Spinx: "It's important to do well at IEM Rio, it gives us confidence"

The Israeli rifler commented on his team's surprising loss to OG on the opening day.

Vitality come into IEM Rio 2023 as one of the highest-ranked teams, but their journey in Brazil did not get off to the best start following a loss to OG in the first round. The Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire-led squad dropped their opening match on Overpass despite claiming a 14-10 lead and were relegated to the lower bracket.

The European squad bounced back immediately on the second day by sweeping MIBR 2-0 to move into Group B's lower bracket semi-finals. After their second match, Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi sat down for a quick chat and talk about their first two games as well as their recent development.

You are now through to the next round of the lower bracket. Obviously, you are here because you lost against OG yesterday, it was a rough match, can you tell me what went wrong?

Against OG, I think we had a good situation after we won both pistols [rounds] and we had nine T rounds on Overpass, which is very good. We went into the CT side and it was 14-10 for us, I felt we fucked it up ourselves and we definitely had a chance to close out the game and because of small mistakes we didn't do it. Of course, we played well, but I felt like the game slipped through our hands.

It was much better today against MIBR, but you had a bit of a rough start on Anubis. Can you tell me more about that?

Definitely they played well on the T side of Anubis, they were playing slowly and taking their time. They were really good at this and I think they had some really nice shots. They played well, that's it.

You closed the game on Nuke, do you feel more comfortable on that map compared to others right now?

Definitely, Nuke is one of our best maps right now and a good map for us.

Regardless of the outcome between FaZe and FURIA, your next game will be a difficult one. How do you feel about your chances of going to the playoffs?

I think we have a good chance, overall. Of course, it's harder now that we are in the lower bracket and that's the way it is, but we have decent chances and we'll just do our best.

You've been with Vitality for a bit. How do you feel right now and about your development in the team?

It feels better than before, I feel like I have adapted to the team. It feels pretty good and I hope we can start to show the level of things we think we can do and show it with consistency.

You come out from a pretty good run at the RMR despite the 9INE loss. With the Major just around the corner, how do you tackle an event like this that's just head of the most important event of the year?

A lot of players look at this event in a different way. For me it's just an event, I don't think about it like, "It's Rio and then it's the Major." Of course, the Major is the big goal in a way, but it's important to do well in this tournament, it gives us confidence.

It's good to play before the Major because I don't think it's good to not play for a long time and then come to the Major to be instantly on point, it's sometimes weird. It's fine to play officials here and there and yeah, I just want to enjoy and put on a good show.

Does the team have their eyes set on the trophy

Actually we haven't talked about it, we are really focused on the Major. I definitely want to do our best. If it's possible to win, then win.