kyxsan and NiKo after Falcons’ loss to Spirit - IEM Rio Interview

Team Falcons were soundly beaten by a rampant Team Spirit on the Rio stage, but we'd like to thank a dejected kyxsan and NiKo for taking the time to speak to us where many may not have - and admit some of the issues going on behind the scenes.

kyxsan: “It’s just a mental problem”

A bit of a tough end of the tournament. I wanted to understand a bit of your perspective, you won this matchup 13-4 and 13-5 just a few days ago. What did Spirit show today that wasn’t on the table before, or what did they do differently from the series?

I think obviously they played much better today, with more confidence, and they were just taking a lot of duels, playing aggressive. But on the other side, we were just not even close to what we did a few days ago. We were playing, I don’t know, just sloppy. We were not on the same page with many things. We were making some really bad mistakes, and that’s why the score is like that.

Next question is a bit more about structure. Falcons have consistently reached the business end of most events, and haven’t really closed out on much, at least this year. From the inside, do you guys feel like this is a structural problem, or a mental problem? What do you feel, personally, is the problem right now with Falcons?

I think the biggest problem is the mental part of the players. In many games, we have shown that we can play good, that we can have good structure. Even at this event, we had that in the group stage. We beat everyone. This shows that we know how to play good, but we don’t know how to do that in the playoffs. So for me, it’s just about the mental part of the players. I’m not sure why every one of us is struggling in the playoffs. It’s happened many times in the past also. But for me, it’s just a mental problem.

NiKo: “We have to take a look in the mirror”

NiKo, you have very little time between this and the next event. What do you feel you learned today that you’re going to take to the next event, and what would you just like to leave in Rio?

I don’t know. I’m not sure what we can learn from this because we kind of got stomped by Spirit. In general, we have to change our approach to our playoff games, because we have lost every playoff game that we have played so far this season. So it’s something that we are struggling with right now, and we’re going to have a talk now outside and look at the game as well, and try to figure out what was the issue and how we can solve it. Because we are definitely playing a bit differently when it comes to the arena matches, unfortunately. And it sucks.

I just spoke to kyxsan, actually, and he mentioned that it was mostly a mental thing going on with you guys. Do you agree with that?

I didn’t want to believe it at first, you know, the last couple of times. But obviously now it’s the fact that we are struggling. It doesn’t matter if it’s mental or not mental, at the end of the day, we are struggling. It’s a fact. And we have to take a look in the mirror and just ask ourselves what we are doing differently in the group stage versus in an arena match. Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for that.

Spirit now advances to the finals of IEM Rio.