NertZ: "Maden and dycha always bullied me, 'Where [Major] badge?' Now, I have a badge"

"This is what I'm playing CS for. To feel the crowd, go through tournaments, and make deep runs," NertZ told HLTV after he cried tears of joy from making the Major playoffs.

Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz has been a superstar for a long time, but his performances in Shanghai have been stellar even for his high standards. The Israeli rifler put up a 1.51 rating in the RMR and kept up a high level during the Elimination Stage, too.

The culmination of his form came in the deciding 2-2 match against Natus Vincere, where NertZ put up a 1.30 rating, 0.23 higher than his closest teammate, Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov, to get his team into the playoffs.

After the stunning win against Natus Vincere, NertZ spoke to HLTV about making the playoffs, the series against NAVI, and finally having a Major badge on his profile.

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

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Congrats, through to the playoffs. The first two maps were blowouts, it got close on Ancient, and you were crying after the win. Can you tell me about the emotions you were feeling?

I was crying because... it's our life to play CS for a living, you are away from home for such a long time, and for me it was a top priority to qualify for the playoffs. Especially to play against NAVI, it was also special because they are the best team in the world right now and we can show any team that we can beat them.

And for me to get this badge [on my Steam profile], it's everything. I remember when I played in ENCE, Maden and dycha always bullied me, 'Where badge, where badge?' (laughs) So for me it's fine, right now I'm badge, I'm the same as anyone (laughs).

It's your first Major playoffs, how good does that feel?

I want to feel the playoffs crowd. The special thing is the Chinese fans, they are cheering for everyone and this is what I like about them. It is my dream to win the Major, I'm far away from it, but for me it's everything.

On the last map it seemed like you were exploiting Aleksi in Cave a lot, was that part of the game plan or how did that come together? You also had this Five-SeveN round that did a lot of eco-damage at the end that helped you take it over the line, so talking about the end of the game.

It's not about Aleksib, it was a clear game plan about how we wanted to play the match. We played slow, not as usual, we played controlled, we had good communication. Even though it was close on T side, I felt like we lost crazy unlucky rounds and if they didn't win these lucky rounds, we would end it 8-4 or something like that.

You had a really hard path through this Major stage, you ended up playing FaZe, then The MongolZ, went 1-2 there, then Spirit, went 1-2 there. Now you had NAVI but you went 2-1 here, so tell me about that path and how difficult it was because it seems like you got one of the hardest draws you could have.

This is what makes me so happy, because we didn't have the easiest matches. We played top five teams in the world, The MongolZ are top three for me, Spirit top three also, and NAVI the best team in the world. This is what makes me so hype about it and why I cry so much because we didn't have easy teams to play against.

It's not going to get any easier either, I'm not sure if you've seen the potential playoff matchups, but if FaZe wins you play G2, if FURIA wins you play Vitality. How do you feel about that path continuing into the playoffs?

I know that we're potentially playing against Vitality or G2. I feel like we already won them, G2 and Vitality. It will not be easy, but if we keep playing like this we will show good CS and we can beat anyone.

How badly do you want to win this Major? You mentioned it already, it's your dream, but in terms of actually going there and getting it done?

We need to remember: We chose this game, we chose to play CS. This is not pressure, honestly. For me pressure is something else far away from CS, and obviously if we lose it's hard of course, but to play CS... many people are saying, 'Ah, it's really hard when you're playing the best teams, when you're playing in front of a crowd,' this is not pressure.

Pressure is when you have personal things in life, this is pressure, and for me there is nothing that can stop us. In this team I don't feel we have this barrier where there is extra pressure or something like that.

Do you feel like your move to HEROIC has finally paid off?

Yes, it was hard. We started with the new lineup, it was also hard in the second season, we didn't play with the same roster. It was really rough. It was annoying because in ENCE we were going to playoffs in almost every tournament, and in HEROIC, finally in the last three months we're showing what we can do.

This is what I want to do, this is what I'm playing CS for. To feel the crowd, go through tournaments, and make deep runs. I'm fully happy about the situation that I'm in right now.

Any parting words about having that badge on your profile for your old teammates?

Fuck you, basically (laughs). They were bullying me for so long I'm telling you, they're sending me some messages on WhatsApp, but yeah I feel great, honestly.