Maka: "I'm so happy, I could have switched to the international scene or even VALORANT"

Maka has qualified for his first Major with 3DMAX.

3DMAX became the surprise of the Shanghai Major European RMR B after traversing the tournament with a 3-0 record. The French team beat TSM, Eternal Fire, and G2 on their way to the Major, where they will start their journey in the second stage.

3DMAX became the first all-French roster to qualify for a Major since Stockholm 2021, and Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda says that fills him with pride.

"I declined some offers in the past to play internationally to stay with the French teams and hope for the best," he told HLTV after beating G2 and qualifying for the Major. "It never worked before, but now it finally happened."

You can read the full interview below.

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

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Editor's note: This interview was conducted before the change to stage invites was announced.

Congratulations, you've made the Major after beating G2. How do you feel right now?

Crazy emotions. I can't describe them in words, but maybe I didn't realize we qualified for the Legends stage, because we made it this far with 3-0. We never qualified before, and I feel so much happiness.

You will fly the French flag at the Major as the only full French team. Do you feel proud of representing your country?

I'm very, very proud of this. I used to struggle in French teams to qualify for Majors or go further in tier-one and tier-two tournaments, and I declined some offers in the past to play internationally to stay with the French teams and hope for the best. It never worked before, but now it finally happened.

To qualify against G2 after such a comeback. Did you ever lose belief during the series or did you always believe that this is your moment?

It was really tough, especially after Anubis. We won Anubis against them in the two last matchups, and this time we lost 13-5. We kept a good mentality because we believed [in ourselves] and we knew we were able to do this on both maps.

You had a very good individual performance as well, you outdueled m0NESY many times. How does that feel for you?

Amazing. The team was down a bit after Anubis and I tried to motivate them a bit, and the coaching staff also helped us a lot. I was just thinking, 'Let's go, I have to show the way mentally, in terms of the attitude.' And it showed on the server. I'm happy to see it happen, because sometimes it doesn't.

A lot of players struggle with individual play when they IGL, but you don't seem to have that problem. How do you manage to combine these two roles so well?

I've been an IGL for a long time in the French scene, and I think being able to speak my native language helps. Being able to have the best group possible in terms of human [relations], because we are like friends, helps even more. I think the experience with the world and being on LAN like this in Cologne, previous RMRs, and other LANs helped.

This will be your first Major. How does it feel to make it after so many years of playing professionally and finally have your sticker in the game?

I'm so happy because as I said, I could have switched to the international scene and even to VALORANT a few years ago. I never wanted it, of course, because in the end, this is what matters the most to me. To have my sticker in the game is like I've ticked off the goal, and I hope to tick more and more of them in the next months.

Overall, you and your team had a pretty good year. You won Skyesports, but here it felt like you leveled up your performances. Was this just about finding the form at the right moment?

I think it was about trusting the process and being able to play some LANs like Skyesports. We got invited last minute to the Cologne Play-In, we played two EPLs, some closed qualifiers online, and all that kind of stuff. It's just about the process until this LAN, that's it.

You're skipping the first stage of the Major. Is that a positive? Do you prefer to have more preparation time for the next games, or would you rather just keep playing because you're obviously in good form?

I don't know, I don't have enough experience to talk about this, but I think it's good to rest a bit. But we'll keep playing and try to keep the form because one week is a long time, so we'll see.

Your goal was to make the Major, but what do you expect to do now that you've made it? Is the pressure off maybe in some way?

I think the pressure is off. I don't know how it feels for my teammates, but for me, it's not like we ended the LAN or finished the tournament. We will just keep going and see how far we can get.