nqz: "There's more pressure than ever, but we have a good chance to make playoffs"

paiN are aiming for the arena in Shanghai after falling short in Copenhagen.

paiN became the fourth team to advance from the Opening Stage of the Shanghai Major into the top-16 after a 2-0 win over FlyQuest, denying the Aussies a comeback on Vertigo before running away with a victory on Inferno.

The Brazilians didn't have a clean run through the first stage, enduring a loss to GamerLegion and barely scraping past Cloud9 in a best-of-one, but still made it through with a 3-1 record.

Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's side reached the same stage at PGL Major Copenhagen, but fell just short of reaching the playoffs after being eliminated with a 2-3 record and are on the hunt for redemption.

"Everyone has it in their mind that it will be hard, but in the same way, we want this so much and trained a lot for it," Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares told HLTV after paiN advanced past FlyQuest.

"We evolved in terms of experience a lot since Copenhagen. Right now we are way more prepared."

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

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Congratulations, you're through to the next stage. It ended pretty dominantly for you guys but Vertigo was close. How are you feeling after that game?

I'm feeling great, I mean, we had chances to close Vertigo earlier than we did, but I think we managed to do a good job. They've done some things that we weren't expecting them to do on Vertigo, so we were kinda caught by surprise, but on Inferno we played brilliantly on the T side.

On CT side we could have done more, but I think it was a good half, and we managed to do absolutely great on the T side so I'm really happy.

A nice little ace from you on Inferno to kick things off too.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it has to be a long time since I have done an ace like this, so it felt really good.

A bit of confidence built with that as well? You did end up losing a game but you're going to the next stage now, 3-1, so not bad overall, right?

Yeah, not bad, we can't complain about it, I think we played really tough opponents in this stage and we managed to win against them well. Against Cloud9 it was a tough game, against GamerLegion, against Imperial, all the games were tough, so I'm really happy and feeling confident right now about the next stage.

Last Major you fell just short of making playoffs. What are the expectations now, how are you feeling about the opportunity to make playoffs, because it's going to be a very hard top 16, right?

Yeah, I think everyone has in their mindset that it will be hard, but in the same way, we want this so much and trained a lot for it. We practiced, and it's a dream of ours, so right now of course there's more pressure than ever, but I think we have a good chance to make it if we play our own CS. I don't think we should focus too much on pressure and focus more on playing happy and confidently.

snow is always very loud during games, but I did notice here he seems to have won the crowd over a little bit, they were kinda behind him, he was continuing to play with them even after you guys won. What's it been like playing in front of them and also with him trying to win them over a little bit?

It's been amazing, this crowd is one of the best I've ever played in front of so far because they respect the game a lot, they don't give a lot of noises to the other teams, and the game is really fair, but at the same time they enjoy and they shout for us, they cheer for us, so it's been amazing. It's been a huge pleasure to play here in front of this crowd.

The thing about snow is that's how he is, I think he is a very energetic guy and he loves to do it, so we always said, 'Just shout, just cheer with them, enjoy the moment.'

Last Major as I said, you fell short, not the same roster this time, that is one small change. Do you think that you've had enough time, will it be the chance to make the playoffs for you this time?

Yeah, absolutely. After we brought snow to the team we made it far in a lot of tournaments that were as big as the Major, and we played really well, so we proved to ourselves that we could do it.

Of course, it's gonna be way tougher because, as I said, it's the Major, but I think we have all the capabilities. Bringing it back to the Copenhagen Major, we evolved a lot in terms of experience since then. I think right now we are way more prepared.