malbsMd: "We took a reset, we had a little bit of a burnout traveling and traveling with CS"

Some time off has G2 rejuvenated coming into Chengdu.

G2 beat 3DMAX to kick off their campaign at IEM Chengdu, getting revenge over the Frenchmen who had eliminated them at ESL Pro League and setting up a match against FURIA for a spot in the playoffs.

A break to reset between events has helped the team regain its form, with Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa telling HLTV that they started feeling burned out from all the travel.

"We had a little bit of a burnout, traveling and traveling with CS, and we just needed a mental reset, basically," he said. "We had a break and all that stuff, and now we feel better."

The Guatemalan rifler also touched on the importance of a good result in Chengdu for G2 ahead of the Major as they will miss out on BLAST Rivals Season 2 in Hong Kong.

"It would be really important, just building that confidence before the Major and also since we're not playing in Hong Kong," malbsMd says. "It's really important because if we do good here, people will not know how we're playing for the Major, and we will, so it's good."

Listen to the interview here.

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Congratulations, 2-0 over 3DMAX and perhaps a bit of revenge for them knocking you out of EPL as well. What are your thoughts after that match?

It feels good, obviously whenever you're starting the event there's always a hard game, whoever you play, because you don't know the environment you're playing in and all of that stuff. It's good to start with that win here.

EPL didn't go as you wanted, but you've also already won a tournament this season and it has been a bit of an up-and-down season for a lot of teams. How are you feeling about your form and G2 overall, coming into this event and the end of the season?

We're feeling good. We took a reset, I would say, we had a little bit of a burnout, traveling and traveling with CS, and we just needed a mental reset, basically. We had a break and all that stuff, and now we feel better.

Other than the frequency of matches, is there anything else that was contributing to that burnout?

The traveling is crazy, but I dunno, maybe because we were putting a lot of hours into individual practice as well, so it's not only team practice, it's also individual practice as well. Plus the travel, plus the matches, plus everything, I think it just comes down to that.

How has the team been evolving this season, how are you feeling with that?

I feel we're pretty happy with the team. We're doing really good, we have Matúš [MATYS] and Nikita [HeavyGod] that are playing really good. I'm trying to step up a little bit more as well, I'm getting there, but I'm just happy overall. We took a trophy, as you mentioned before, I think it's enough for a four-month-old team.

You say you're trying to step up, what do you think you need to do that?

I don't know, grow hands (laughs).

We touched on it, you have a trophy this season, a couple of other teams have too. For this last period before the Major, how important is it for you and G2 to maybe get another one to build that confidence, with Vitality coming back into form and things ramping up ahead of the Major?

It would be really important, just building that confidence before the Major and also since we're not playing in Hong Kong. It's really important because if we do good here, people will not know how we're playing for the Major, and we will, so it's good.

You mentioned burnout; since you're not in Hong Kong, do you think this extra practice time before the Major will help more? Some teams have talked about difficulties adapting their playbook because of how frequent matches have been.

Yeah, probably, because we're going to have a bootcamp before the Major, just like every other team does. It's going to be good to not just do China, Hong Kong, and then a bootcamp and then the Major. We have a week of rest, prepare well for the bootcamp, and then go with everything to the Major, so I think it's a really good period we have.

Lastly, you're in the upper bracket, so one match away from the playoffs. You didn't get to play in front of the crowd today, but you could tomorrow. How do you feel about playing in Chengdu and the chance to go into playoffs here?

It feels amazing honestly. I like this idea of this event having a full crowd for the whole event, basically, it's really good and should be implemented more often. But it feels really good, and also we played Shanghai last year and I remember the Chinese crowd, it was really good, so I'm excited to play in front of them of course.