jks: "When we play super well we just have to back ourselves and say that we are No. 1"

The Australian player says the team's mentality was key in turning their 0-1 start into 3-1.

G2 brought back a 0-1 start after a defeat to 9INE in the opening round of BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR B and qualified following three victories on the trot, including a 2-0 victory over Cloud9 in their first qualifying match.

The international combine secured their spot at the Major, but are not quite done yet, as they will play Vitality in the fifth place decider, which will give the winner a chance to play Monte on Saturday for a spot in the Legends Stage.

Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage took some time after G2's victory against Cloud9 to speak about the initial loss and how he and his team turned it around to make book their ticket for the final CS:GO Major in Paris.

You just beat Cloud9 to be at the Major, just need to figure out what stage and so on, but can you now breathe a sigh of relief now?

Yeah for sure, I feel like Majors are always a different tournament so there is a lot more pressure and people always want to qualify for it a lot. The RMRs are a different type of pressure because it's best-of-ones and then you go into the best-of-threes. Obviously, the BO1s are a lot more pressure.

When we made the BO3s we were relieved just because if we do fuck up our first chance in the BO3 we can make it back in the next two, whereas BO1s are not really forgiving. But yeah, I am just happy that we made it through to the Major at least and then we still have another match so we'll just take it day by day, and then hopefully we play well and we can make the Legends Stage.

Starting from the first day when you came here against 9INE, you lost 16-14 on Nuke, which is one of your great maps. Did they catch you guys off-guard? Because I spoke to their coach nawrot and he said that he was standing behind the players and could not really see everything that was going on, but he said something like: 'We caught them off-guard quite a few times, and maybe they weren't prepared enough.' Was it true?

We had a game plan, but I think they did some different things from what we expected. It was mostly us fumbling a lot of their rounds on the T side. We had a round where they were in a 2vs3 and we didn't think they were going to go for it, and then we lost that round on the top site, breaking our money. I think they broke our money, it was a crucial round, though, and we lost that one.

There was another one or two rounds on top of that where we should have won, but we fucked it up. In a BO1, especially on the T side of Nuke, you really want to win those rounds because it makes CT side that much easier. In general, obviously they played really well and they qualified 3-0, so they definitely deserve to be there. They played really well versus us as well and there were a couple of rounds where they outplayed us completely.

After that you guys came back and won three straight matches. But how was it after that first BO1, especially with everyone talking about all the upsets happening and so on. What were your thoughts going into the next game?

Obviously we did not want to lose the first game. It never puts a good feeling in you at all, but we did really well to stay composed and just remember that we stay a lot of chances and we can still make it. I think the first Major we tried to qualify for last year, if ti was the same situation, we would have just bombed out and it would have been 0-3 or 1-3 with our mentality.

Nowadays I think we are really good at staying composed and just not thinking at all ever after one map, so I think we did a really good job of staying mentally there. Of course, it's not ideal to go 0-1 and it's more pressure, but it's fine.

As you said, you guys cleaned house today against Cloud9 — a team that was up there with the big dogs, right? This was considered the group of death, with you guys, Heroic, etc. C9 have been showing really decent form as of late, so how important was this victory for you guys?

It was really big because we lost to them at Pro League and I feel like they outplayed us really hard there. We lost quite heavily so to win like we did today, even if we let them back in the game on the second map, I think we were comfortable during both maps and I think that's different from what it normally feels to play against Cloud9 because it's really hard to feel comfortable when they play so slow. It feels like they are always in control of the round whenever you play them.

To win like that, it's really good for us as a team. I think everyone stepped up. For me, individually, I did not have the best day, but it is what it is. I didn't really feel too comfortable today, but it's just because it was against Cloud9, sometimes I struggle playing against them. I think they are really good at exploiting the other team, so yeah, it's what happens when you play such a good team. As a team it's super good that we won like we did today and I think if it went to a BO3, it would have been a lot hard so thankfully we closed it out on Inferno.

You guys let them go all the way back up just to beat them on a force buy, right?

Yeah. [laughs] I think we fucked up a lot of rounds, we had a good idea of what they were doing, but we just could not close it out. They kept getting opening picks, and they are a really good team so they are going to capitalize on that. I am just really thankful that we closed it out in the end because it would have been super stressful if we went to the third map.

You guys are No. 1 team in the ranking, but at the same time, it feels like there is a bit of a power void at the top. Do you feel like a dominant team right now? Especially at an event like this where there is a lot of chaos and a lot of things going on?

I think we are definitely a top-three team. It's really hard to say who's No. 1 nowadays and it's super close. Every team can beat each other in the top five, especially now with NAVI, they look like they are playing a lot better now. FaZe, when they are playing well, they are a super good team, and Heroic is always consistent. It's a tough call, but on our day, when we are playing super well we just have to back ourselves and say that we are No. 1.

I think everyone else in the top five will be dong the same thing, but nowadays... I think I read in an interview with cadiaN where he says that it's super hard to stay consistent because everyone is watching each other's games. It's definitely very difficult to stay at the top, but everyone on our team is super confident and we are really good at backing ourselves and making sure that we keep in our heads that we are a really good team.