Spirit sailed smoothly through their group at BLAST Open Porto, taking out DENDELE, G2 and FURIA without dropping a single map. Despite Spirit’s clean record, Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia said the team still found improvements to be made.
“We still encounter different problems,” zont1x told HLTV ahead of the playoffs. “I would say not everyone is in the best shape individually. But still it was very comfortable, so if we will manage to fix the problems we encountered in the group stage, we should be able to play fine here as well.”
A weakness several teams tried to exploit during the group stage was Spirit’s Cache, a map they had problems on at Esports World Cup. It backfired, with Spirit winning it every time. “I think the problem with Cache was the same problem we had with Train,” zont1x said. “It’s a new map. You don’t necessarily understand how exactly you have to play it, and after some practice we managed to find the way we want to play it.”
With all this in mind, many would point to Spirit as the best team in the world, but zont1x is refusing to commit to that idea just yet. “We lost to JiJieHao, we had a close game with BIG, we lost to MOUZ in a grand final, but it’s very hard to tell. I don’t think you have to think about that, what’s the point of thinking right now who’s the best team. Just watch who is winning the tournaments and then you can decide.”
You can listen to the interview here.
How do you rate the team’s level at the moment, after a smooth group stage?
I think it’s very high but we still encounter different problems, I would say not everyone is in the best shape individually. But still it was very comfortable, so if we will manage to fix the problems we encountered in the group stage, we should be able to play fine here as well.
Are those problems more individual mistakes rather than team-play issues?
I would say.
I wanted to talk about Cache, because you lost it a couple of times at Esports World Cup, and then in the group stage here everyone picked Cache against you. It looked like it wasn’t a problem, have you been working a lot on that map since EWC?
Yeah of course. We had some time, we managed to have some practice on it, we talked a lot about this map in particular, how we want to play it. So yeah, I think the problem with Cache was the same problem we had with Train, for example, because it’s a new map. You don’t necessarily understand how exactly you have to play it, and after some practice we managed to find the way we want to play it.
After some practice we managed to find the way we want to play it
Do you think that’s a bit of a disadvantage for your team? Because a lot of the older pros are going to have played Cache way back in the day, whereas your team is pretty young. Does that make it harder when maps like this come back into the pool?
I think yes, some older pros have an advantage in this case, but it’s not very important I would say. Especially two months later, for example, it wouldn’t matter at all. Now I don’t think we will play Cache in this tournament anymore.
You think teams wouldn’t try to pick it against you anymore?
Well it’s strange, but whatever.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about who the best team in the world is, it feels like quite an open field at the moment, a few teams that are strong. Do you feel like your the best team in the world?
As I said before, I think as a term I would say ‘the best team in the world’ is something very strange, because… You could say that Vitality was the best team when they were winning five tournaments in a row, it was kind of obvious. In this particular case, yeah, if you look at our shape in the last four or five tournaments, you could say we are the best team because you can take the average placement we have in the championships.
But we lost to JiJieHao, we had a close game with BIG, we lost to MOUZ in a grand final, but it’s very hard to tell. I don’t think you have to think about that, what’s the point of thinking right now who’s the best team. Just watch who is winning the tournaments and then you can decide. I think if we win this one, you can say Spirit right now is the best team. After this championship we have one month of not playing, and then when we play in Katowice at ESL Pro League, would we still be the best team? I don’t understand how exactly you should even use this position of ‘the best team’, it’s very unnecessary.
We don’t have a 20-map winstreak to talk about this
I think it’s something that some teams would take a lot of confidence from. If they felt like the best team in the world, they would play better. Is it not something that bothers your team?
Yeah, because as I said, we don’t have a 20-map winstreak to talk about this. We lost to JiJieHao, we had a lot of close games, we lost to MOUZ. In this case, for example, we lost to MOUZ, and if after the game against MOUZ we won every single map, could we still say we are the best team? We would still have to beat MOUZ to even talk about that. So we don’t yet have that significant results to say that we are the best.
You recently had this quote talking about motivation, how you don’t have any specific motivation. I think you’ve already clarified what you mean when you spoke to BLAST about it, but it made me think. You are quite honest in interviews, you speak your mind. When something like that gets blown out of proportion, or taken in the wrong way, does it make you regret being so honest?
No, I don’t care. If I would care, I would not say those things.
So it just doesn’t bother you?
Yeah, because I know what I mean. All the time media is trying to literally change your words so it would be more useful to them, so I don’t care, it is working like this for hundreds of years. It doesn’t matter.
Do your teammates or the organization ever speak to you when something like that happens?
Sometimes yeah, but not… I wouldn’t say I have problems because of that.
Last question: do you feel like you are in good enough shape to win this tournament?
Yes.
