Falcons arrived in Malta as the heavy favorite to take home the Thunderpick World Championship trophy, and have taken their first steps toward that by sweeping Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opener.
But Danny "zonic" Sørensen told HLTV after the match that although the team is in need of a trophy after a rough start to the Fall season, their focus remains on the process — primarily in figuring out their CT sides, stabilizing their map pool, and resolving their issues when playing against the best teams.
"Sometimes we tend to stress a lot when we come into the big stage this season, and right now it's a bit tough to figure out why," zonic said. "We have gotten some extra help in terms of listening to the communication and seeing if there are some differences. But it felt like a mix of being a bit scared and stressed in these games."
The Dane also spoke about the team's mentality since winning the Cologne Major, admitting that the title win made them, and the community, overestimate where they were at as a team.
"We put a lot of expectations on ourselves after that win, and then when we don't reach those expectations, I think we start to get easily frustrated that things are not clicking," he said. "And I think that has put us in a bit of a setback, to be honest, this season."
Listen to the interview here.
Danny, a 2-0 victory to start off the tournament. An overtime win on Ancient, now a much more dominant performance here on Dust2. Give me your thoughts on the series, first of all.
A karrigan series, I would say. Overall, a good win. NIP is coming off a hot period. New lineup, new IGL. We've been working a lot now on Ancient, also changed up a bit. Smooth sailing on Dust2, tough game on Ancient, and still room for improvement, but it was good to see that some of the adjustments that we have made have been helpful.
As you said, the karrigan series. With the latest results, there's been a lot of criticism aimed at karrigan, mainly at his individual level. How do you think that he's handling that, and what is the team doing to help him get back on track and do what he does best?
It's very clear to me, and also what Finn [karrigan] has been told and what the community should know, is that we never brought Finn into this team for his firepower. So it's about leadership. And of course, we want to try and help him gain one or two percent individually, but this is not the alarming clock as of now. What people don't see is that Finn is bringing five, ten percent extra to some of the other players, especially Maxim [kyousuke], when things are going well. So this is what his role is. Firepower-wise, we should be pretty good with the rest of the squad.
So I think he's been taking it well, having some talks, of course, but mainly his focus is on the team and how he can help in that department, not so much about his firepower. It's more on the CT side where we need to figure out how we can approach things on a regular basis.
It is no secret that the team has been trying to expand the map pool and move away from picking Dust2 all the time. For example, in Porto you picked Ancient a lot. In EPL you picked Anubis a lot. How did you feel about the map pool heading into this event?
Not as good as I did before Porto, to be honest. It was a bit of a shock, because obviously we try to experiment with different maps so we don't end up playing the same two maps as it happened in the past. I think it's very important that, if you look at the bigger picture coming into a Major, you actually have a really good understanding of your map pool. And sometimes we end up just playing pretty much the same three, maybe four different maps.
When we picked Ancient in Porto, we came off a really good streak in practice where things seemed to be clicking really well. And in order for you to actually find out where you are standing, you have to play the maps. And that's why we decided to go from there.
And yeah, right now it's probably just a little bit the same story. Now it was important to find out where we are on Ancient, but not going into picking it, but obviously leaving it open, and yeah, there it's the same story on some of the other maps where we've also made a lot of adjustments. So yeah, we'll have to see.
Let's talk a bit about what happened in EPL. Against Vitality, you had a fantastic Anubis, but on the other two maps, you didn't stand much of a chance. Against Spirit, it was a 0-2 defeat. What are the main takeaways from that event?
It's a lot about our reaction, especially against Vitality. Sometimes we tend to stress a lot when we come into the big stage this season, and right now it's a bit tough to figure out why. We have gotten some extra help in terms of listening to the communication and seeing if there are some differences. But it felt like a mix of being a bit scared and stressed in these games.
I think it was a bit more of a mental thing against Vitality, but against Spirit it was different things that we are still looking into. And then I also just have to give credit to Spirit and Vitality; they're definitely a step ahead of us right now. But yeah, again, as I said before, we're looking at the bigger picture and trying to adjust as many things as possible before the end of the year.
But it was not just EPL. One of the main talking points about the team this season is that you've been unable to beat top-five teams, right? You lost to MOUZ, twice to Spirit, and now Vitality. Why do you think that the team is struggling so much against this caliber of teams?
I think one thing is a little bit the mentality of the team. Still very young and coming off the gates pretty much in — what was it? — 60 days we won the Major with karrigan. I think we put a lot of expectations on ourselves after that win, and then when we don't reach those expectations, I think we start to get easily frustrated that things are not clicking. And I think that has put us in a bit of a setback, to be honest, this season.
We are still trying to define the system and working on things, and unfortunately, it's not gone at the same pace that we would have liked it to. But I think the win in Cologne maybe made the community, but especially also ourselves, overestimate where we were as a team, and that hurt us when things didn't go as we wanted.
You'll have a bit of a break after this tournament; you're not playing in Bucharest. What are you going to do with that time, and how important would it be to win this trophy before that final stretch of the season with Beijing and then the Major?
Obviously, it's always good to win a trophy, and it's something that I can feel the team is needing — some positives, and also some payoff after a lot of hard work. So it means a lot, whether it's here or in some of the other tournaments, but showing that we are there and we are on the right path is really important. And obviously, this tournament is a good start to this final journey of this year. But for me, I've always taken it one game at a time. Now we beat NIP, and then we go for the next game. So I don't think that far ahead in the future regarding this.
It's just about the process and how we are working. We saw some good things on Ancient today, but we also saw that there is still a lot of work to be done, and this is at the micro level where my focus is right now, and not so much about how it would feel to win this tournament or one of the other two. I just want to see that we are making progress.
Now about something completely different but also close to your heart with Astralis moving away from a Danish core. How does that make you feel, especially looking at the current state of the Danish scene?
Obviously I can see a world where it had to happen in some sense. I know some of the guys who own Astralis, and I know it's obviously a business and they have to do whatever is best for Astralis, and sometimes the decision can be to move away from a Danish core. On a personal level, of course, it's sad. This is the Danish flagship, and I know there are still a lot of Astralis supporters who are Danish, and this is obviously taking a bit of a hit.
But also, on the other hand, I think it was around one year ago where they were, I don't know, hours away from maybe going bankrupt, and I would rather see Astralis alive, and hopefully they can rebuild something around this new team. Astralis is still very close to my heart, and it's sad that it's not Danish, but it doesn't matter as long as they find success.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Martin 'stavn' Lund
Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck
Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa
Adam 'adamb' Ångström
Kacper 'xKacpersky' Gabara
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Falcons
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen