G2 are now 2-0 in the Swiss format and are one win away from a place in the playoffs, beating Copenhagen Flames and FaZe in their first two matches in Stockholm on the back of a couple of impressive Terrorist sides on Ancient and Mirage.
After the affair against the European mixture, we sat down with NiKo to hear from him about G2 entering the Major in good shape, having struggled for form ever since they came back from the player break a few months ago.
NiKo sounded cautiously optimistic about G2’s run so far
The Bosnian superstar shared that a change of mindset was all the team needed, highlighting that the Major was always the main focus ever since he joined the team last year. “We just went in with the mindset that it’s a new start, just this event existing right now, and there’s nothing else but the Major.”
NiKo also gave us his thoughts on the team’s improvement on the Terrorist sides, where they had had issues in recent tournaments, a shift of the side balance on Ancient at this event, and talked about where G2 stands among the competition and whom he considers the most dangerous teams.
As you’re coming into the Major off a pretty rough period after the player break, what kind of mood did you enter the tournament with?
Yeah, we didn’t have the best start to the season, then we had a decent IEM Fall showing, and going back to BLAST it wasn’t looking good at all, but we just said to ourselves that it didn’t really matter what happened before this event. We know that this is the most important event and we also set a goal, once I joined, that everything we do we do for this event, as well. We totally forgot what happened in the past. We couldn’t change it, and we didn’t think at all about what happened, we just focused on this event, and we forgot everything. We know we didn’t play well before this, but we know that our peak is pretty high on LAN and that we cannot lose to many teams on LAN if we play well. It was just about us finding our form here.
Was there something in particular you focused on in preparation to make sure that you do come in in good form? What did the preparation look like?
The preparation we had, the five days after this BLAST Showdown, we didn’t have big preparation coming into this tournament. We didn’t change anything drastically, we just talked about some mistakes that we had done at the previous events, and that’s it. Just the most important thing was the mindset that we set for this event, and we changed our mindset completely, and that’s why it helped us a lot during these two games.
If we went in with the mindset that ‘oh, we’re not performing so good lately,’ that we lost to some teams we shouldn’t have, then we would have been struggling here as well. But we just went in with the mindset that it’s a new start, just this event existing right now, and there’s nothing else but the Major.
We just went in with the mindset that it’s a new start, just this event existing right now, and there’s nothing else but the Major.
We’ve seen some big T sides from you so far, even on Ancient that is considered a heavily CT-sided map. What do you think you’ve improved on there after you struggled on the T sides in the past few months?
First of all, I think the T side is played completely differently on LAN. I think people don’t take the same initiative as CT as they do online. People don’t do the same rotations, people hesitate more, and you can also do more individual things on T side because you’re just more confident. I think that’s the big reason why our T sides have been looking better on LAN than online. Our CT side’s not looking as good as it did online, as well, just because I think it’s much easier to play as T on LAN than online. At least that’s how I felt.
We didn’t change anything, we just played, and it’s only two games, so it’s very early to say that we are good on T side or whatever. So far, I’m really happy with the performances we put on T side, especially that we were down on almost all halves we played. Both halves against Copenhagen flames we started 1-3 or 1-4, we lost the antiforce, and the same thing happened against FaZe. So I’m happy that we managed to bounce back and still win the half, which we couldn’t do at the past events at all. As soon as we lost the forcebuy, we were just doing even worse.
What was it like matching up against Copenhagen Flames again, after you lost the close Nuke to them back at IEM Fall? What was different this time?
I think we actually felt pretty confident when we found out we were going to play them. I don’t know, they looked good at the previous stage, and they’ve looked good generally in the last month or so. I don’t know, we’re just confident for this Major, and no matter who the opponent is on the other side, we know people put up a really good fight. As you mentioned, it was a very close game versus them last time, and we think we should have won that game against them last time, but some things didn’t go our way. I think here maybe the veto also went our way, I don’t think they expected us to play Ancient, so I don’t think they were that ready.
I think the biggest reason Ancient got balanced is because of this molotov that you can do on the T side
Talking about Ancient, something that I’ve noticed here is that it has become much more balanced in terms of CT versus T after it started out heavily CT sided. Do you think the meta has shifted on it?
I think the reason why it got shifted so much is because of this bug molotov that you can do on mid. It gives a lot of space to Ts because you can’t fight mid that much nowadays as CT, you give a lot of space to Ts, and it’s also hard to take space on the other side. I think that’s the big reason why Terrorists are having more success as of recently. It’s hard to hold some of the sites, on B it’s very hard to hold. It’s a different map than the others, for sure. But I think the biggest reason it got balanced is because of this molotov that you can do on the T side, which I don’t think should be allowed, but it is, and you basically have the whole control with a smoke and a molotov, and you can do whatever you want from there on.
You’re going into the BO3s, in which you’ve had a terrible record since you came back from the break. How do you feel about your map pool here?
We feel confident in general. We’re making inside jokes like we’re really good in BO1s because we win most of them. Maybe it’s better preparation, we always get the map that we are good on. Everyone also knows we struggled a little bit lately on Vertigo, but we have worked a lot on it as well because that was really our weak point. We improved on it, and I’m really looking forward to play it against someone, because I think we’re going to do much better. In general, as I said, we feel confident to play against anyone, and I think we cannot lose to many teams here except maybe NAVI, Gambit, NIP… But other teams, I feel like we won’t have too many problems if we keep playing like this. The map doesn’t matter.
There was no team who did something amazing other than NAVI, so I think all the other teams are very beatable
Is that where you feel you stand among the competition, then, among that top four?
I think NAVI is just one step ahead of everyone, while the other teams, no one has really been consistent ever since the season started. There was no team who did something amazing other than NAVI, so I think all the other teams are very beatable, and it’s going to all be down to us, how we perform.
Does that shift your expectations for the event and your goals, seeing that all these teams look very beatable? How far do you think you can take it here?
We obviously want to go as deep as possible at this event. First thing I think for everyone is to secure the playoffs and playing in the arena for the first time in ages, it’s going to mean a lot to everyone. All the players and all the teams have the same goal, just to get to the playoffs, and then from there on the game is also changing a little bit. If we get to playoffs, then you never know what’s going to happen, but I think as of right now we have a really good chance of making it there. It’s hard to say how far we can go, but so far we are looking good and I just hope we’ll keep up this mood and spirit in the team, and no matter what happens I just want to be out there fighting for each round, fighting together, and that’s the most important thing for me. I think if we do that, we can go far.
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