zont1x: "Who knows how this would end in OT"

Spirit's star anchor conceded that the nerves were getting to Spirit as Liquid mounted a comeback on Dust2, before they closed it on their sixth attempt with a shoddy buy.

After fending off Liquid's Dust2 comeback to secure a place in the semi-finals, Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia spoke to HLTV about the match.

The quarter-final affair looked in Spirit's control for the most part. However, a tough start to Anubis and the end of Dust2, where they nearly let it go to overtime from a 12-6 lead, caused the favorites to feel the pressure.

"It comes down to us doing some stupid mistakes because we're a bit stressed," zont1x said. "We're not that used to playing Major playoffs."

"We had match point and we just had to win one round, but somehow we just felt stressed because we were visualizing how we can lose and just manifesting that. We're understanding what we need to do but still making mistakes, that's the way it felt."

Heading into a MOUZ matchup that has gone back and forth over the year, the Ukrainian anchor feels Spirit have to improve on communication after today.

"MOUZ is a great team, but for me it comes down to how we play and communicate, how we shoot," he explained. "I don't think MOUZ is in their best shape, but anything can happend. We just have to play our game and communicate better than we did today, for example."

The full interview can be found below:

If you can't see the embed above, you can listen to the audio version of the interview here.

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Congratulations on making it to the semi-finals. Let's talk about the game - on Anubis it looked like it was running away from you, then you had that 1v2 and from there it looked controlled. Can you tell me about how it went?

Thank you for your congratulations. I think we overthought how they play because we've seen how they play and we know how they're playing, but for some reason we just thought they would play differently.

That's why we had that many problems, but they haven't changed anything from what we have seen in demos and that was a problem and probably some miscommunications because we felt stressed a little bit because this is the Major, obviously. But we just overthink and that caused the problems.

Was it a good gameplan on the T side? You got all the right kills at the right times to force them on saves time after time. What was that down to?

We had a good game plan; it worked. I haven't felt like we had problems with the game plan. We understand how they play, that's not the case. The T side of Anubis went very well, I can't remember the score, but we were pretty much in control.

If we talk about Dust2, they changed some things on T side, but still it comes to us not doing some stupid mistakes because we're a bit stressed. We're not that used to playing Major playoffs, so we felt a bit stressed and made mistakes, but on Dust2 they changed a bit the way they play.

Was it getting nervous towards the end of Dust2? Can you tell me about closing it on a four MP9 round in the end before it got to overtime?

I think they were a bit stressed as well because they started taking rounds, and they saw the score, 12-11, and I see YEKINDAR is going outside Long and losing a pretty simple duel against magixx, who has MP9 on a long distance. I think they were stressed as well because they were like 'yeah, we can win this round and it's going to be overtime,' and who knows what's going to happen.

They could see they were taking a lot of rounds on T side and obviously, who knows how this would end in overtime. Usually, when you lose a game like that, you're not playing the game on the third map, so it could have easily been 2-1 for Liquid. But yeah, some good moves from us, we found an open kill because of the mistake YEKINDAR made, and they just died everywhere.

You've repeated a couple of times that it was a nervous game, that the pressure was getting to you. If anything, from the outside it actually looked like you were quite calm every time I saw hally take a timeout. Did it feel differently inside the match?

For me, it felt like people understand how they play, and we know what we should do in order to beat them. We had match point and we just had to win one round, but somehow we just felt stressed because we were visualizing how we can lose and just manifesting that. We're understanding what we need to do but still making mistakes, that's the way it felt.

I think it's pretty obvious and a usual problem for all teams that are not far beyond everyone. We don't have that team right now on the scene, and I think everyone is feeling nervous and it comes down to winning the duels somewhere or taking a clutch. The games are always close in Major playoffs when you have these close teams.

Tell me about the MOUZ matchup, it's gone against you a few times this year, is it a tough one?

It's going to be a tough match because MOUZ is a great team, but still, for me, it comes down to how we play and how we communicate with each other, how we shoot. I don't think MOUZ is in their best shape right now. Still, anything can happen and we just have to play our game and communicate better than we did today, for example.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
14/12/2024	MOUZ 07:00 Spirit	Match