Aerial: "It means pretty much everything [to make it to the Major]"

After ENCE became the first team to advance from the Europe Minor through to the New Challengers Stage of IEM Katowice, we spoke to one of the winners of the tournament, Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila, about the feat.

ENCE secured the first European spot at the Major having lost only one map throughout the whole tournament, with a 2-0 win against North in the upper bracket final putting them at the top of the Europe Minor.

We got a hold of Aerial after the match to get his reaction on advancing further into the Major cycle for the very first time and to talk about their playoffs matches, in which they beat the aforementioned Danes and Valiance.

Going back to the upper semi-final you played against Valiance, from the past you've had a lot of experience playing against Imperial, was it familiar feeling playing against a part of that team yesterday?

Yeah, it was really familiar for me, at least, they play a similar way. Of course, they have something new that they set, they have some more structure, but they still have those individually skilled players as they had before, so it was kind of similar.

Tell me about today and especially the double-overtime battle against North on Train. You didn't manage to close it out in regulation, can you tell me about the morale you had towards the end of the map and what made it go your way, after all?

We are confident on Train, but we made some mistakes at the beginning on the T side. We just had to keep our head cool and try to focus, we knew we are good on Train and that we were going to take the map.

Inferno looked like you had a very clear idea of what they had in store, was that down to preparation, or what do you think it was?

I don't know, actually, because we don't play Inferno that well online. We lose pretty much every game, but then it's different on LAN, no one gets more than five rounds against us. I don't know what's going on with that, but we knew pretty much what they were going to do on that map, so we were prepared.

You've been known to give up big leads, and from talking to Twista earlier at the tournament that is something you are working on. Did you get worried at all when North were racking up several rounds in a row on you at the end of Inferno?

Yeah, it got into my head a little bit, but we just kept our cool, we didn't panic, we knew we had the map.

For most of you, this will be your first Major appearance, what does that mean to you?

Pretty much everything. It was so close last time, so I'm happy we are here.

Do you have any specific plan set for the next month already?

We have a Finnish local LAN at the start of February and then we have time to practice for the Major. After the Major, we have WESG, and then StarSeries, so that's our plan for the next three months.

Before the Major itself, though, is there anything specific you plan on doing in preparation for that?

Only the Finnish local LAN, we have to go there.

Again, as a team that has made it to the Major cycle for the first time, what's going to be the next goal for ENCE there?

The next step is to go to the New Legends stage, we have to go there and then we want to play on the big stage, at least. Of course, winning the Major would be a dream come true.