Photo via Ubisoft/@kirill_vision
Wolves entered the Charlotte Major swinging, like they had nothing to lose.
They truly don’t. They played under the LFO tag in the past stage and announced their new organization, Wolves, right before the Charlotte Major they qualified for. “Why Wolves, why not?” said head coach Laurie “Lyloun” Lagier when asked about the team’s decision-making in selecting an organization. Valentin “risze” Liradelfo says that the team felt like they had a warm welcome, and says that the Major itself is “a great bonus”.
With Wolves, the future is bright. The players can stop focusing on the next day, and start focusing on the long-term future.
Wolves have started strong in the server, but not as strong as they might’ve liked. A 7-4 victory over Chiefs led to a matchup with North America’s number one seed – Astralis – and for a second it looked like Wolves were going to run them out of the server as well.
A strong Kafe Dostoyevsky attacking half led to a 5-2 Wolves lead at one point. They took advantage of Astralis’s overextensions, and pulled the trigger on some of the cleanest executes seen thus far.
Despite double-digit kills from veteran Bastien “BiBooAF” Dulac, Astralis came back with a vengeance to push overtime. After the map was pushed to 7-7, maximum overtime, Wolves dealt what felt like a killing blow to Astralis’s hopes – for about 90 seconds.
They dealt with David “iconic” Ifidon and Matthew “DPFire” Macway, Astralis’s two top fraggers, without losing a player. They were up 5-3 in man count, on defense, and looked to be taking home five points. “They played it well,” risze said. “They made the difference by isolating us one-by-one, that can happen on a map like Kafe.”
All the same, Wolves notched a big four points, and depending on how the final matches of today’s group stages pan out, could be leading the group by the end of the day.
However, if they want to make it past Wednesday, they’ll need to win games like that matchup with Astralis – not just snag a point from overtime.
“The truth is, we came out of the second game with ideas, and we have a pretty clear mind with what we want to do for the next game against Astralis to start with … we know what we want to do, want to try, want to set up for tomorrow,” Lyloun said.
“Productivity” is the key for Wolves, she adds. With some film on each team, they can now get more preparation in for the teams in their group – one of which is old foe and fellow Frenchmen BDS.