kyxsan: "I hope we play against Vitality; I think we are not scared of a BO5"

"We are just trying to go with our feeling and doing what we think is best at the moment," the Falcons captain said. "And so far it has been working."

Falcons have booked a spot in the grand final of IEM Melbourne following a quick 2-0 victory against MOUZ, who missed the chance to reach their fourth tournament decider in a row.

The arena factor unlocked a new level of play for Falcons, who only dropped 16 rounds throughout their victories against GamerLegion and MOUZ.

"I hope it's not a honeymoon," Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski told HLTV after the match. "I just think we're playing with a lot of confidence, and obviously, m0NESY is helping a lot with that."

Falcons now await the winner of the other semi-final, between Vitality and The MongolZ. After losing to Vitality in the group stage, kyxsan is looking forward to the opportunity for revenge, and he played down the best-of-five factor in the final.

"I think we are not scared of a best-of-five, if I can say that, because we haven't had much time to practice with m0NESY, so it doesn't affect our map pool a lot because there was no map that we fully prepared for this event anyway," he said.

"It's going to be a fun game. I hope we play against them."

Read more in the interview below, or listen to it on Spotify.

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A 2-0 victory against MOUZ and you are through to the grand final. Coming into the match, NiKo said it would be hard to compete with MOUZ and Vitality in this tournament. And yet here you are, after a quick 2-0 series. Can you walk me through the match? Was it easier than you expected?

Obviously, we didn't know what to expect from this game because we had played them many times this year, I think four times, and they had defeated us most of the time. It was hard to expect something when you're coming into this game. Obviously, we believed we could win, but we basically came into the game without many expectations, just trying to play our game. And the game went by pretty fast. I'm just happy we managed to stick to our game plan and do the things we had planned.

 The team played well in the group stage, but it seems the arena has unlocked a new level in everyone. You're playing with a lot of confidence. You're winning a lot of duels. What is the secret? Do you think there might be a little bit of a honeymoon factor?

Maybe. I don't know. It's a hard question to answer, but I hope it's not a honeymoon. I just think we're playing with a lot of confidence right now, and obviously, m0NESY is helping a lot with that. We only had one day of practice with him, so obviously we can't have the best team play. So we are just trying to go with our feeling and doing what we think is best at the moment. And so far it has been working.

 It's been only a few days since m0NESY joined the team and, as you said, you've had very little practice with him. What are your first impressions of him? Is there anything about him that has surprised you?

I knew he was really good, but what has surprised me the most was his communication. I think he's helping the team a lot when it comes to this, and the atmosphere in the team is much calmer, if I can say, even in these stressful, let's say, arena games. I feel like the communication is really good and he's helping a lot with offering some nades, calling a rotation or even just saying, 'Guys, I will search there, follow me,' and these kinds of things that help us a lot.

NiKo has said that the team will try to prepare as best as it can for the Major, but he doesn't know if it'll be at 100% in Austin because there's not much time. How long do you think it will take to fully integrate m0NESY into the team, and how big of a confidence boost are the results and the performances you're getting here?

I think that for a player to get [integrated] into a team, I would say he usually needs at least two or three months. But I haven't had a player like m0NESY yet, so maybe with him it will be faster, but usually it takes a few months, I'd say. And, yeah, these results are definitely a big confidence boost for us, and I just feel like we are improving every day and with every game.

I wanted to ask about the potential rematch against Vitality. You lost to them 2-0 in the group stage. The first map was very close; you came close to winning it, but they came back and won it in overtime. What lessons did you learn from that match?

I think we made some mistakes we normally don't make. I can't remember exactly which mistakes we made, but I just remember that we rewatched the game and we usually don't make these kinds of mistakes. And when you make those mistakes against a team like Vitality, obviously they will be punished. I think we should just have good basics against them, keep doing what we are doing and obviously try to make fewer mistakes. I think the team that makes the fewest mistakes in these kinds of games will always win.

And if you play against Vitality, it will be a best-of-five match, which might make it even more difficult because you haven't had much practice time with m0NESY. Do you think you'll be better prepared this time around to face them?

Yeah, I think so. We've played them already, so we have some experience playing against them. I think we are not scared of a best-of-five, if I can say that, because we haven't had much time to practice with m0NESY anyway, so it doesn't affect our map pool a lot because there was no map that we fully prepared for this event anyway. It's going to be a fun game. I hope we play against them.