NAF: "No matter what, we're still winning the games we need to win"

The Canadian player was pleased that his team was able to exact revenge on Wildcard.

Liquid ended the first day of the Shanghai Major in the 2-0 pool following close BO1 wins over Cloud9 and Wildcard. They will now switch their focus to Sunday's clash with FlyQuest, with the winner booking a spot in the Elimination Stage.

Despite getting the job done on day one, it wasn't always pretty. Liquid had to come back from a 3-9 deficit against Cloud9, and they left it late to beat Wildcard, fending off a late comeback attempt from their Americas rivals.

"I'm sure the tough games will come and that's where we're going to have to make sure that we show our improvements, especially when it comes to those tier-one teams," Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic told HLTV after the match against Wildcard.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Opening Stage
01/12/2024	Liquid 06:10 FlyQuest	Match

FlyQuest were the surprise package of the opening day as they took down Complexity and BIG in dominant fashion. NAF is wary of the upset risk the series presents and noted that his team "can't underestimate" the Australians.

"It's a confident matchup for us, they're there for a reason, we're here for a reason, it should be a good game," he said.

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

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Keith, 2-0 for the day but not comfortable in either game. You came back in the first, Wildcard almost came back in this one. Talk me through those results and how you're feeling after finishing 2-0?

We played pretty well, obviously with Cloud9 in the first game we had to come back from being down 9-3. We definitely started a little slow, but then again, CT side Ancient is a different ballgame of course. They did it to us, we knew we could do it back to them and we definitely felt we were a better team than Cloud9. We just played our game, focused, and a lot of the situations went our way. ultimate had a huge game on CT side and everyone was kind of feeling it.

This game against Wildcard, we started a little slow again, I think we were getting a little sense of déjà vu playing on the CT side. It was a little tough, a little tricky, I think stanislaw calls really well, really good mind games. He's very unpredictable in the way he's calling and using his team, but we were able to adapt, we were able to shut down some good B pops that they had, and I think that gave us the momentum.

We were able to get seven rounds on the CT side, whereas last time we weren't able to... that good of a defensive side (laughs). Going into the T side we were a lot more confident, knowing how confident our T side was last time when we played Wildcard at the RMR.

Speaking of that last time you played them, they did come back and they did beat you. Did it feel good to get a bit of revenge here, especially when it's the actual Major now?

Yeah, of course. It's always nice to win, especially against a team that beat you before and especially on the same map; it feels good. No matter what, at the end of the day, we still need to win and continue winning against any other team to advance forward.

It's just the Opening Stage, so we're going to have to do the same shit all over again if we end up qualifying and going 3-0, it's just going to have another reset button on it. But of course it feels good to win, it feels good to be one step closer, and it feels good to be at the last step on the first day.

Touching on the first game, you had a bit of a rough one yourself. I know there were some role swaps with jks before, has that affected you and how are you feeling individually in general?

I don't know, I feel like everything I did was just extremely unlucky, like running into a position where a teammate is, I decide to move, and I die. Or I'm just peeking B and HeavyGod just swings and one-deags me. There were just so many different situations in that game I remember where I'm getting insta-killed first bullet and don't have a chance. I feel like there were some mistakes on some sides, and... I don't know, unlucky game.

This game, I don't know, it was also tough for me, I had a good CT side but T side, I don't know. It didn't feel good for me personally, but in Counter-Strike you can always have redemption games and you just have to keep moving forward, thinking about the future, and try not to dwell on the mistakes or your bad performances.

As you said, 2-0, a chance to qualify for the next stage. For you, that is the base expectation, I would guess, but it hasn't been an easy day for some of the other favorites, like Complexity is now 0-2. How are you feeling given that you've gone 2-0 but some of the other favorites aren't there?

Playing Cloud9 was difficult, Wildcard is a team that's been playing pretty well and they beat fnatic in their first game on their perma-ban or something (laughs), so it was an interesting veto for them. No matter what, I think we are beating some good teams here. There are obviously some other teams that might be ranked higher, especially like MongolZ or FURIA or something like that.

No matter what we're still winning the games we need to win, that's what's important. We don't decide the teams that we play, so we're just getting the wins and continue to move forward. I'm sure the tough games will come and that's where we're going to have to make sure that we show our improvements, especially when it comes to those tier-one teams.

Regardless of any of the other results today, you're going to play FlyQuest tomorrow. How do you feel about that matchup?

Oh, we're playing FlyQuest?! That should be interesting. Yeah, they're playing really well, it seems like. I didn't get to see too much of them, obviously they played the Asia RMR and they were able to qualify, but yeah. If they're 2-0, they're there for a reason.

We can't underestimate them, we need to just do what we've been doing, focus on our prep, make sure that we're playing better - especially me (laughs) - but yeah, I think it'll be a good game. It's a confident matchup for us, they're there for a reason, we're here for a reason, it should be a good game.