arrozdoce: "We conquered something that Portugal never had"

The Portuguese player conceded that the team may have felt the pressure of being 2-0 in Copenhagen.

SAW's Major campaign ended on a sour note as the Portuguese team failed in their third attempt to enter the Elimination Stage after losing to FURIA in a one-sided series.

The team's heartache contrasted with the joy that they had felt after the first day of the Major, when they beat KOI and GamerLegion to enter the 2-0 pool. Speaking to HLTV after SAW's elimination, Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing admitted that the pressure of being one victory away from the next stage may have gotten to the players. "We were afraid to play, maybe, and that gave space to the teams to abuse us," he said.

The 21-year-old added that the team learned a lesson from this event, and set his sights on their next international event, the BLAST Premier Spring Final. "We are coming back to do better."

Heartbreaking end to your Major. Just tell me how you're feeling right now after that.

I don't feel that sad, and I don't feel happy. We conquered something that Portugal never had: We had a full Portuguese team at the Major. The sad part is that we were 2-0 and we ended 2-3, but the teams we played against deserved it. They played better than us.

It was a hard path, to start up 2-0 like that and then fall with three best-of-threes as well. What was so difficult when you got to that point, other than the teams you were playing?

I don't know the answer to that, just... we prepared for these BO3s like we prepared for the RMR, for the BO1s. They just prepared better than us, that's it.

At the RMR it was the opposite, you started down 0-2 and won every game to qualify, and one of the big things said around that was your win against NIP gave you a lot of confidence. Was that something you felt was lacking during these last three games?

We had never been 2-0, so we had a bit of pressure to qualify for the next stage. We had a little bit of pressure, so that could have been our mistake. We were afraid to play, maybe, and that gave space to the teams to abuse us.

Do you feel like there was pressure as well because people thought you were going to make it through, they were picking you as one of the favorites to advance?

Not really. We don't focus on what other people think, we just play our game. We do what we do best, which is play. We had just never been in this situation before, so that could be the difference-maker.

During this series, it seemed like the body language was really down, even on the first map. Can you tell me about that, what the atmosphere was like?

Yeah, we were on a streak of 11 wins, I think. We had a lot of confidence to play, we were happy. After the loss against Cloud9, I think the atmosphere was good, we were happy playing the game. When we lost to paiN, I think we went down a little bit with the atmosphere.

For today, we prepared for the game, we talked about the atmosphere, that we were sad playing the game, and today I think the team was confident and happy, but it wasn't enough.

As you said, it is a sad loss, but at the same time you did something amazing for a team from Portugal. To come here and have this result and play at a Major, just tell me about that and what it means to you, to put that on the map.

After what we conquered, this is the start of something nice for everyone in Portugal. We are going home now, we are going to have some days off, and we are going to come back stronger. We have BLAST next, we want to play at our max potential, and we want to qualify again for the next Major.

Speaking of having BLAST next, you've been on this winning streak, you qualified for it and have been playing really well. For you as one of the young players in this team, what has it been like to make that leap up and start to become more of a name and play in your first Major?

It's my first time playing tournaments like this. Personally, I don't feel that much pressure playing the game. When you sit and start to play, you forget about everything, you just focus on the game, that's what happens to everyone, I think. Being the youngest, I'm still learning a lot of stuff, like cheering on the team, and I think I have improved since the day I joined SAW.

You say that, as one of the youngest players, you don't feel that pressure. Do you think other players on the team did just because it has been such a long time coming?

I don't know if they have that much pressure. I know they had gone 0-3 in a lot of RMRs and they had never been at a Major and had never been 2-0, so it was a first for all of us. I didn't have pressure, but they could have.

Going out of this, you have a few days off, then you have BLAST lined up. What is the future like for the team outside of tournaments, what is the mindset like coming out of this?

Every time we finish an official, we have a lot of talks, we fix many errors. Even if we win a round or a game, there are still errors, and we try to fix them. The team is very happy with what we accomplished, we are going to have the days off, like I said, and we are coming back to do better.