SunPayus: "I haven't been performing, but it's a matter of time"

Despite his and his team's recent improvements, SunPayus expects more.

Falcons have enjoyed a mini-resurgence in recent weeks, playing solid Counter-Strike at IEM Cologne before qualifying for BLAST Fall Final thanks to a near-flawless run through Showdown.

The European combine continued this uptick in form in Belgrade by qualifying for the main event at BetBoom Dacha Season 2, taking down BetBoom before emphatically dusting off 9z, avenging a loss to the South Americans earlier in the competition.

Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García sat down with HLTV after securing a spot alongside MOUZ and Spirit in the BB Dacha main event to give an interview, and he spoke about his team's recent improvements, his own form, and the team's expectations for the rest of the tournament.

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Congratulations, you've made it through to the main event. How are you guys feeling?

We are feeling really good. We are playing so many officials these days, since we came to Serbia, so I think we are just getting better and better, and getting used to making fewer mistakes. So yeah, we are pretty happy.

Speaking about this game specifically: 9z beat you earlier in the event, what allowed you to turn it around and get a different result this time?

They beat us because I think they played great on the third map, on Nuke. They played a really good T side, but we didn't actually convert some CT rounds that we had an advantage in, so, in the end, it was a really close match. We knew it was our first official here and we didn't play well. After we got some officials rolling and we fixed some mistakes from that match, we just improved quite a lot from that day to today.

Specifically on Mirage they beat you 13-5 the first time around, and it was a complete change of result today. Do you think it was to do with playing more officials, or did you play any differently?

Yeah, we actually had… not a long talk, but a mini-talk, about 10 minutes, about how our CT defaults would look, how we should move around the map. So we put some new agreements in place so we are more dynamic on the map, and that's why I think we played much better. Yesterday we also played another tournament, against VP, and we played much better also against them. We are good on CT-side Mirage now (laughs).

Like you said, you have been playing a lot of officials at the moment. How has it been for you? Obviously, a little bit tiring, but it looks like you are improving.

I think it's good just because we want to get as ready as possible for the Shanghai Major. We were practicing a lot and we were playing okay, but all of a sudden in officials we were not playing as well, so zonic and Snappi decided to play more, so we came here and we have also these online tournaments. Yeah, I think it's really tiring but also nice, because I can see the development from the team pretty fast.

I spoke to Magisk yesterday and I asked him about the team, because you guys are improving and it feels like you're on the right track at the moment, but your personal form also seems to have picked up since the start of Falcons. How are you feeling right now?

Well right now I don't think I'm on a good level, the team is getting better and as the team gets better I will also play better. Obviously I know what I'm capable of, and it also happened to me when I joined ENCE, for the first six months I didn't perform. Right now, these six months, I haven't been performing, but I know myself and it's a matter of time. I just need to keep smiling, keep my good attitude, and keep moving on.

Watching from the outside it feels like you are picking the rifle up a little bit more. Is that a conscious decision, or how has that come about?

Well, I like to play rifle, too, I think every AWPer is also really good with a rifle. It's not a decision, but if we start a match, we are 4-0, I am feeling the rifle and we are having good economy… if I feel like we don't need to pull out the AWP because it's not needed yet, then I don't pick it up. It also depends on the map, I might need to take the AWP out much more.

Is this a tournament Falcons are looking to win, or go deep in?

Right now I don't think we have really high expectations. There are really good teams in the next stage, and our main goal is to get ready as much as we can for the Major, so we are taking these officials as practice. Our goal is just to keep playing officials.