FL4MUS on 'Baby Shark' round: "I think I got plus karma for it"

A bit of fun at the start of a full eco turned into an iconic round win as GamerLegion booked their Elimination stage berth.

Eccentric Russian entry fragger Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev's star just keeps rising, after his GamerLegion side progressed out of the Major's Opening Stage with a 3-1 record.

The squad showed character to bounce back after a mauling at the hands of The MongolZ — maps FL4MUS called the "two worst in my career" — in a convincing win against fellow tier-two grinders Passion UA with him back near the top of the scoreboard.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Opening Stage
30/11/2024	FURIA Finished 8:13 GamerLegion	Match
30/11/2024	paiN Finished 10:13 GamerLegion	Match
01/12/2024	The MongolZ Finished 2:0 GamerLegion	Match
02/12/2024	GamerLegion Finished 2:1 Passion UA	Match

But they also earned their flowers in best-of-one upsets over Brazilian powerhouses FURIA and paiN, giving the young team ample confidence ahead of their toughest test yet in the Elimination stage.

The one thing that is certain is that FL4MUS will continue as he started: Unapologetic about his wide swings, and more than happy to play with the crowd in every single freezetime.

"I'm just an extroverted person and I really love it," he says. "I love them, they're insane. They love me, I love them, I really love it."

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

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First of all, tell me how you reset from yesterday's stomp against The Mongolz. How did the talk afterwards go?

For me, it was the two worst maps in my career. It's a fact. I never played that shit. Doesn't matter what we've been doing, how calm we were, how hype we were, it just didn't matter. I believe that it just wasn't our day, and sometimes it happens, especially for us, when we come into the tournament as a full underdog and we bounced back from 0-2.

Over here we were 2-0 and [we knew] one time it should happen after our win streak, especially when you're not a fully stable tier-one team, as we aren't for this moment, that kind of a day should happen. That's what we talked about, that it was not in our hands what was happening yesterday. We were just trying to focus to get our mentality back. We didn't care that much that day, even ash said yesterday was an off day, doesn't matter what happened, we still need to win.

Everybody did a crazy job, it was really good CS here on the first and last map. On Mirage, I think it was a bit stressful for us, sometimes we were doing some wrong things, wrong decisions, and that's why we lost Mirage. We didn't show our balls - sorry. That's probably all.

What about the finish here? ash took a couple of timeouts to talk to you guys, calm you down, was it getting nervous or did you still feel in control?

I was feeling like it was in control. I was feeling like I'm fully calm the whole game, didn't matter what the score was. I was feeling fully calm, but sometimes when they won two 3v5 rounds, I remember how I was getting entry after entry but we were losing rounds anyway, but that just happened. Sometimes unlucky, sometimes because of the nerves some wrong decisions.

Anyway we did a good job in those rounds and we still managed to end that. The last round that we won was 4v5, the round before that we won was a 4v5 as well for us, we started with a losing entry and we won two rounds in a row. Maybe this game works, if you lose [the entry] you win. I don't know (laughs), nothing makes any sense.

I have to ask about the Baby Shark round. Usually, when teams do this kind of a round they want to talk things through, but you obviously decided to do something else instead.

There was a call, 'Let's wait for one minute, let's let them spend their nades,' and I decided I don't wanna hold some walls for one minute, I decided I will do some content for the fans. But after that we won the fucking round (laughs), I think I got plus aura for it, plus karma.

Clip: FL4MUS shows off his musical talent as GL win a full eco.

You guys came into this as a surprise, like ash was saying at the end of the RMR, how is it for you to make it to the next stage after this run?

Right now, it's a bit hard because I was hyped too much and now I'm too calm. I don't really feel that I'm super happy or something, I'm talking about myself. The teams we've been playing, it's not NAVI, for example. If you beat Passion UA to qualify, it's a team of our echelon, we've been playing a lot against them, we won against them the last two officials, and I wouldn't say that was something crazy, you know? I expected us to win.

Also, what was yesterday... I had Mongolz on 3-0, I had us as 3-1 or 3-2, I just saved all of our Pick'Ems, people should be thankful to me!

But how do you then feel about your chances matching up against the big teams now?

I don't have expectations, I was talking to myself, I was talking to the team for the last month or two... You don't need to have expectations. The only thing you should want is to play good Counter-Strike. If you play good Counter-Strike you can beat everybody.

You don't need to think about how you're gonna win, how you're gonna lose, how you're gonna qualify, disqualify, leave the tournament. You're only thinking about one thing: how you wanna play in that round, how you wanna play in the round after.

You're not thinking about what's coming after the game, before the game, you're just fully focused on playing good. You're fully focusing on yourself, on your team, on the round you're playing in, what you're gonna do, what is your role in that round, and what you're doing in the default. Personally, I don't have expectations, but if we're playing good we can beat everybody.

This is your first time playing in front of such a crowd and it seems like you're in your element.

I'm just an extroverted person and I really love it. I love them, they're insane. They love me, I love them, I really love it.

[A fan nearby calls out 'I love you!' and FL4MUS laughs]

Exactly! About that, I'm happy.