Meyern on the matchup with FURIA: “It's an immortal match”

9z are an underdog story even among underdog stories. One of their stars is on loan. Spanish-speaking South America is a small CS scene, and they had to experience nearly throwing it all away, slipping from 2-0 to 2-2.

Still, they made Stage 3, still they beat Vitality, and still, they managed to qualify for the Playoffs.

We got to speak with Meyern at media day about 9z's run, what went wrong against Aurora, his struggles on the T-side, and more.

Congratulations, of course, for making the playoffs. Now that you've had time to reflect on the group, what do you think was the best, and what do you guys need to work on before the playoffs?

I think the best was the moments we talked, before and after the matches. I think we have a good mental coming into the matches and going out. Except for the match against Spirit, it was a tough match. It ended at like 1 am or something, so it was really difficult to come back after that.

In general, we have good mental, which is a strong thing about us

After that loss against Spirit, what did you guys say to each other to get back to that motivated top level?

I think everyone was really tired. After the match, everyone just tried to get some sleep.

But the hour of the match the other day was kinda different. It was really hard for us to reset and go to the match better. Because everyone talked and tried to convince (eachother) we were in good shape, but we knew we were not in a good mental (coming in) to the match.

When we started the game against Aurora, we started to lose some rounds, and we knew we were not in good shape. It was harder for us.

World Cup is going on, and you guys are playing against FURIA. Argentina and Brazil, is there going to be any extra fire in that game?

Of course, it's an immortal match. Because every time a Brazilian team faces a Brazilian or South American team, it's a really hard game. It's not what is expected.

It's not a rivalry about football, I think. We are good friends with them. We like each other. We also watch some of their games. We learnt a lot of things about them. But yeah, it's going to be a really fun game, and it's going to be in the arena, so it's not (getting) better than that.

We at rdy, do a lot of statistics, and while I was looking at yours, I noticed that on CT-side you're incredible, but on T-side you struggle to capture that. I'm curious, is that because you're trying to support dgt, trying to support luchov, or is it just because it's hard on T-side to be impactful with the AWP?

Yeah, it's a thing I'm always thinking about. I think I had a lot of ideas on CT-side, and it becomes really easy for me to play. All the guys are always supporting me and giving me confidence to play the rounds that I want to play.

But yeah, on T-side, it can be the support thing, but at the same time, I didn't find the solution to play the same as CT, and have the same type of ideas. But I think it's getting better, and I'm trying to improve on that. Yeah, I think day by day, I am getting better on it.`

I'm playing against better teams now, so it's really difficult, but at the same time I am learning fast, so yeah, that's a good thing.

More interviews from IEM Cologne Major

XTQZZZ: “We won two Majors in a row, but I don't think we brought our A-game more than 50% of the time”

MAJ3R: "On T-side, the meta now is everyone playing the same way"