HUNDEN: "If we can keep on moving like this, we are going to be dangerous in the future"

We caught up with Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen after MAD Lions eliminated OG from ICE Challenge to discuss the quarter-final series and their upcoming rematch against MOUZ.

MAD Lions successfully booked a spot in the semi-finals of ICE Challenge after besting OG 2-0 in the quarter-finals of the tournament. The Danes are now pitted against MOUZ in the semi-final, hoping to exact revenge for the opening series that went they way of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and co.

In a post-match interview the team's captain, HUNDEN, gave insight into the match against OG and shared why his team got caught off-guard in the veto. Additionally, he touched on the rematch series against MOUZ and how he feels it will pan out the second time around.

Bubzkji mentioned that the team needs to learn to translate its group stage composure into playoff matches. How did you manage to do this in time for the OG match?

I think we tried to keep up the fire and bring in the heat when we started the game. We tried to be on point with everything, much like we do in the first games of LAN tournaments. With the off day yesterday and with the preparation we had, everything was just on point today, and we knew exactly how they were going to play. We also prepared Nuke, but we got a little bit caught off because we didn't think they'd pick it.

The map veto was an unknown going into the series against OG. What did you manage to research in the past couple of days that allowed you to have such a convincing showing?

They are a new team, and we've practiced against them a lot, actually. We had a good idea of what maps they felt good on, and what maps they didn't feel good on. We had two opportunities today and we weren't sure what they were going to ban in the beginning. I had a really good feeling about the game because our map pool is so deep right now, we can pretty much play six out of seven maps. It feels really good to go into every single best-of-three when you can play all the maps.

One of the reasons the team is a notoriously difficult opponent for even some of the most experienced rosters is your deep map pool. A lot of teams, both young and experienced have troubles with this - tell us about how you managed to develop it.

In March we started with Bubzkji on the team, and we have just been grinding and working so hard for almost ten months now. When we have time to practice we just go in and try to fix the small mistakes on every single map, so no one can punish us badly. That is really good for us, and it seems like we can change up the map pool up all the time. Two months ago we didn't play Mirage, and now we play it and it's one of our best maps. If we can keep on moving like this, we are going to be so dangerous in the future.

Briefly on the series against OG: Nuke had a strong CT side, but you struggled to produce much on the offense in the first half. What were some of the issues you faced on the T side?

I think we had a hard start on the T side. We only got three rounds when the score was 3-9, we were broken two times or something like that; we had a really rough start. All the star players on OG showed up, it was so hard for us. In the end, we found a few openings and we got the last three rounds, so the momentum was on our side at the end of the half. I think when we got to the CT side, they didn't have anything to come up with, and we knew exactly how they were going to play. It was so obvious what the game plan was today.

Train saw the opposite, in that on the T side, towards the end, you were very dominant and confidently closed out six consecutive rounds to conclude the series. What are your thoughts on the second map and how it went?

Train has been our best map for ten months now, and it seems like people can't figure out how we are approaching the T side. We have a really strong T side and it's crazy to play each time and see people get surprised. Train was just a normal day for MAD Lions, and I'm really happy that we played so well on it and could finish this game 2-0.

You're now going for seconds against mousesports in the semi-finals. How will you approach the rematch differently from your opening series?

When we met them in the opener, I think we should have won Mirage, it was our map for sure. We got wrecked a little bit on Dust2, but I think we are going to surprise them in the veto because they are the heavy favourites to win this tournament.

We are going to surprise them, and I'm good friends with their coach as well, so I'm going to play some mind games with him. Let's see what we can bring, and I think we can give them one more close game because I don't think they like to play against us, to be honest.