ropz: "I told the guys I have a good track record in China; I'm giving them a bit of pressure to make sure we get that result"

The Estonian player wants to make his personal record four out of five in China.

Vitality made it out of the group stage after a lower bracket run and got over the first hurdle of the playoffs, beating Astralis 2-1 in the quarter-finals to set up a grudge match against MOUZ, the team that knocked them down to the lower bracket in the group stage.

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Vitality advance to IEM Chengdu semi-finals over Astralis

"People are really hungry for revenge," the Estonian told HLTV after the quarter-final bout. "They were not happy about the group stage results three days ago, and we just want to make that right. We were really disappointed in how that match went."

Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, on a personal level, wants to keep his win percentage in China high, where has won three of the four tournaments he has played.

Listen to the interview, here.

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Congratulations, to the semis in Chengdu. You had a bit of a winning streak in China, obviously Shanghai last year was a rough one but you won Chengdu. What do you think of making the semis as you look to go back-to-back?

It's true, I told the guys I have a good track record in China. It would have been nice to keep the perfect one, winning Shanghai at the Major with FaZe and being 4/4 with trophies, but now I'm 3/4. It could be 4/5 with this one, so I'm giving the guys a bit of pressure to make sure we get that result (laughs).

But otherwise, we're just trying to build on EPL. The goal was to win a trophy before the Major, and when you win one, you're going to want for more, so that's what we're trying.

Talk to me about the series a bit, did Astralis give you more trouble than you expected?

First of all, I think they're a really good team on Nuke, and we expected a veto like this. In a way, I think they played good, but there was definitely two or three rounds where we made some really silly mistakes, like HooXi killing two through the Main smoke with the Five-SeveN, and the rounds before overtime I think we should have won with apEX in Heaven maybe being a bit unlucky with timings.

So yeah, just some mistakes and unfortunate moments, but they also played well and that's the reason they won the map in the end.

XTQZZZ was telling me about your slow starts at events, that it's not something he wants to see again when you go to Hong Kong. How are you working through that?

I don't really have a direct answer, but from what I can say... you know, comparing to where I came from with FaZe, we were known for having slow starts (laughs). So it's nothing special for me in that sense.

Coming into Vitality, all year round we've gone directly to semis, all really good group stage results, and yeah, I dunno, obviously the team doesn't want to start slow and they're really known for having good group stages.

In terms of improving it, we're just trying to find all the small percentages we can before the tournament in preparation. Just having a hot start means a lot to the team as well.

Going into the semis, it'll be against MOUZ, a rematch after they beat you in the group stage. That made you 8-2 against them this year, so what are you thinking going into that game and the chance for revenge?

People are really hungry for revenge. They were not happy about the group stage results three days ago, and we just want to make that right. We were really disappointed in how that match went.

I feel like we had a chance, and obviously they played well, they had some good individuals shining and it was obviously the reason they won, so this time we just want to do better and make sure we get the win.