gxx- on playing FaZe for a Major spot: "We didn’t think about last time"

After once again securing Major qualification, Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci hopes his team's days of grinding online are behind them.

Bad News Eagles made their name by qualifying for a Major against the odds, doing so without support from an organization and hailing from a country with minimal history in Counter-Strike. They have now done it for the third time in a row.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Kosovar squad in Copenhagen. They had to overcome their RMR campaign getting off to a rocky start with a loss against 1win, and did so with aplomb, dispatching Viperio and Apeks before convincingly taking down FaZe 2-0 to punch their ticket to Paris.

With a second upset victory over FaZe in his pocket, the first coming at the IEM Rio Major where Bad News Eagles sent the European stars packing early doors, gxx- took some time out for an interview to talk about the momentous occasion.

So you’re the FaZe killers, is that what it is?

[laughs] For the second time, yes. I don’t know, it’s always hard to play versus them but we managed to win it again. I am super proud of my team, we have been working really hard in bootcamp and it’s finally paying off.

Tell me specifically, beating FaZe again, you had done it before, but did you really believe you could do it again?

We didn’t think about last time. We knew we were really well prepared and we came into this tournament to qualify for the Major again, but we didn’t care who we played to be honest. We were really confident and prepared to play whoever we would have to face, we just played our game I think and we won.

That Mirage got pretty close in the end, it took rigoN getting that 1v2 in the end. How important was it to close it off on that Mirage? How confident were you in Overpass, because I know it is a map you just recently started playing.

Closing out Mirage was really good for us. It was 14-12 and we knew their economy was not that good, then we won two rounds in a row, and in my mind I said to myself 'we fucking did it.' I was feeling so confident, because I knew on 14-14 they would have an eco or half-buy.

About Overpass we are feeling good actually. We practiced it a lot, we just need some more experience on the map because we didn’t play it in a long time, but it was going really good in practice.

It’s your third Major in a row, you are getting pretty good at this RMR thing. You guys always seem like the Major is where you are at your most powerful, you are one of those teams that appears in the big moments. What’s it like getting it the third time in a row?

Playing tournaments like this is the only thing we are playing right now as LANs or big tournaments. It’s the only place where we can show what we can do because without an organisation it is so hard to get invites to these big tournaments. We got invited to ESL Melbourne, after this we will go there and try to win it to secure an ESL Pro League spot, because it’s really hard without an org to get invites. Our focus right now is ESL Melbourne, then Paris.

I got to chat a little bit with Devilwalk the other day, he told me how it was being with you guys from his point of view. How is it for you?

For me, he helped me a lot as a player. I have more freedom with him, I feel more confident in our team and the stuff we’re doing, the stuff he’s doing. It’s only been three months with him and it’s going really, really good. We all appreciate the work he’s doing, and kRYSTAL as well, he’s a really good addition. KayJay helped us a lot as well. They are working really hard, and we're trying our best as well.

There was a funny moment today, when you qualified all of the Into the Breach guys came in because your victory meant they are Legends. Tell me a bit about that moment.*

I have been talking to Thomas since last night, telling him congrats you are Legends, you are qualifying to the Legends stage, and he has just been saying 'Inshallah, inshallah' whenever he saw me. [laughs] I told him and rallen that we will both qualify tomorrow, and this is what happened, they are really good guys and we are good friends with them.

You literally jumped on rallen when you qualified, and gave him a big hug…

From FPL to this moment is pretty amazing, to be honest. I know rallen only from FPL and he was really nice to me, he was never arrogant or anything, so I really like him. As a person and a player, I respect him.

Congratulations on making another Major, what do you expect from this Major in Paris?

Our first goal is to make playoffs, but we will see tomorrow if we have to play another match for the Legends stage. If we don’t make it to the Legends then that is the first goal, then playoffs, then who knows what happens. It’s CS, everything can happen.

How are you feeling about ESL Melbourne?

I am pretty confident about this tournament. We will focus these two weeks we have to try and win this, because we really need it for the rest of the year, it will be much easier to show ourselves if we win this. If we get Pro League we will probably get points as well so we can get Cologne play-in, some tournaments like this, and it would be really good to not play online anymore. [laughs]

* This was the information received from BLAST at the time, although it is under review and an announcement with the final decision from the TO is expected briefly