"We just had a failure to close out the last 30 seconds": Soniqs detail Empire loss, rest of group stage hopes

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It has only been one match but Soniqs already appear to have improved over their past international performances. 

That’s a bit of a backhanded compliment, but it’s true — the North American League champions pushed perennial Russian powerhouse Team Empire to the brink of defeat in an eventual 1-2 loss. That’s a sight better than their previous Major group stage performances, in which they’ve only won one best-of-one apiece. 

“We just had a failure to close out the last 30 seconds of most of those rounds,” said Seth “supr” Hoffman. 

Soniqs had won Clubhouse 7-4, and just won their attacking half on Oregon 4-2. Things were looking great, then they fell apart rapidly. 

Amid comparisons to Evil Geniuses’ choke against Team Empire on the very same map, Soniqs floundered down the stretch, losing Oregon 7-8. Empire would go on to take map three, Coastline, 7-5. 

“It’s not something we’re worried about,” added supr. “We think we played extremely well outside of those last 30 seconds.”

With three best-of-threes ahead and Empire looking poised to be one of the strongest in this group stage, Soniqs aren’t too terribly pressed about the loss. Tomorrow, they’ll face SANDBOX, who upset NiP 2-1 before getting knocked off themselves by MNM Gaming 0-2. 

International success has been the last step of the plan that’s eluded Soniqs since the Mexico Major. One of the things they say they’ve changed since last time is their map pool – it keeps expanding. 

“Here we are, at the end of the year, with a full map pool. We play all seven maps,” claimed Alexander “Yeti” Lawson. 

What happens in scrimmages is opaque, but the numbers do somewhat back this up. Soniqs have played every map in the map pool, professionally, at least twice since June — except Kafe Dostoyevsky. They’ve banned Kafe Dostoyevsky 27 times in that time period. 

This Six Invitational might be the closest SI in terms of team quality ever. The Global Standings points system seems to have worked, no team here is a slouch. 

“I don’t think there’s a team to beat in our group,” said supr. “All the teams in our group are good, all the teams at Invite are good.”

With the knowledge of how they let the first match of the tournament slip away, Soniqs are primed and ready to face SANDBOX in the first game of the morning, tomorrow Feb. 10.