karrigan: "I want Vitality, G2, and Spirit, why not make it the hardest Major playoff run ever?"

"That's three teams we normally haven't beat the whole year. I'm down for that," karrigan said after a surprise win over Vitality put FaZe through to the semis.

With an impressive recovery from a tough defeat on map one and a slow start into map two, FaZe secured an upset victory over Vitality to move on to the Perfect World Shanghai Major semi-finals.

After the match, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen sat down with HLTV to discuss the surprise victory at length and the upcoming G2 matchup. Ever the showman, the Danish captain envisioned an upset run for his team in the playoffs after securing the first notch in the single-elimination bracket.

"Last Major everybody counted us out as well, and suddenly we beat Spirit and Vitality and we were in the final," karrigan said. "The final was a different story, but I just look at it this way: I want Vitality, I want G2 in the semis, and I want Spirit in the final, that's three teams we normally haven't beat the whole year, why not make it the hardest Major playoff run ever? I'm down for that."

You can read or listen to the interview in full 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 the victory, tell me your initial thoughts.

I was thinking Nuke is gonna be interesting, a very strange pick from us. Eh, I kinda felt like they got three and four kills everywhere. I think we had a good game plan on the T side and I also think it was a strong mentality to actually grind four rounds in the end when, everywere we went in the beginning, they went three or four kills on us and insane shots.

In the end I think they had a good game plan, they just played really good on the map, but coming into Mirage and Anubis I felt like we were a different beast and in good control of the game, actually, and making sure to finish the job.

It started out so badly for you on Nuke, as you say, and the start of Mirage went against you guys too. From 5-1 I think it seemed like you controlled the entire rest of the series. How do you come back from such a loss? You're known for big talks to bring the guys back up after bad losses, what did you tell them?

I think I told the guys, 'It's the last map of the season if you don't step up.' I think I told the guys to enjoy three more days of catering in the hotel and just sit and grind, and it kinda activated a little fun way to reset.

We knew the way they started on Nuke, when you play a team like Vitality and they start 8-0, it's very hard for us not to make a mistake, but when it was 4-1 on Mirage we just flipped the switch. We learned a little bit from the FURIA game, it should have never been 13-11 or what it was in the end.

We had a strong CT side and on T side I prepared the perfect rounds that we haven't done during the Major or before the Major, and we kinda finished the job there. I'm super proud of how everyone was staying focused, it felt like that game where like, okay, we are three halves into the game and we need to step up NOW. And we did, and that's good to see that we had that strong mentality even though it looks very grim and it's a very bad matchup for us on paper.

The record obviously spoke quite heavily against you. You were talking there almost as if you were saving strats, did you have something saved up from before?

No, not at all. Not playing Nuke here at the Major, not playing Anubis at the Major is kinda like we can just play the stuff we had prepared from the bootcamp for the Major itself. Mirage we had to rethink a bit because I think we played it twice during the tournament, so I think that's why it looked a little bit surprising for them on the CT side and the way we hit a very fast A split on them.

Overall, I also think ropz had an insane performance, and that's why we got started on the CT side on Mirage, the way he was controlling mid and doing everything, and on Anubis he just popped off.

Do you feel that the fact they didn't have so much information on the maps you played helped you, especially on Anubis?

Fun fact, we had a veto in mind five days ago. The day before, we just changed the veto completely, we go to pick Nuke, meaning that we are forcing Anubis third.

I looked at it this way: We are the underdog, and if we end on Anubis, a third map decider that is their worst map, I think we can enjoy that as an underdog and say like, 'Okay, we don't feel that good on the map, maybe, but they cannot feel good.' So I think it was the decision of making them uncomfortable in the veto, and I think that paid off. If it was Dust2 third, it could have been a really rough game because they beat us the last three times on Dust2.

You're heading into another difficult matchup for you guys. It used to be one that went back and forth, but recently it's skewed against you guys, and you already played once here and it was a pretty difficult loss to G2. How can you hope to turn it around for tomorrow?

If we play like we did today, I think it's gonna be a great game. If we play like we did in groups, we were not there. You could talk a bit about jetlag because we went back to Europe, they were mentally outplaying us, we lost a 5v2 second round of Inferno, and from there we had no chance. We have to make sure that, even though we lose some of these rounds, because that's gonna happen against G2, we need to reset like we did against Vitality now, just to make sure it's fine, it happens.

Yeah, on paper G2 are favorites, and I'm fine with that because last Major everybody counted us out as well, and suddenly we beat Spirit and Vitality and we were in the final. The final was a different story, but I just look at it this way: I want Vitality, I want G2 in the semis, and I want Spirit in the final, that's three teams we normally haven't beat the whole year, why not make it the hardest Major playoff run ever? I'm down for that.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
14/12/2024	G2 11:35 FaZe	Match

It is reminiscent of Copenhagen exactly because of how you went into that tournament, a difficult RMR, a difficult road. This time it feels like you're on the same path. Does this win against such a big team increase the confidence even though you've struggled in these matchups?

Yeah, now it's the second time we beat a top 5 team in a BO3, so that's good stats, right (laughs)? That's going in the right direction. Yeah, I believe if we play like today, it's gonna be hard for G2, but if G2 is on point, I saw NiKo and m0NESY going ham the first two maps, we have to shut that down and match their firepower. If we do that, I think it's gonna be a good game. We have to make sure that, if we don't match it, we are playing rounds smart and play off each other well.

Today I think we matched the firepower with ropz popping off, maybe tomorrow it's broky, rain or frozen. It's just a welcome sight to see a pop-off like this because that's what we need to win the Major, and seeing one player doing that now, maybe it's a new player tomorrow. Then we're a very dangerous beast.