HLTV live from Birch Cup

9INE were crowned champions of Birch Cup after defeating ex-Inner Circle 2-1 in the grand final, after which our man on the ground spoke to Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg about the result, what it means for 9INE's Major aspirations, and what it would mean to make it back to a Major.

On the final:

In the start it went really well, but we also knew, somehow, that ex-Inner Circle made it to the final and we knew that they are hitting good these days, they've been really good at this event. We didn't want to take it too easy and stuff like that, but we felt good all over the final here. And we should have won Nuke, in my opinion, so overall I was pretty happy with this.

On earning VRS points, the Major race, and if he feels pressure heading into Fragadelphia:

Not really, because it's so close with the VRS. To be honest, we just played really well at this event and we for sure can take it further into the next event. We're traveling tomorrow to Fragadelphia, so it's just straight out of this event into Fragadelphia, which is pretty cool. I'm also really looking forward to going to the USA.

But I don't feel to much pressure to be honest, we're just playing and the guys are also really good at handling the pressure. We could feel it a little bit today, in the final, that, 'Okay, we're playing the final now, we need to chill a bit, chill out the comms a bit,' but for sure we did good here.

On raalz wanting to return to a Major for the first time since ESL One Katowice 2014 and how much it would mean:

For sure. That I have not been to a Major in over 10 years is just so annoying for me. Like, imagine, I've been to the first two Majors in CS and then haven't been to anything since that, so for sure it's really important for me to grind these games now in Philadelphia. And this event was also insanely important, just for the confidence, to see we can actually beat teams like Liquid twice. But yeah, it's really important for me, personally, and I'm also up in age now so I really want to get to a Major again.

On how he would sum up the tournament:

Incredible. No, to be honest, I'm super happy with everybody, they did an amazing job. It might be the best 9INE we have seen so far I would even say, so yeah. We have to keep it up now.

Liquid walked from Birch Cup with a third-place finish after beating Partizan in a decider match, after which Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek swung by HLTV's microphone to give his thoughts on the team's debut event with Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski.

On beating Partizan 2-0 and the final day of the event:

It's been a very long day. Probably one of the most exhausting days I've had on LAN, in terms of the amount of games played and what games we played. I'm proud of the team, how they handled all those situations with setting up and moving places to a different area to play. The mentality that they showed throughout kind of got us through this last game for third place.

On the first tournament with EliGE, practice, and difference between him and Twistzz:

They're two completely different players. They both have their positives and negatives. Right now with Jon, we've not had a lot of time, three days of practice and just this tournament, which I don't think is enough material to say what the big difference is at the moment, but definitely showing a lot of good signs.

A lot of people don't see that changing one player, especially of the caliber that EliGE is, is that a lot of things will change for the whole team. And for us especially, where we had to change some roles as well. It's not just bringing in a player, slot him in, and move on, it's a very different move. We have to take a lot of factors into consideration.

But for now he's showing a lot of good things which have already impacted our game. For example, his communication is very clear, he has really good ideas for himself, and he's working really well with our AWPer. For now, just by these couple of games and the practice we had, there are a lot of positives to say about him, but obviously the more material we get, the more I can tell you about him.

On how much trust and freedom the organization gives him and if EliGE's transfer was discussed with him:

Yes, it was all discussed, we all knew about it, and we thought it was the best for both parties. That's all I will say about it.

On what a satisfying Major result would be:

At the moment, it is difficult to say. Our calendar is very packed, and even today we were thinking about the practice schedule. It's looking very difficult for us right now because, looking back 1-2 months ago, we were in a very difficult situation with not having a lot of tournaments. Now we are reaching a stage where there are a little bit too many of them because we had to pick up some of the events that other teams don't play, so it's difficult to say what we are aiming for at the Major right now.

Our goal is just to get comfortable with Jon, see what we can do, and once we have more material with him, then we can say what goals we have at the Major. But at the moment it's difficult to say, it's even difficult to say how much time for practice we'll have with our calendar because we're going tournament after tournament right now.

Stream link

9INE have been in excellent form during their Birch Cup run, taking down Liquid on their way to a semi-final spot.

Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann spoke with HLTV's man on the ground to discuss their run this far, their race for Major qualification, and the impact of new AWPer Mădălin-Andrei "⁠MoDo⁠" Mirea.

On match vs. Johnny Speeds:

The maps were expected for us. Of course we knew we would pick Inferno and expected they would pick Nuke, so we had good preparation against Johnny Speeds. It felt a bit hard on Nuke because to be honest Nuke is not our best map, and they're not that bad on Nuke, so it was a good game. We lost close and stupid rounds, especially me, I think I lost every clutch I had.

In the end we are really happy with our 2-0, MoDo played really insane and carried us on Nuke all the way, every round he carried. It feels really good to be in the semi-finals now.

On his own good form this tournament:

I don't know, I just try to play the game. I didn't feel that well when I arrived here in Poland but now I feel better. I just play my game and it feels really good, the team is giving me a lot of trust, especially BERRY, he gives me the most trust of any coach I have ever worked with. That's why I feel confident, I can do my plays and I know that if I die and do something stupid, I know he won't be mad at me, he will just say "nice try." That gives me a lot of confidence. I'm trying to get my form back like it was back then, and with the work of this team and especially BERRY, I will be even better in the future.

On pressure of Major qualification race:

Of course there's always pressure when you play for a Major. It's important for every organization out there in CS to make the Major and it's the same with 9INE. Of course we also want to make it and there's always this little extra pressure, knowing in the back of your mind that we actually need to qualify, but we try to keep it as cool as we can. We try not to make any pressure, but of course you have it.

I don't really know the VRS system like other guys on Twitter, they know it really good, but for example when we win games, we only gain maybe 15 points, but if we lose, it's 40 points. It's weird, sometimes you play games just to not lose instead of just to win. I know Gentle Mates played against ex-Inner Circle, they probably only played it to not lose. I don't know how many points they lost, but a lot of points, so I think they just wanted to play it to not lose these points.

On MoDo:

There's a lot of good things about our new AWPer, MoDo. First of all he's really strong individually, he's hitting all his shorts, the hard ones, the easy ones, it doesn't even matter, he is hitting everything. He's good in clutches, but the best part about him is that he's never tilted, never mad, he's always in a good mood. He's hyping the team up especially when we are down, 0-7 or something, he still has good mood and is motivating every one of us. Right now he's the perfect AWPer you can get.

On facing Liquid:

They have a new player, EliGE, and he wrote on Twitter that they only had five days of practice, I think this is in our favour. Especially because yesterday we won against them pretty convincingly I would say, so we are confident that we can do the same now even though it's a best-of-three and even though they're the favorites. I think we can beat them.