malbsMd on receiving map-winning hero AK: "It tells me I'm as good as my teammates"

G2 have made another top-four at the BLAST Fall Final.

G2's firepower has received a massive upgrade with the summer addition of Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa, and the Guatemalan seems to be an instant hit in his new anchor roles.

While the team has not yet claimed a title since the 21-year-old's signing, G2 have been a constant playoff presence across the four events they played with their new roster.

After beating Spirit to book a semi-final spot at the BLAST Fall Final, malbsMd spoke to HLTV about his map-deciding ace on Dust2, finding his place in G2, and the upcoming semi-final against Vitality.

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Congrats on the win. You've made the semi-finals after your third straight win against Spirit. How do you feel right now?

It feels really good. Feels like we are... How can I say this? Like we are G2's NAVI [against Spirit], you know? It feels good, and I'm really happy. Getting to the semi-finals at a good event is great.

To talk about the series. It felt like you shifted into a higher gear at the end of Dust2. You got the ace to finish it off, which seems like a specialty of yours now because you did something similar against NAVI at EWC. How was that map for you?

It was really good. Like I said in the live interview, I just asked for permission to get a hero AK, and they let me do it and said that they were going to force around me. Then everything just happened, and I killed five people.

And how does it feel for you to be the guy with the hero AK, given who your teammates are?

It feels good because it tells me that I'm as good as they are. Them giving me this opportunity and freedom to do whatever I want, it just honestly feels great.

On Mirage, it started well. You got a 4k in the pistol, but then the team cooled off. What went wrong during the middle portion of the map?

I don't know. Honestly, I can't really remember what happened. I think we were just making little mistakes on the rounds we were calling, and these little mistakes always fuck everything up.

You then came back from 4-10 down. Was it especially good for you that you did it on the CT side, because I feel like you guys struggled a bit there recently? How did you make the comeback?

I don't really need to come back as long as NiKo and Ilya [m0NESY] are just killing four people every round. So as long as that happens, I'm good with it. I can't come into so many actions on the map because I'm anchoring and everything. I'm just there, you know, just trying to hold the site, and then they just go.

You've been in these anchor roles for a while now. Before you were in the thick of the action, now you're more on the extremities. Did you need to change your mindset coming into games?

A little bit. I'm used to being the super aggressive guy, and then it's nice to be swinging everything and peeking everyone. But now I need to be more passive a little bit, I have to play retake at some points… I can't always be fighting, so I need to understand that sometimes. It's hard for me because I get a little bit bored and I just want to kill people, you know? But I can't.

You're in the semis now. You play Vitality, who have shown some pretty good form here, so how are you feeling about that match?

I mean, it's not NAVI, you know, so it's good [laughs]. I'm trolling. Vitality is a really good team, and we respect them a lot, but when you're at this tier of CS, you can't super respect everyone, you just need to play everyone as if it were anybody else. We will just play our game and try to make it to the finals.