DemQQ: "Our goal is to make the playoffs and show what we can do"

The Ukrainian has high hopes for his team in the BLAST.tv Paris Major's Legends Stage.

Monte made it to the Legends Stage of the Paris Major following a 2-1 victory over paiN in their fifth round deciding match. The European squad, who were the sensation of the RMR with a 3-1 record while tallying victories over the likes of Cloud9 and ENCE, did so in a 2-2 pool deciding match and will now have a day off before kicking off the next phase in their Major journey.

We caught up with Ukrainian rifler Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko after the deciding series against paiN to talk about Monte's run at the Major so far, as well as a rivalry with FORZE that spilled onto Twitter after the Russian team got revenge from the RMR in the Challengers Stage.

You made it, 3-2, a last-chance victory against paiN. You played Fluxo, TheMongolz, FORZE, paiN, [Editor's note: and FaZe]. Having a high seed was pretty important, so how was the journey?

A lot of people say that we didn't meet the highest teams, but I would say that at the RMR we proved that we can be the first seed because we beat good teams. That's why we're higher seed.

We didn't meet strong teams like OG, or some other teams, we played kind of the outsiders of this Challengers Stage, but you win and you win. I can only say that we did a very good job, we trained a lot, we practiced a lot, we played a lot of official matches and that brings you form.

Tell me a bit about being the team with the most maps coming into this. Is it important to play these many matches? Or is it counter-productive? What do you think about it?

I think it's good, but you struggle a lot because you give a lot of energy during a lot of matches, so it's hard to be strong mentally. You always overthink how to be in shape, but yeah, it's good when you play a lot of matches. Your shape, your form, is very good. You play a lot and yeah, it pays off.

In the paiN match, specifically, you lost Anubis. You were on a 15-map win streak, it seemed like you were almost invincible, but you dropped the ball today. What happened?

We lost Anubis, we went outside and sdy and others said key words, 'Maybe it's the last time, maybe more times, but what can we do here? We can only win.' The most important thing outside of the game is to support each other, to remind you why you're here and what to do after.

Then you went and won Nuke, paiN's pick. Not only did you win it, it was a one-sided victory. What was it that allowed you to be so dominant?

It was just mental words. We just felt like we could even beat them 16-0. Everyone was so hyped because of these words. We were a bit sad, but after these words we were just, like, 'Kill, kill from one bullet.' Everyone was on the same level on this mental thing, so we just made it and that's all.

Talking about getting support and supporting each other. One piece of the puzzle isn't here, lmbt, who has to do the preparation from home. How is it, missing him here?

Kind of decent because I don't have experience about this, like if the coach is not with you. Not at the Major. But I would say that if lmbt were here we could make much more profit and show because some keys of the puzzle are still missing when the coach isn't with you, behind you. But still, we made it and we hope that he will say more words from outside to us, what we can improve for now.

You have a day off now and then you'll be back into it in two days. This time in the Legends Stage, you went up a level. What are you looking forward to there?

Our goal, overall, is to make the playoffs and show what we can do. I would say that the matches we played, we didn't even show good CS, but we still managed to do it. I think that we can make it to the playoffs. The BO1s, BO3s after, and you can beat every team. You need to remind yourself.

At this Challengers Stage you had a rematch of an RMR match against FORZE. It's a very heated rivalry, even spilling onto Twitter after the match. What comments do you have about that?

Yeah, as I said, you have to be a professional, yeah? You have to be a professional in-game and outside of the game. You don't need to type after you win. If you win, you prove that you're better. That's all you need to remind yourself.

You don't need to type anything because it's a bad attitude, I would say. Now we can trash talk them. I will not do it, or maybe I will do it, because everyone knows why, because of other shit. But yeah, I would say it's not professional at all.

I would even say it's karma, when you type like this and you're 2-1, but after you just lose and we win. So yeah, maybe someday they will understand this. No one knows. [Laughs]