kyxsan: "It's hard that we didn't have pracc days, but it's also easy because it's m0NESY"

"I would say we haven't even gone through half of our playbook with him," the Falcons captain added.

Falcons have continued their tear that began with Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov's swansong at PGL Bucharest, making their third straight final and second since adding Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov.

They did so by defeating MOUZ in a two-map series, needing overtime to close out Nuke before storming to victory on Mirage off the back of a 1.96-rated map from "The Flash."

It was the sixth time the teams faced off this year and the second time in exactly one week after Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski's side ran away with wins on the same two maps in Melbourne, with the Macedonian in-game leader telling HLTV Falcons knew what to expect thanks to that.

"They had some new things that we didn't know about, which kinda caught us off-guard, but we somehow adjusted and did in the end," he added.

Fresh off their lengthy Melbourne outing that culminated in a runner-up finish, kyxsan made clear that the travel schedule was beginning to take a toll on the team.

"It has been hard the last few weeks. After the change we didn't have too much time to practice, we went to Australia, then straight to here, so I would say we are a bit tired.

"Somehow we keep going and we try to remind ourselves why we're playing the game. Our goal is always to come to finals."

You can read the full interview below or listen to the audio version on Spotify:

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Congratulations on making it to back-to-back-to-back finals. Let's start with this semi and Nuke: towards the end NiKo was getting abused in Yard on both sides, tell me about dealing with that and making it happen in the end despite the struggles on the extremities.

I think it was a really hard game on Nuke and they had some counter for us, I'm not sure what exactly.

We felt like we were getting punished a lot when we were playing slow, so at one moment zonic came up with it in the timeout to switch up the pace a little bit and start playing faster. That's what we did and it worked for us most of the time. They just had a great counter against us, but I'm happy we managed to adapt and win the game.

Dust2 was kind of the same story as in Melbourne, do you just have a good idea of how they play the map?

Yeah, I think we have a really good idea. I think we've played them every event this year, like six or seven times, so we had a good idea of how they play and we were prepared. They had some new things that we didn't know about, which kinda caught us off-guard, but we somehow adjusted and did in the end.

I was looking back and it was actually your first win against Spirit. It was a very close game and one that also went very late - how tough was it in the end?

Yeah, I actually thought about the same about beating Spirit for the first time. I even played them with BLUEJAYS a few years ago and I never won, two days ago was the first time.

It was a really hard game, I feel like it's always hard against them because they have really strong firepower and good structure. I feel like every game we play is close, so we're kinda used to having overtimes and shaky moments where one little decision can change everything. I think so far we are doing well with this.

You haven't had too much time with m0NESY and bring up new stuff. How do you deal with that as an in-game leader, do you just call a lot of stuff on the fly, let your stars take point and call around them?

Yeah, it's a bit hard because I would say we haven't even gone through half of our playbook with him. We're using the things that he knows and I'm also trying to call something on the fly.

One thing I can say is that he's really good at remembering things, and even some strats that we haven't shown to him, it takes him a few seconds to understand what he needs to do. So it's hard in the sense that we didn't have pracc days, but it's also easy because it's m0NESY and he understands the game really well and he can adapt to all of these situations and starts.

And he's always going to be a guy who takes a lot of initiative and come up with solutions on the fly.

Obviously, that makes it easier because he's also calling things around himself, like, "I will do this and you guys can do that." That also helps a lot, definitely.

How are you managing energy levels? Three finals, the travel from Melbourne, I saw NiKo was a bit rough a couple of days ago.

It has been hard the last few weeks. After the change we didn't have too much time to practice, we went to Australia, then straight to here, so I would say we are a bit tired, but somehow we keep going and we try to remind ourselves why we're playing the game. Our goal is always to come to finals.

After this event we'll have a little bit more time, so we'll just try to do one last push tomorrow and hopefully win the final.

It's a rematch with Spirit or Vitality. Preference?

It's hard to choose. I really don't care who we play against, I think they're both really great teams and I think we should just focus on ourselves, and if we do things as we usually do, I think we have a chance against both. But they're obviously two really strong teams.

In the possibility that it's a Vitality, do you feel there would be more pressure because of what happened in Melbourne on you guys to prove that wasn't how it was supposed to go?

I would say there's always pressure when it's finals. Everyone wants to win and sometimes when you want to win too much, you might end up in this situation where you get frustrated or you start losing and you have no way to come back to the game. Obviously there is pressure, for us and also for them, and it's just important how we handle that pressure.