Plopski: "It feels good to prove the haters wrong"

Max Melit had a quick chat with Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora after x6tence Galaxy advanced to the playoffs at DreamHack Winter to discuss the team's results in the group stage and his own performances in Jönköping.

x6tence Galaxy endured a slow start to the tournament, losing their opening match to Complexity, but still made it through the group stage after picking up 2-0 wins over LDLC and Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's side.

After the Swedes got their revenge over Complexity, we picked Plopski's brain on matters concerning the team's group stage run, their 'onliner' label and the upcoming semi-final bout against Bravado, the other team coming out of the online qualifiers.

Would you say this is the most significant result of your career so far?

I would say this is the biggest result we have got as a team. Especially for me. This is my first big LAN event and we're in the semi-finals. So it just feels amazing.

BARBARR said in an interview earlier that you have been called the biggest onliners in Europe. How does it feel to prove otherwise here?

It feels good to prove the haters wrong. Not that I care, but it's not nice reading "Oh, they are the biggest onliners" and stuff like that. It's always nice to prove them wrong.

How do BARBARR and rdl help you to be able to do that on LAN?

It's really good to have them behind my back always, they have been on big stages before, especially rdl, he has coached teams at Majors, while BARBARR has played for some top teams at big events. It's really nice for them to calm me down and tell me to not be nervous. They are always trying to help me when I fail a duel and calming me down.

A lot of people might not be familiar with your name. Given this is your breakout event, how would you introduce someone to your play style and role in the team?

I'm a young guy with a lot of aim, I play pretty aggressively, actually. I'm confident in my aim so I just take duels and I know that I can win them. I would say I open up rounds. Sometimes we are missing those aggressive plays. We have players who can bring that, and I'm one of them. Today I had some good rounds in which I played aggressively, and things worked out really well.

Did you happen to see the flick shot from nawwk on Inferno, in the pit clutch?

I was spectating it and was really nervous like, oh fu- [laughs]. I mean, 'we really need to frigging win this' [laughs again]. And I just spectated him and saw him do the flick and I just screamed "NICE!" and was really happy.

You will face Bravado in the semi-finals, something no one thought was going to happen. You both came from the qualifier slots, and one of you will make it to the finals. What do you think of the match-up and the potential grand final appearance?

It's really fun that both teams who qualified are in the semi-finals and that we are facing each other. I mean, I don't think anyone expected both of us to be in the semi-finals in the first place, so it's just nice, again, to prove everyone wrong, not many people believed in us.

Max Melit covers DreamHack Open Winter 2018 for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.