xccurate: "We decided to work on expanding our map pool"

Following TYLOO winning the first match of the tournament over BIG, we spoke to TYLOO's AWPer, Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto.

SuperNova CS:GO Malta started with an upset as the Chinese-Indonesian side defeated BIG 16-14 on Overpass. The game was a back-and-forth one, but two pistol round wins were the difference maker in the end.

In our post-match interview, we talked to xccurate about their last events, StarSeries i-League S6 and Toyota Master Bangkok, and expanding their map pool.

Let's start with the last couple of events you had. StarSeries wasn't that great and then you had Toyota Master that started pretty rough, but in the end, you finished second. Looking at those two events together, how has your team been feeling over the last couple of months?

After StarLadder, we had a bootcamp in China, me and BnTeT went there to practice with the others. After the bootcamp we had a team talk and we decided to work on expanding our map pool, we tried to work on Overpass, Train, Dust2, our weaker maps, we tried to become good on those maps. So we practiced a lot, we watch demos from other teams and we tried to copy good tactics that fit with us. And then for Toyota Master Bangkok, we lost in the final against Heroic. Although we already practiced a lot and expanded our map pool, our Dust2 is still a problem. Then we come for this tournament, the start is BO1 and we can't play our best maps. The next match is BO3, we can play our thing and we will do our best.

Every team has some maps that suit them more, some that suit them less. For you, Inferno and Mirage mostly, and then Cache, have been good, and other maps have been a big issue. Why do you think you really couldn't do much on Train and Overpass in the past? Why were they so tough for you to play?

Because it basically depends on confidence for us. Usually, we ask the Chinese players what maps they are confident on and then, every time, they are like "Let's go Mirage, Cache or Inferno". That's why we liked to play those three maps a lot.

You said you expanded your map pool, is there something you aim to do here in terms of performing a certain way?

Honestly, for this tournament we aim for the semi-final, I hope we can do it.

Tell me about facing BIG, you faced them a couple of times, what did you expect from this game going into the match?

From this game, we expected that they would pick Overpass or maybe Train. So last night we watched their demos and we knew that their T side is not very good on Overpass, they play contact with a smoke-flash...

The CT side was still kind of rough for you guys, even though you won the pistol there were a lot of resets. How did you manage to still have an 8-7 CT side, win the half?

The CT side was a miracle because we won one eco and, actually, our CT is still a bit problematic. We have already made a lot of setups on Overpass, but sometimes our communication or our decisions are wrong. For example, when we can't read the opponents economy well and then they eco, we can attempt to control B short, they run out and we lose three people instantly and we lose the eco, stuff like that still happen.

Now that you've got the first win, you said you are a confidence team, do you think this will propel you further into the tournament?

Of course.