CaliberJacob: Talking to [Davide "FoxA" Bucci] from Oxygen Esports after what was, in a lot of cases, I think the fastest game I think we've seen in competition for quite some time in the semifinals against Astralis. Not the situation we thought we'd find you guys in, we figured it was going to be close and instead it turned into a bloodbath in one direction. So, if you could sum up briefly, what do you think was the main cause of today?
FoxA: We always have a kryptonite vs. NA teams, especially at international events. We're so good against international teams, and then we play against NA, and it's just like we don't know what to do. They actually overperformed, and knew everything that we would originally do and all of our, like, alternate takes.
They just played really well on countering what we did, and we were just way too slow to the adaptation. Yeah. We just got smoked.
CaliberJacob: [It was] a really resounding beginning to the tournament, didn't have too many things to worry about coming into playoffs, there was a lot of momentum to ride from, then for some reason today, it's just one big stall-out. Does this come as a shock, given how everything else in the tournament felt like it was very closely fought, and then today happened?
FoxA: Like I said, we always knew it was going to be a difficult game against any NA team. I guess the one NA team specifically that I guess we were expecting this to come from might've been DZ because their playstyle counters us really well. And Astralis, you know, we thought we matched up pretty well against them, but they have improved phenomenally since the stage that we played them. I think they just got more time under their belt. And they just ... they put in the work. You gotta say they put in the work, because they kinda knew everything we were doing.
CaliberJacob: And maybe a bit too early for a look back, because you had two new players coming into the roster for the first time, Stage 1 expectations for yourselves might've been high, but there were some things that you had to calculate because there were two new players coming in: this is still a top-four result at a Major, is that satisfactory for Stage 1?
FoxA: Um, yeah. A lot of people forget that you know, we also made a new roster change, and at the end of the day, we aren't that team that's like "ehhh look at our new players, don't, oh, we need time as a team", we knew we were going to be top four, we knew we were going to the Major, and we knew we'd have a good run. It's about how quickly we could get everyone on the same track.
Did we expect to get top four in NAL? Yes. Did we expect to get top four here? You know, I think we just really wanted to showcase our talents against international teams, because we knew we could perform really well, and I think getting top four and losing out to another NA team with our new roster ... obviously we're not happy about it, but you can't be mad at something like that.
CaliberJacob: You, [Gabriel "LaXinG" Mirelez] and [Frankie "VertcL" Cordero] have been a trio for a while, that's something that can't really be questioned in terms of like longevity and skill, but how proud are you of [Mitch "Dream" Malson] and [Ethan "Nuers" James] for coming into this roster and doing what they helped you achieve?
FoxA: Oh, they played amazing, especially with Nuers, for his first event, that guy, his confidence was through the roof. He did everything we needed him to do. You don't see that in a lot of new players, especially at their first event, and then Dream, you know, he isn't a new player but this is also his first event, his first international event. I think he was showing his clutch potential and everything that he could really bring to the team. And yeah, I think with more time obviously maybe it'll be a different outcome next Major.
CaliberJacob: Anything you want to say to the fans before I let you go?
FoxA: To the fans, everyone that watched online, thank you so much for supporting us. Sorry we had such an abysmal last game, but, you know, we did what we could up until now, and then the love that we've been receiving has been ridiculous, especially here at the venue. It makes us happy, we're usually the ones that no one cheers for, and it felt nice knowing that there's a majority of people cheering for us this time around, so thank you.