shox: "We've got three to four maps we're definitely okay with playing"

We spoke to Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon following G2's win over Cloud9 in the fourth round of the New Legends stage.

The 26-year-old talked about G2's 4-16 loss to MIBR on Inferno on day three and their improvements on the map in the match against Cloud9, in which the Frenchmen secured their second win following a double-overtime battle.

shox also gave us his thoughts on G2's upcoming match with FaZe and commented on his team's map pool, which will be tested in the best-of-three series.

After your loss against MIBR, you tweeted that it was a necessary one. Why was that? What did you learn from that loss?

Basically, I said it was a necessary one because we were really scared and you can directly feel that in the game. For example, we didn't take banana control, even when we knew they had banana and would be four on A, we went A, stuff like this. We didn't play the basics of Inferno. If you don't play the basics like that, it's going to be really hard to get some rounds. We didn't manage to play like that because our basics were kind of forgotten.

I honestly think that it was forgotten because of the pressure, because of chaos. There were also several situations, for example, the pistol round, three-on-three, you could see that the players didn't want to move. I said it was a necessary loss because everyone admitted it and everyone was okay with that. Since we admitted it, we can definitely look forward and then we just said 'don't be afraid, don't think about what if you lose, just think that you'll get this kill in front of you.'

Did you use that in this match against Cloud9?

Yeah, definitely. We had more banana control, we had way better mid-round calls. It was pretty tight because, first of all, they played well, and secondly, we lost many clutch situations that we played badly. But at least we are moving forward, we aren't losing the rounds with every one of them alive. At least now we can go to the clutches, so that's good, and now we have to win this one.

How did you manage to finish it off in the end? Were there any adjustments in the second overtime that helped you get those two rounds on the board on the Terrorist side, especially?

I think we didn't make many adjustments as CT because we were fine with how we were going to play, except for one round. In overtime, they went four through apartments and it was my bad, I didn't see it coming and I should have.

Going into the T side, I thought that people were just going to play weirdly because they had tried everything they have in their panel, so they just create new things they think are good. I just saw that they have a weakness in the apartments and, also, I thought 'they did it as T, so it kind of means that they don't like to face this round as CT.' So we just did the same and it passed. I think it was both a mix of new runs that they won't expect and focusing on the clutches.

You have a hard matchup in the form of FaZe coming up, what are your initial thoughts on that?

I think it's definitely going to be a hell of a match. They also didn't show their best form since the beginning of the Major, we didn't either. It's going to be really hard, FaZe is one of the top teams in the world, for sure, and when they are 0-2 and coming back to 2-2, that will give you a lot of confidence, especially in the best-of-threes. We're just going to do everything we can. Now we survived the best-of-one, scary things, it's going to be a best-of-three and we'll do everything to take it.

I spoke to SmithZz before the Major started for you and he didn't sound very confident about your map pool, how do you feel about it now that you've played a few matches here?

I think we are kind of okay on three to four maps that we put a lot of work in, but when you want to be really ready on a map, it takes time. I would say we've got three to four maps we're definitely okay with playing and we have everything to win on them, and the others... We know if we play a best-of-three, we're going to play those maps, and we practiced them, but not as much as the others, for sure. It will come with time.

More interviews from the New Legends stage:

Day 4
s1mple: "I don't want to be a bad guy, there is no point"
tabseN: "I feel like we can 100% win this tournament"

Day 3
NAF: "When we got to overtime I was so pissed off; I'm like 'F*** this, I'm going to buy an AWP"
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"