nitr0: "I think we are going to be super strong for the Major"

Liquid claimed a spot at the Major following their win over Complexity in the 2-0 match.

Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and company were the second team to secure a spot at the Major from IEM Road to Rio 2022 Americas RMR after going 3-0 at the event in Stockholm. Victories over TeamOne, MIBR, and fellow North Americans Complexity meant that Liquid now only have one match against Evil Geniuses ahead of them, fighting for the only available bye to the Legends Stage.

nitr0 joined us following his latest victory to discuss the Complexity match, the upcoming first-place decider against Evil Geniuses, and Liquid's plans ahead of the Rio Major.

Congratulations nitr0, you have a 3-0 record and now you're going to the major. Before the RMR, YEKINDAR said you did not consider yourselves favorites for the tournament, did that mindset change at any point?

I don't think it really changed. I feel like it was between us and FURIA for that top spot, in my opinion. Obviously, EG and Complexity are playing really well at this tournament so far, but I feel like the way our team is right now, we feel like we're the strongest. There's also FURIA, and they are playing really well, so playing against them would be a pretty close match right now. They obviously lost, so that's pretty sad for them, but I still think they are going to qualify, but they can't make the legend spot so I was pretty sad. They got the last one, so maybe we get this one [laughs].

You are facing EG next, you have played against some of those players many times so how confident are you going into that matchup?

I like to wait until I watch our matches to see how I'm gonna feel in that game. My first impression is that they are 3-0 so they are feeling good and confident, but overall I feel like Complexity was a harder matchup for us because we play them more and have more scrims with them. We don't play EG as much in practice, but we generally know how they play as a team.

They have a new up-and-comer HexT, so I feel like I need to watch the games and feel how I am going to feel. That's what I usually do: I watch the games and I am like "oh, we can play this map pretty good, I feel like it fits our style."

Going back to some of the games at this tournament, TeamOne was pretty straightforward for you while MIBR was a little bit less so. Tell me, what went wrong on Ancient?

MIBR had a boot camp coming here, and if you look at their stats, Ancient is not a comfort pick for them, but they decided to pick it and let us choose the side. We actually were not expecting that, there was maybe a 20% chance in our heads that they would play Ancient and our preparation was not that good going into it because did not know who we were going to play and what map we were going to play. We had to eat food between the games so we only had about an hour to recoup and focus on the next game.

Our prep was not that good and I honestly feel like at the beginning of that game they were playing super well. I feel like they had some new stuff and they were hitting some really good shots and they felt like a cohesive unit at the beginning of the game. They kind of fell apart later, I don't know if it was nerves or whatever, but I honestly think they were playing super well.

So do you think it was your experience that got you through that game, in the end?

I feel like with this lineup we came back so many times, no matter what the map or side or score it was. We always know that we can come back, I feel like this squad is super resilient and it's something I have never experienced with a Liquid roster before. Usually, we have a good start, then the other team comes back, and then, whatever happens, happens in the end. Now we get bad starts and then we come back, so I am feeling really good.

In regards to the Complexity match, you won the first map, and then in the second one you ended pretty far ahead before collapsing in the second half. Tell me, what went wrong there?

I think we lost a little bit of focus. I feel like a couple of us were having a little bit of brain fog in clutch situations and obviously floppy had a lot of impact when he was flanking us and getting two kills every time. It was a lot of brain fog for us and overall, we were up by a lot we should be closing that game any day of the week, but maybe we were a little bit frustrated.

As an in-game leader, when someone on the opposite team is playing as well as Floppy did for Complexity, I think he had like 38 frags by the end of Overpass, how do you deal with that?

Usually we don't take that into account when we are playing because we have our own game plan and we like to follow it. We understood that our game plan was working, but he was just flanking us and getting kills. His kills were impactful, but they were not dueling kills, he was not opening up the round, you know? So it really depends, if a player like s1mple of ZywOo is getting those opening kills, then yeah you definitely have to take that into account. It's really situational when it comes to a player on the opposite team popping off, but in this case, we did not change anything and kept playing our own game.

Going into the Major, do you have any expectations? regardless of whether you get that Legends spot on Sunday?

Oh, we've been working super hard. We've been on the road for almost a month now, just constantly playing with just one or two days off. We are going to have about a week at home and then come back for a ten-day boot camp before the Major and during those ten days we'll know exactly what we have to work on now, and which maps we need to fix certain things on. It's going to be super productive and I think we are going to be super strong for the Major.

In terms of expectations, I don't have any right now honestly. I feel like that's a question I can answer after our boot camp.

Just to close things out, have you got any updates on the YEKINDAR situation?

I don't have any updates to give publicly, it's not really my business, but I think things are looking pretty good.