Less than three months after putting together their latest roster HEROIC have already secured two trophies, following up their earlier win at Stake Ranked Episode 3 with another victorious campaign in Stake Pulse Beat II. Whilst it hasn't always been smooth sailing in the interim, Antonio "MartinezSa" Martinez was quick to recognize the importance of HEROIC's latest success when speaking with HLTV.
"This tournament I think is so important for us," MartinezSa said in the wake of his team's grand final win over 100 Thieves. "As you said we have been playing many tournaments, many closed qualifiers that we lost, we didn't manage to qualify[...] we managed to win this tournament and it feels really good for us."
Having significantly bolstered his chances of making PGL Major Singapore, MartinezSa spoke with HLTV to discuss his team's tournament victory, give some insight into the way the new HEROIC functions, and their plans for the coming weeks.
You can listen to the interview here.
A very exciting final, tell me how it feels? You have a promising roster on HEROIC, very exciting, but results initially haven't been that great, you haven't really qualified for many tournaments. Now you come here and lift a trophy, so tell me how this has come together?
This tournament I think is so important for us. As you said, we have been playing many tournaments, many closed qualifiers that we lost, we didn't manage to qualify. They were really important because they were S tier tournaments that bring many points. But yeah, anyways, we managed to win this tournament and it feels really good for us. Nothing else to say.
Tell me about Ancient. Backs against the wall, quite a few match points for 100 Thieves, but you managed to fight that off and force Inferno. How was that inside the team, inside the TeamSpeak?
Not gonna lie, we were winning like 10-6, I think from 10-6 it was 10-12. Sometimes we are going quiet when things are not coming like we would like them to come, but I don't know. I think we took a pause, and I don't know, we managed to get to overtime. We showed resilience really well, it's not the first time we showed it. Really good, really good all around.
Going to Inferno it was the susp show, I don't know what else to say. I was definitely not expecting him to be the star of this team, he hasn't been since you put it together, but on Inferno he was unkillable until the last round of the half.
I don't know what to say. I remember for example the round I was holding [from] FalleN, I died because I was trying to kill one and then I changed POV, you know? They were like shooting through the smoke, something like this, and then he [susp] just starts spamming and kills four guys. We were screaming in the TS, it was crazy, and then also he got the ace after pushing the smoke. He did really well in this Inferno, this map especially, but he's doing a really good job overall in the team.
Just to circle back to winning this event: I think maybe from the outside people watching are always looking at the biggest tournaments and the prestige of that, but when I see these two teams here, how you celebrated and 100 Thieves processed this loss, it felt like it meant a lot to both teams. In terms of your goals for the season, where does this put you?
To be honest this kind of tournament is really important, because as we've said it's not tier one, but it's the way to tier one tournaments. That's why we are taking it like it's a tier S tournament. Our goals this season, of course playing the Major, but if we didn't manage to qualify it doesn't matter, we know that we could do it next year. And also we have IEM Beijing, we won that closed qualifier. It's not everything around the Major. So yeah, I think that's it.
Tell me a bit about this team, the combination of players that you have. Brollan came in with a lot of experience, playing all of the big playoffs and winning some S tier tournaments. He's still super young but very experienced. Is he the guy bringing the composure? Who are the biggest voices in the team? How is the team functioning.
Brollan, right now for us, is very important. As you said he brings so much experience to the team, also I have to say he is the second voice in the team right now, he is helping Chr1zN a lot. Of course we are trying to help, because sometimes you have info and have to call something, but right now he is the second voice. He is calling also on some maps, CT side especially. He helps Chr1zN and he helps the team morale a lot.
Who gets the most space, who gets the most flashes thrown for them and who gets to do their own thing the most?
Probably me and nilo… not nilo to be honest because he is just the lurker. We know that he has the star roles, is the star player, but if we talk about plays, it's probably susp or me. If I want to do some peeks or something like this, I will ask for something, if not it's susp who asks for what he needs. It will be probably be me who is trying to help susp do his plays, or what he needs.
I wanted to ask about doto, because he is new for you but is also new to HEROIC in general. What is he bringing from the coaching perspective?
I think he's doing a really good job. Of course I didn't know him before joining HEROIC, he was in HEROIC Academy with the boys. Overall he is doing a really good job, also with our assistant coach, they are doing really good game plans and prep. Also the pauses that he takes sometimes, just to breathe and call what he thinks is the best way to do it, he's doing a really good job.
Looking forwards for you, you are coming back for Stake Pulse in a few weeks and have a few tournaments coming up before the Major cutoff. So what's the plan for you?
I think now we will have maybe one week off, or probably a couple of days, and then we will play the Stake Pulse III. Probably from Sweden we will do insta to DraculaN, and that's probably it I think. We wanted to play Stake as well but we couldn't, because we have to do the media day of IEM Beijing. Probably these are our last two tournaments before the cutoff.
Last thoughts or anything you want to share?
Not really. I'm so happy to be in this team, my first international team. Sometimes it's hard for me because I used to play in Spanish every time, but overall it's really good.
Antonio 'MartinezSa' MartinezPast 3 months
HEROIC
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Linus 'nilo' Bergman
Tim 'susp' Ångström
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez
Christoffer 'Chr1zN' Storgaard
Joonas 'doto' Forss
100 Thieves
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen
William 'sirah' Kjærsgaard
Alex 'poiii' Nyholm Sundgren
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander