NEO: "We've had close to 20 practices on Vertigo after Katowice"

The Polish veteran discussed how honored he felt to be working with a team of FaZe's caliber.

FaZe have locked in their place at PGL Major Copenhagen's grand final, earning their spot at the expense of Vitality after a hard-fought semi-final.

FaZe continued their trend of floating Vertigo, something they had revealed in their quarter-final match against Spirit just days prior. This time around the gamble did not pay off as it had before; Vitality opted to pick Vertigo and ripped FaZe to shreds with a 13-5 scoreline. In the end, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's men managed to rebound on Inferno, winning out the final map 13-8 thanks to some crucial plays in the second half from David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský.

Not long after their victory over Vitality, FaZe's coach Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski spoke with HLTV regarding the close match, the decision for the team to introduce Vertigo into their map pool, and how the veteran feels returning to a Major final for the first time in over seven years.

You can read the interview or listen to the audio recording in full below:

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NEO, congratulations on the Major grand final. It's been a while for you; how does it feel?

I mean, obviously, it feels amazing. To me, of course, the Major is more prestigious and that's an extra, but still, it's a tournament. We've been here a couple of times so far, lost a final, so really hoping we'll try our best to win a final since we lost a couple of those.

A big win over Vitality, a team you've been struggling against, one win at Sydney but with four losses elsewhere. Can you tell me about this matchup and being able to beat them in such a high-stakes game?

Coming to the playoffs after we knew we were gonna face Spirit and then Vitality if we win... in the end if you want to win a tournament you've gotta beat everyone, right? So that was the approach we've had, we took it step by step. Obviously, we wanted to get the revenge on both of these teams. We lost to Spirit, we lost to Vitality, so that was the plan, to come back stronger, just finally get the win.

One big thing between these two games has been the team floating Vertigo. Can you tell me about that from your side, and whether this is a conversation between you two and what your thoughts are?

To me, the map [is one] we're capable of playing really well, and I've been telling that for a while, it's just we've been waiting for the right moment to display the card. After Katowice we went deeper into the map and went through some stuff, and just been waiting for the right moment. Obviously today didn't go so well; we got wrecked on the map, but still.

Just like on Overpass against Eternal Fire, we know we can play so much better, it's just a matter of mistakes. We're still in the learning process. We had a totally different game than against Spirit on it. We know we can play it much better, so I'm very happy we're finally testing our waters on that one, because I feel like it's a good map for us.

Are you able to say how much practice you've been putting into it?

I mean we've tried to take a look into it, and we've had maybe close to 20 practices after Katowice to coming here on that map. Maybe now the number increased since you can also count the official games, and we've had a couple extra days in here as well. It's been quite a few maps (laughs).

Those practices were going well clearly because, at least yesterday, it worked out for you, today not so much. What do you feel like was going wrong?

Every game is different, and you can have some preparations before the game, but they can have some anti-preparation stuff, and you can just get tricked into playing in some certain way coming into the game. We just got out-played. Next time we're gonna be stronger.

Do you think the fact that you played it against Spirit, and now there is some material to look at, might have hindered you as well here?

Yeah, for sure. Before that, Spirit didn't have the information about us with the new lineup playing Vertigo, so they didn't know what to expect, and now it was different. [Vitality] already knew how we play, maybe that's why they had that kind of a gameplan. Tomorrow is a new day, with new opportunities.

Talking a little bit about frozen in this game, he played extremely well, especially on Inferno to close it out. Can you tell me what you're seeing this team from a coaching perspective, and how you've seen this development unfold between the switch to CS2 and the loss of Twistzz and everything?

Being around this team is just amazing, because all of these guys are incredibly talented, especially in their own areas, because that's when teams work. You have to have different people on the lineup, and each one of them is great in their things. Apart from being an insanely skilled player, David is also very vocal in the game, and he has tons of ideas, and helps Finn a lot controlling the game.

Obviously, that kind of thing can happen in every game from each one of the players, because broky is great at controlling the situation as well for the whole team, Robin comes up with some great ideas all of a sudden and gets us some wins. Each game is different, and just being around a team of that caliber and having the opportunity to work with them is an honor for me.

As I said, it's been a long time since you've been back at a Major final. Tomorrow it's gonna be against NAVI or G2. For you, the feeling of being back in that final and going against one of these teams, with the potential to add another Major trophy, what are your thoughts on that?

Like I said before, in the end it's just another tournament. I'm looking at it long-term, and to me, the stability we're starting to have here is the goal, and I'm very happy we reached another final. Of course, it would be amazing to win this one. It's already great that we're here. Looking forward to playing it. We won the Major when it wasn't such a big thing, most of it was because it was in my home country, Katowice, so that was the extra boost. Now, Majors are the most important tournaments of the year, and getting to the final is just dreams coming true.

How different does it feel this time compared to that?

I always say that being part of the game when you're coaching is much more stressful than when you play. When you play, you're busy with the game, you're in the zone. As a coach, you can only sometimes, unfortunately, hope for the best. You do have impact, I've discovered, during the timeouts, but it's only three timeouts. This game again I had to ask the admin how many timeouts we had, because I wasn't sure, I lost track and I did use it at the time. I like being part of the game again, and it's just great to be back.