FalleN: "For me it feels like a last dance every time"

The veteran Brazilian captain spoke to HLTV about fighting for a place at the last CS:GO Major.

Imperial have shown an uptick in form recently, successfully qualifying for the BLAST Spring Final through the Americas Showdown just one week ago. The team didn't carry that momentum into their first match in Monterrey and faltered in a 16-12 loss to Evil Geniuses in their opening match, but bounced back on day two by absolutely pulverizing TeamOne with 16-3 and 16-0 scorelines on Mirage and Overpass.

HLTV spoke to Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo after the match to discuss how the team has progressed since adding Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian and Rafael "⁠zakk⁠" Fernandes, with the in-game leader sharing insight into how the new pair have helped refresh the team's playbook and helped in adapting during games. The Brazilian AWPer also touched on his perspective in trying to qualify for the last CS:GO Major, as well as in taking on top teams at the BLAST Spring Final in June.

You can watch the full interview above, or have a read through the transcript below:

FalleN, congrats on the win. Yesterday didn't start so well, but you bounced back over here with a very dominant win. What did you do to bounce back so well here?

I think yesterday we just didn't perform well enough, mainly myself, I didn't play a good game. So tried to forget about the match overnight, check the mistakes we made, make sure we're ready for the next Inferno match, and try to come in fresh for the second game.

Completely different team, TeamOne for me is a much more strategical team, as they've always been, so we tried to take a look at what they're doing, but at the same time we knew they have been bootcamping, they had peacemaker not long ago so they might put some new strategies into the match. It was more about making sure we play strong, and I think we were able to do that today.

You have seemingly done some new strategies as well, even in the BLAST Showdown the team looked in really good form. What kind of work are you putting in with this iteration of the lineup with JOTA and zakk, what are they bringing to the team?

We have been putting in a lot of work, mainly making sure we are getting updated with the meta in terms of strategies and openings people are doing on both sides. Also, sometimes looking to the past and bringing some strategies that people are not really using but we know they are strong, we know the capabilities of the strategies and sometimes bringing one here and there. zakk has been an outstanding coach, very good for the atmosphere for the team. He knows about the game too in terms of preparation, watching the opponents, making sure we get good vetoes, so he is kind of the glue for the team, I think he is doing a super good job.

When it comes to JOTA, I think he is a completely different player from fer. Even if they play a couple of similar positions, I think JOTA takes care of trying to organize people around him as well, while fer was much more about what he would do and not really focused on helping people around him. That's kind of the trade you get when you trade fer for JOTA. I mean I still miss fer, completely strong gameplay, but JOTA brings a lot of versatility when it comes to preparing the team and also making sure we're communicating new steps into the round, and that is very helpful as well. The team has been preparing the best we can, some up and downs, but so far satisfied.

Doesn't really look like much of a Last Dance anymore with the way you're gearing up. You've talked about it before with having one last really good year, and not to make it about that narrative but just going into this, this Major is going to be the last in CS:GO, it's been a very historical game for you, so how do you feel about that prospect?

For me personally, it feels like a last dance every time, because I don't know how much more I can play, you know? I have been trying the best and part of me wants to go and explore the ability to stay home and have a normal life, because I have been playing only CS for the last 2-3 years and basically not had a house, every time on the road, hotel to hotel, city to city. I'm already 31-years-old, I have other things to do in my life too. I have a wife, I have a family, it's very complicated, so for me it's always the last dance.

When we first started we wanted to go one year maybe two with the other fellas, the old teammates, but things don't go exactly as you plan every time. When I was finishing last year after the Rio Major I felt the urge to still compete more. Last Dance had a vibe where we played to win of course, but at the same time it was more relaxed because we wanted to make sure we had fun too. For this year I wanted to be trying to compete at an extra level again, I wanted to stop like that, so for me personally it feels like a last dance; I don't know how much more I'm going to play.

This Major is very important because it's the last, I've been able to qualify for all the Majors I've played, regardless of the one when COVID kicked in, so it would be quite a challenging and great achievement to be able to play in all of them. For me it's ultra important, and you always want to be on the Major so it's always special, and we want to finish CS:GO being there.

Is there any team you'd want to go up against for your deciding match? Obviously there's been this rivalry with Complexity a bit, the last Major RMR you knocked them out. I know you're still one game away from the qualifying one, but is there any team you'd want to play?

Yeah playing Complexity has always been really fun. We qualified to Rio beating them, super hard game, I think they were able to qualify to Pro League by beating us if I'm not wrong, and then we just beat them online now. So it's always fun to play Complexity, but hopefully we can play smaller teams honestly,

I think Complexity is a great team, they have always experience playing against European teams, but it's always challenging. The teams from South America are not doing bad either, so any opponent is going to be super difficult. This RMR is probably the most challenging one for us, and we got to make sure we play our best.

You also qualified for the BLAST Spring Final, it's a really big event and a really big chance for this team. How do you feel about going to that event with the kind of teams that are there?

It feels like that will be the ultimate test, like all the best teams in the world are going to be playing there and we found a way to be there as well. It's going to be a huge event, a lot of quality, and it feels like it's going to be a last dance opportunity to show how good we can do it against the big dogs, so it's going to be nice.

Check out our other interviews from the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR below:

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