ropz on losing his last two Major finals: "I told the guys, 'If we lose, let's not do it in the final'"

"Hopefully this one will be the one for me in CS2," the Estonian says.

Vitality locked in their seventh straight grand final appearance by defeating MOUZ in the semi-final of the BLAST.tv Austin Major, and are now looking to put a bow on one of the most dominant seasons in Counter-Strike history and cement their era with their seventh trophy in a row.

Vitality were already the overwhelming favorites before the Major, but now have a stranglehold on that status after emerging atop the difficult side of the bracket with wins over Natus Vincere and MOUZ.

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Vitality make it seven straight against MOUZ to book Major final spot

The latter dispatched of Spirit in the quarter-finals while The MongolZ eliminated Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool's former team, FaZe, on the opposite side of the bracket, setting up a clear runway for the Estonian to the title after he fell short twice in a row to Natus Vincere and Spirit in Copenhagen and Shanghai.

"I would do anything for it," ropz tells HLTV after Vitality's victory. "Honestly, winning a second Major, in CS2 especially... just for myself, but also for the run we had this season, it's history on top of history. It's going to be something that's going to be looked back on for many years, and I'm really hoping to do it."

Listen to the interview here.

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Congratulations ropz, to the grand final. Inferno was a bit tough for you, but ZywOo took over on Train in the end. How are you feeling after all that?

I'm feeling good. It was a bit scary with Inferno, it definitely didn't go as planned. We started on the T side and I'm the lurker on A. It was tough for me to say what went wrong. I'm sure MOUZ did really well on the banana fight, for example, and we had some slip-ups somewhere.

It was just important to reset. It was nice to win a few rounds at the end of Inferno just to get the feel of the game, get a bit of momentum. Even if we lose the map, we go into the next game knowing we can still frag, we can still outaim people. It was all about the reset for the third map and we did that really well.

Seventh win over MOUZ in a row. You just seem to have their number this entire year. Tell me about that matchup, facing them again in this semi-final and extending that streak.

Well, it's always this, especially if... you know, the thing with Spinx leaving Vitality, you're facing your ex, and I'm sure it's the same for MOUZ. They want to beat us. So it's personal to a level, but yeah, obviously we knew they were going to be fired up. They beat Spirit, who everyone considered to come in and destroy everyone, but they showed Spirit that they're the better team.

After that we understood that we cannot underestimate MOUZ even if we've beaten them seven times now. Each time we try something new, today we added a small runboost on Train, for example, that really worked for us. Finding something for each match, not taking all the wins for granted, and making sure that we can close it out.

During this entire year, Inferno has been a really good map for you, but now you've lost it twice in a row at the Major. You lost against Legacy in dominant fashion, then again against MOUZ. What's going wrong for you on that map right now?

It's tough to say from my POV, obviously I'm not the Banana player and 90% of the rounds are decided in Banana. I'm sure we'll rewatch and we'll see what went wrong from today. We learned from the Legacy game, but today we'll have to see what happened exactly.

It's a really good map for us, so it's important for us not to lose confidence there because it can be really important for the next game or in the future. Just tough to say what exactly, but yeah, we're going to go back to the drawing board and see what's wrong and come back stronger.

ZywOo is having an incredible Major and that continued, especially on this last map here. What is it like playing with him in this event and going en route towards the Major trophy since you're in the grand final now?

Usually, it's no different if you're playing a regular tournament or a Major with ZywOo. The guy is so good. Today he had a few rounds where he just won us a round, he had the 3K on the A bombsite and just destroyed all the entries, and I'm just happy to play with him.

It's an advantage to have a guy like him on your team, and he was a big reason why I joined this team. I'm super happy to play next to him, and he's also one of the humblest players I've ever play with. It doesn't matter what someone says to him, he's willing to work with you and it's easy. He wants to win the trophy, not the individual stats.

You had the harder side of the bracket. You already beat NAVI, now you beat MOUZ, Spirit are out, and FaZe were eliminated yesterday. What's the mentality like for Vitality going into the final tomorrow, considering a lot of people are favoring you? Obviously you've already been favorites, but it's more lopsided now than expected.

Going into the final, it's going to be clear on paper who's the favorite. It's going to be us. There's no lying in that. As usual, we will recognize that fact. We've been favorites many times during the season, and obviously this match is going to be the most important one of the entire season, quite possibly. We just have to do our usual. The way we prepare and the way we just enter the matches with our routine and all the scheduling stuff we have. We do it really well, we have a really good structure, and that's going to come in big.

Other than that, we're not going to underestimate, whether it's paiN or The MongolZ. We've played The MongolZ a few times already this year and it's also been a one-sided match, but they're a very explosive team, you can never count them out. I'm not sure if we've played paiN this year, but we'll definitely do our homework and we're going to have confidence.

We're going to be the favorites, but again, we will not take it for granted. We will do our best to fight for each round, each duel, make sure we refrag because so many rounds will come down to that, and just doing the basic skills that are going to win us the game.

Is it hard to reset your mentality when you have already beaten the biggest teams in the event? Yes, MongolZ are in the top five, but you have surpassed the big teams that you needed to get the win. Is it hard to set your mentality around that and reset going into this final?

From personal experience, I was more nervous to play against NAVI than MOUZ, just because we haven't faced NAVI this year and in general at all [Editor's note: since ropz joined]. You don't really know what to expect because you don't know what style they will come into it with. Both MOUZ and us, we know how each other plays, but just all the small percentages, maybe the aim duels going our way more, and yeah, we're just comfortable with that matchup.

It's definitely more comfortable to play an opponent where you've had multiple matches before, you've done it before even if... obviously we've basically won all of the games, but even if we lost it would be a comfortable matchup because you've already prepared for an opponent like that beforehand, you know what worked before, what didn't work before, and there are going to be mind games in that sense. But from my personal experience, it's more comfortable to play an opponent that you've already played before, but it might depend on the person.

It's your third Major grand final in a row, the last two were with FaZe and obviously it was heartbreak each time. Now, you're heading in with Vitality, overwhelming favorite, seven finals in a row. How does that feel for you to have this chance?

I told the guys, if we lose, let's not do it in the final. So, playoff, semi-final, quarter-final, whatever, but please, let's not lose in the final. Yeah, I lost the last two Major finals beforehand, so hopefully this one will be the one for me in CS2.

Even though CS:GO is kind of the same game, you treat them differently. Winning a CS2 Major is another thing compared to CSGO, and I'm happy to get another chance. We're going to do everything we can to do that.

How badly do you want that second Major?

(smiles, laughs) I would do anything for it. Honestly, winning a second Major, in CS2 especially... just for myself, but also for the run we had this season, it's history on top of history. It's going to be something that's going to be looked back on for many years, and I'm really hoping to do it.