Q: You successfully made it to the Lanxess Arena, how do you feel?

A: I feel great, this is my first time making it to the Cologne playoffs, everyone wants to play in the arena, and everyone wants to go further in the competition.

After this match, I feel even better. It was a tough game, very stressful, both sides went back and forth and took it to the third map. In a situation where anything could happen, I'm glad the team pulled through in the end.

Q: Is the Lanxess Arena one of the events you've always dreamed of?

A: Of course, even when I first started playing CS, I saw many iconic highlights and big wins at the Lanxess Arena. The Lanxess Arena makes you want to be a part of it and lift the championship trophy.

Q: Talk about your mindset going into the BO3 against FaZe?

A: It was very stressful. Especially after the first map, Inferno, to be honest, it was a classic script against FaZe. We made too many mistakes, and after losing the economy rounds, we let our economy collapse.

We knew what to do, but sometimes things got messy, and we ended up with an abstract 4v2 in the final round. So I think Inferno was a bit chaotic.

Coming into Dust2, we calmed down, but FaZe is still a team that can come back from behind. They never give up, which always makes the match particularly tough.

It's always difficult to beat a team like FaZe. But now that we've done it, it feels great. Going into the third map, we were always confident, knowing we just needed to put in as much effort as possible.

We knew we needed a stronger desire to win, and that's why we were able to beat them, and it definitely worked today.

Q: flameZ mentioned in an interview that it was easy to face FaZe at the end of 2023, but this year you had a tough time against FaZe. Why do you think the team was able to win today?

A: I think they are also going through a tough period. They may also lack confidence.

As for us, currently, Vitality is in a stage of believing in each other and believing in our training. After the break, our preparation work was very good, and all the efforts we put in were not just for the previous eSports World Cup but also for the Cologne event and the Major at the end of the year.

Whether individually or as a team, we have been working hard, so in this match, we were full of confidence because we know how much the team wants to succeed and how hard we have worked. We just need to keep reminding ourselves of this, and that's why today's match went smoothly.

Q: You didn't win any trophies in the first half of the year. Do you think it's just because the honeymoon period is over, so you need to solve the problems that weren't obvious when you first joined?

A: If it was the IEM Katowice event at the beginning of the year, I would definitely say so.

At that time, we were the best team in the world, which was a bit different. Because FaZe was undergoing changes, they brought in frozen and others, but I think at Katowice, even if we made the right plans and did what we usually do, because we were the best team in the world, our opponents would try harder to make a comeback, and maybe we weren't fully prepared for that.

For the rest of this year, I think the team's condition is still good. We made it to several finals and should have won in Dallas. Overall, we were close to the finals, just with some mistakes. We spent a lot of time adjusting during the break.

In these finals and important matches, it is these small details that determine the outcome of the match, and when facing the best teams, they will take advantage of these small details. It is always difficult in these matches, but we made many adjustments and worked hard to overcome these losses.

Q: Can you review your results from last season?

A: It feels really bad to miss out on the championship in the finals. At a club like Vitality, we hope to win these matches, and the team and players are used to winning.

It was very difficult at the time, and we were very disappointed. But looking back, if we could win in Cologne or lift the Major trophy, the unhappy memories would disappear.

Therefore, we can still see the positive aspects of our performance, our play was very stable, and we achieved good results. Everyone knows we can go further, we just need a little more to lift the trophy. Therefore, I am very confident about this time in Cologne.