apEX: "Play like it's zero-zero, not zero-one"

Vitality were nearly vanquished here at BLAST Open Porto; instead, they came out the victors.

It’s an all-too-familiar story: every time this side gets knocked on their feet, they get up again. This time though, when FURIA took Nuke in the convincing manner that they did, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it’d be different. But, thanks to Cache, Vitality kept their tournament hopes alive before being given the chance to close on Dust II, their old stomping ground.

After the game, we spoke to apEX about their T-sides, how they recovered, and if Cache caught them out. Here’s what he said:

First of all, congratulations on making it to the semifinals. I want to start with Nuke. T-sides, since the Legacy game, have been a little shaky. What's going on there?

Thank you. I think right now the problem is that it's a really technical map, and we felt we could do good. Actually, with jL, we did really good practice with him. But in official, we lacked a lot of stuff, and today was like it's difficult because we got really stomped and had no mid-round where we were going at all. So it was pretty difficult, and they came pretty prepared.

And then after that map one, obviously not the result you guys want. When you go into the huddle outside in this beautiful park, what do you guys talk about to stay focused?

I just tell them that fck Nuke, like fck what happened. Anyway, it's a best-of-three; you need to win two maps. So no, they just act and play like it's zero-zero. Not like it's zero-one. Because sometimes it tends to play a bit worse, and you're a bit scared, and we started to play well.

And beside losing both pistols on Cache, we won the game. And that's really tough, you know, nowadays. I feel like when you lose both pistols, you tend to lose the game I think at 80% of the time, and we made it happen on Cache.

Were you surprised that they picked Cache? Because it's a map neither of you have a lot of data on.

Yeah. A bit. A bit, to be honest. We thought they would pick Mirage, but we were still ready on Cache for third or for something. So, yeah, we were a bit surprised, but not totally surprised.

Final question. Game tomorrow, how are you feeling about it? Anything you think we should watch out for?

For us, right now, we know if we play well and we step up a bit, we can win, but that's not the goal. The goal is to play better and better after each game. I think that playing with a stand-in is never easy, but we can make it happen.### First of all, congratulations on making it to the semifinals. I want to start with Nuke. T-sides, since the Legacy game, have been a little shaky. What's going on there?

Thank you. I think right now the problem is that it's a really technical map, and we felt we could do good. Actually, with jL, we did really good practice with him. But in official, we lacked a lot of stuff, and today was like it's difficult because we got really stomped and had no mid-round where we were going at all. So it was pretty difficult, and they came pretty prepared.

And then after that map one, obviously not the result you guys want. When you go into the huddle outside in this beautiful park, what do you guys talk about to stay focused?

I just tell them that fck Nuke, like fck what happened. Anyway, it's a best-of-three; you need to win two maps. So no, they just act and play like it's zero-zero. Not like it's zero-one. Because sometimes it tends to play a bit worse, and you're a bit scared, and we started to play well.

And beside losing both pistols on Cache, we won the game. And that's really tough, you know, nowadays. I feel like when you lose both pistols, you tend to lose the game I think at 80% of the time, and we made it happen on Cache.

Were you surprised that they picked Cache? Because it's a map neither of you have a lot of data on.

Yeah. A bit. A bit, to be honest. We thought they would pick Mirage, but we were still ready on Cache for third or for something. So, yeah, we were a bit surprised, but not totally surprised.

Final question. Game tomorrow, how are you feeling about it? Anything you think we should watch out for?

For us, right now, we know if we play well and we step up a bit, we can win, but that's not the goal. The goal is to play better and better after each game. I think that playing with a stand-in is never easy, but we can make it happen.