floppy: "Seeing MIBR cry after beating us kind of rejuvenated me"

The American rifler said the loss to MIBR reminded him how much Major qualification means.

Complexity became the fourth team to secure a Shanghai Major berth from the Americas region after progressing through the RMR with a 3-1 record.

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's troops traversed the best-of-one portion with hard-fought victories against BOSS and BESTIA, but needed to wait for qualification following a loss to MIBR.

Next up was a 2-0 win in a high-stakes match against M80 that ensured that Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery and company would appear at the Major, and the 24-year-old admitted to feeling the pressure.

"I feel like maybe my memory's bad, but I felt a lot more anxious compared to other RMRs, I haven't felt as nervous in a while."

You can read the full interview with floppy below.

If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed above, listen to the interview here.

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You've just qualified for the Major. Job done?

Yeah, job's done. After the game I tweeted 'Qualified.' with a period, so the job's done, we had to make it for sure.

M80 was a bit of a bogey team for you recently, they beat you at EWC and EPL. What is it like to beat them in such an important game?

In terms of them beating us before, it's more about how much time has passed since then, and about our ability to come back from the recent losses as well and learn from those. If you win every match, you can learn something, but not as much as when you lose, so it's really important to just come back and learn from the losses from that. It managed to work out for us.

The game, at least from the outside, looked very chaotic. How did it feel inside the server?

For this RMR, it's very nerve-racking for me. I feel like maybe my memory's bad, but I felt a lot more anxious compared to other RMRs, I haven't felt as nervous in a while. I think we're playing the best teams so far [at an Americas RMR], it's usually always been like just two top teams.

A lot of these teams are playing much better recently, so it's going to be more competitive, and you need to make sure to to not fuck up the little mistakes and shit like that. So obviously you're going to be anxious, everyone here is anxious about making the Major, it's super important.

Sometimes with Complexity games, it feels like you lose the unlosable rounds, but today it felt like you won the unwinnable ones. How much of a boost is that?

The Vertigo round, where we run-boosted with Glocks and JT got two, I don't even know how that happened. I was just watching it happen in front of me, because I was just scaling behind them, it literally felt like a movie. I saw this guy running around Glocking people. After rounds like that, we're all laughing. Then instantly M80 took a tac after that, it was so funny, we knew they needed a tac after that, for sure.

You progressed through the best-of-ones, avoided the upsets, but then yesterday it didn't go to plan. Was that just a bit of inconsistency, a bit of the anxiousness you mentioned?

I think it's a combination of just being anxious about the game. I think MIBR also played a good game, really happy for them to qualify. Seeing them cry after beating us, that's just a feeling that kind of rejuvenated me. It just means so much for everyone to qualify for the Major. It's crazy.

As a team, you've said that you're trying different stuff to improve. How satisfied are you with what you showed here?

A dub's a dub, we take it, but I think it could be a little bit cleaner, especially versus BOSS. That was an OT game that probably shouldn't be happening when you compare the resources we have as a team versus them. They also still played a great game, we were pretty impressed after the game. Also I feel like best-of-ones have no place in CS2 because of MR12. But, yeah, we've just got to grind it out again and prepare for the Major now.

About your Major preparation. You did the minimum expectation, what do you want to achieve further on?

Last time, I choked the match to make the playoffs versus Vitality. There was a 2v1 that I griefed, and that still haunts me today. We have to make playoffs after I fucked that up, for sure.

A lot has been said that maybe this is the make-or-break moment for the team. You mentioned some anxiousness in the tournament, so is that something that you guys discussed?

No, it's definitely something we've discussed, because we know every other team's feeling it, too. It's important to just be open and honest about how we're feeling each day, especially in tournaments like this. In terms of the roster after the post-Major shuffle, whatever happens, happens, it is what it is. It's part of the game.