M80 and Team Secret stole the show yesterday with an outstanding and heated series that ended with the green roster prevailing over the crowd favourites.
- Check out our M80 2-1 Team Secret match stats here
The North American's victory against the European mix means that, for the first time in almost three years in the scene, M80 have made it to the Top 4 of a BLAST R6 Major. Before Munich, M80 had accumulated a total of four wins in Siege Majors—the same tally of wins the team has collected in Munich alone.
Seeing M80 thriving is only good news for the Americans, who missed out on the Siege X EWC 2025 after falling apart in the Stage 1 playoffs. Considering the team's Six Invitational 2025 drama was still recent, a good result at international heights was very needed. Munich seems to be the case, but it can get better.
M80's growth across the season has been great. As Leonardo "Kyno" Figueiredo said before the start of the BLAST R6 Major Munich, "one of the most important things in esports is losing" because that's when the important, season-changing talks take place. Defeats like the ones the team has experienced, more specifically their losses against Spacestation in the playoffs of Stage 1 and Stage 2, are results that have shaped this squad.
Only a well-tempered, mature squad could beat Team Secret in Munich; and that's exactly how M80 looked like.
Against Team Secret, M80 had one plan: play slow. Team Secret's aggression was putting M80 in difficult positions, as seen on Border. Consulate went slightly differently, a map that the Americans dominated. It all went down to Kafe.
"It was all about our heads and the way we approached the game because we were very emotional and stressed, during the first two rounds I would say. Then, we calmed ourselves down," Fabian "Fabian" Hällsten explained in a post-match interview with SiegeGG.
The Russian map was a mix of feelings. As expected, Team Secret were going for strong, aggressive fights. M80 were trying to keep the playstyle they wanted to play, but Fabian admitted that was very difficult. After Marc "jume" Steinmann's clutch, that's when the Swede asked for the magic time out.
"So, I told them to calm down, follow the game plan, we talked about having a really, really, really slow game plan because Secret they like to swing, so if they give us picks... so, then, well, slow gameplay would be great. We didn't play slow, we stressed up. We got an entry kill with the grenade, I don't know if it was first or second attack run, it doesn't matter. We got an entry kill, 5v4... what do we do? We speed up! I was like... guys, game play was to speed down! So it's like, an excitement thing."
"I think more like raw, human emotions, they take over rather than your head. So, you allow yourself to be controlled by your emotions, and that's why you speed up, and they just needed a fucking reminder to just get back on track. So, it was mostly about, backs against a wall, do we take the fate into our own hands or we allow it to take care of us?"
After the time out, M80 got control of their own fate. The rounds started to roll in and, eventually, M80 came up on top after winning four back-to-back attacks on Kafe.
"This team is so self-sufficient. We have three guys, which is Leo (Kyno), Matt (Hotancold), and also Shawn (Gunnar)... they are so flexible mid-game that I don't have to tell them what to do because they will spot something and then that's what they decide to go for," Fabian explained.
When asked about how previous experiences have shaped the M80 roster, Fabian was clear: players aren't given enough time to show their true potential. "I think that one important thing that a lot of esports miss out on is time. They don't give their rosters enough time to shape and take form."
"Siege is also, if we look at it, we don't have many events. So if you keep replacing a player every three, six, nine months, well... how are you going to build up team cohesion for the long term, how are you going to build up something that allows you to build something that everyone understands each other, know what they are supposed to do, supposed to do next, the way they approach situations... if you change players all of the time, which M80 used to do... then you will never build that success. Projects aren't six months," Fabian said.
Looking at their next opponent, back at when we spoke with Fabian, M80 still didn't know who they would be playing against today. Still, Fabian was completely sure about his team's chances. "I don't really give a shit who we play, we have to beat everyone to be the champions... if we beat G2 or we beat Wildcard or we beat Jesus Christ himself, I couldn't give a shit."
The Swede mentioned the team being way stronger than their back-then potential opponents, saying "the one thing we have over both teams however is we have a bigger map pool over them." "We have a bigger map pool, nobody dominates us on the bans," he added.
Finally, we asked Fabian about his greatness in Siege X. At some point in yesterday's game, Parker "Interro" Mackay said that calling Fabian a king wasn't enough, he would prefer God. Technically, the Swede is three wins away from winning his second Major. Considering he also has three hammers and many more regional and international championships, he always is in the Siege best player ever debate. When asked about it, the Swede, using his own words, "couldn't care less."
"I really don't give a shit, this is a conversation for the fans to have. If I am the greatest, okay, sure, fine with me. I am never happy. I don't care, I can win 200 more events and I still want that 200 and first. I am never satisfied. I thought I was satisfied, that's why I went to Korea to build a project with the shitiest region in the game. I tried to make something great off that, sure, we got a team that never really qualified for events to beat some of the best teams in the world, Shaiiko included. If he was the greatest player of all time, maybe he should've beat my Koreans. So, we don't have to go further on that discussion, so, I don't think it matters who it is, that's for the fans to decide. If that's me, sure, fine. I am happy with that. But, in the end, I want to win more."
He has the chance to win more on Sunday, but, to do so, M80 will have to win two games today: one against Wildcard and the other one against either FaZe Clan or Team Falcons.
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