the right side because they peeked spawn just when the bomb was planted. He could only be emo or construction. So we already knew where he was, but unfortunately when they got into the site, TACO pushed alone and Twistzz was nowhere near him and gla1ve got a free 1v1. That ended up just working in gla1ve's favor, a 1v1 obviously favors the T side. Honestly, that was a huge mistake by TACO and it just screwed us.

What about the last round?

The last round? Oh yeah. I think our comms were a little bad, I was afraid to peek lane, EliGE was in halls with low HP, I didn't really know what the site guys were really doing, I didn't know what they were looking at. I think that, overall in that 2v4, our communication was just really bad. It was just really flat.

In overtime you looked pretty convincing in the end, which is kind of funny, but you got the win. How does it feel after all of these losses? Even though it is just a BO1, it is a big BO1.

It feels good. It is funny, when we got into overtime I was so pissed off, I was really tilted. So I'm just "F*** this, I'm going to buy an AWP." I bought the AWP out of pure frustration, it wasn't like I thought it was the solution. And honestly, it ended up working in our favor because I got a lot of picks. Going into OT, I guess AWP was pretty much the solution that helped us (laughs), and obviously everyone started playing really good. I think everyone was more calm, we had a little break because it goes into OT, so we can just reset ourselves. Both teams have more money, we are not scraping by and obviously that helped as well. So yeah, I think we just found our footing OT and took it home.

You are going into the playoffs obviously, I wanted to touch on an interview you did with us at ELEAGUE where you kind of compared device and s1mple. After that, s1mple, I wouldn't say that he was upset, but he said that he was going to destroy you in the next matchup. Potentially they can also make it into playoffs, are you looking forward to that game?

Yeah, I think it would be fun. Even though the community will always see something like trash-talk, honestly, I love speaking a little bantery or trash because it gets the viewers more involved. They are like "Oh, NAF said that? I hope he loses!". Obviously, I love drawing in the viewers to have a little bit more excitement. But if we get Na`Vi, I think it will be a fun match, you know, best of luck to s1mple, I might have to beat him one more time if that comes around. But, yeah, it would be fun.

Closing thoughts, you had two 3-0's here, obviously got some extra days off because of it. Going into the playoffs, how is the team feeling?

Obviously we are feeling very confident. This is my first top-eight so I'm very excited, woo-hoo for me! For Twistzz as well, it is first top eight as well. But yeah, we will just take a break for today of course, the day is almost over, but we are going to be practicing again, even when we went 3-0 in the New Challengers Stage we just went back on the grind, practicing. We just have to keep practicing,keep our form up, we can't stop playing, we just need to keep improving and keep going. Yeah, we are just going to take a little bit of a break. Just because we are not playing matches doesn't mean we aren't playing CS, so we are going to start practicing really hard again.

More interviews from the New Legends stage:

Day 3
dephh: "We proved we can't just play Inferno, we have other maps up our sleeves"
STYKO: "[My new role] feels like I'm going to school every day, trying to understand a new subject"

Day 2
YNk: "This game was just so hard because mousesports saved so much"
Edward: "If you feel calm during the whole game, the comeback is real, always"
nitr0: "I'm hoping we get Astralis, we can definitely put up a good show and a good fight"
Xizt: "Every loss is going to take a toll on your confidence, we had to slowly build it up again"
LEGIJA: "Before the Major, we said 'We will not practice to make Legends, we're here to f****** win'"

Day 1
Xyp9x: "Against Na`Vi and especially on Inferno, it's all mind games"
REZ: "Not playing the Minor means a lot to me, I have played so many"

Media Day
JW: "We considered twist after the early StarLadder exit; he wasn’t really interested"
jmqa: "After the last Major, our practice wasn't great, we didn't have good conditions"
flamie: "We still want to play Dust2 because no one is playing it well"
SmithZz: "We aren't completely ready at the moment, but we are getting there"
RUSH: "Hopefully, after the Major, our ranking will reflect how we actually are as a team"