zont1x: "I think we are in good shape, despite the losses to MOUZ"

"There are some problems sometimes; we're just not connecting to the server right away," the Ukrainian player explained.

Spirit are through to Group A's lower bracket final at BLAST Open Lisbon following a convincing 2-0 win against FaZe. It was a much-improved performance from the reigning Major champions after the 2-1 loss to MOUZ, their second straight defeat against Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin's charges.

"Sometimes you're just not inside the game," Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia said when asked why this seems to be such a bad match-up for them at the moment, adding that any team will at some point experience these issues. Even Vitality. "It will happen to them eventually and essentially," he said.

Spirit will take on Virtus.pro on Monday for a spot at the MEO Arena in Lisbon. The last time the two teams faced each other was at IEM Katowice, where Spirit ran out 2-0 winners in a match where Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov stood in for Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev.

"I think Virtus.pro are not ready to play their best game," zont1x said. "I can see they have shaky performances because it's a new team."

If you can't see the embed above, you can listen to the audio recording of this interview on Spotify.

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A 2-0 victory against FaZe, and you're one win away from the playoffs. What are your thoughts on the series? You were in the lead for the majority of the game.

I think we are in good shape, despite the losses to MOUZ, which were two close games on all of the maps. We had the lead but we choked. I still think there's us, MOUZ and Vitality, and if we're playing our game, we're beating opponents like FaZe and all the teams that are all over in the ranking.

What happened now on Nuke? Towards the end, you guys lost two rounds against one or two guns and mostly pistols. Do you think you lost some focus?

No, I don't think so. When you're playing against experienced players like that, and especially when you're playing against FaZe, because FaZe are known for their force buys, it can happen. You make a mistake somewhere, or one player one-Deags you and it's hard to 4v5 against a force-buy because there are a lot of holes on the map if you compare it to a buy round, especially on Nuke when you're playing on the CT side. I don't think it's about focus, they're just good enough to beat us in some rounds.

You came into this game off the back of a defeat against MOUZ. Was this the kind of performance that you wanted to see from the team after that game?

Yes, we played very good Counter-Strike, but sometimes we're kind of losing control of the game. If you're talking about Anubis, maybe it's because some players are not that confident on Anubis. Overall, I think that if we play our game and there are no major problems inside the team, like personal problems from the players, we can perform. It just depends on us.

I was talking to EliGE the other day, and he said that one of the strengths of his team is the fact they have a wide map pool, which they can adapt according to the team they're facing. Was there anything surprising about the veto today, or did it go as you expected?

I think we expected it, but… We are ready to play any map. The coach will look at the demos and he will say, 'Okay, they will pick this or maybe this.' Anubis was outside of the two maps we were expecting, but we were still fully ready to play it. So if they wanted to play Anubis, okay, let's play.

I wanted to ask about the two games against MOUZ and why this seems to be such a bad match-up for you right now. If you had to analyze the two games, the one in EPL and the one here, could you explain what happened?

To be honest, sometimes you're just not inside the game, and when you play against a team that is hungry for wins and that just changed a player, they obviously want to win. And when they play a team like Vitality or Spirit and they start a game like 5-0 or 8-1 on Nuke or Ancient, obviously they feel confident they can take that win. There are some problems sometimes; we're just not connecting to the server right away. That's kind of the problem. But it's still a problem for any team, I believe. Maybe not the problem for Vitality at the moment, they're playing their best game, but it will happen to them eventually and essentially.

This is the problem that happens to all the teams. We whiffed all of the maps we played against MOUZ, we were leading on all of the maps, and they were leading at some point, they were leading on Nuke, they were leading on Ancient 8-1 and all of this stuff. A close game because they're a good team as well.

You're going up against Virtus.pro for a spot in the playoffs. You've defeated them already in Katowice, where they had a stand-in. What do you expect from this match?

I think Virtus.pro are not ready to play their best game. I can see they have shaky performances because it's a new team. They have a lot of problems because of the changes they made.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
24/03/2025	Virtus.pro 13:45 Spirit	Match

So I guess you're expecting a victory.

It's not like I'm expecting a victory, but it's pretty logical and rational. So yeah, if we play our game, we should beat an opponent like Virtus.pro. They just made changes, they're not ready to play their best game, so we just have to come into the server, play our game, and we should win.