Virtus.pro demonstrated a spectacular series against FaZe Clan in the group A decider match-up, taking away the best-of-3 series with a 2-1 map score, consequently securing a placement in none less than the semi-finals of EPICENTER 2017.



Cybersport.com sat down for an interview with the Counter-Strike legend that is Filip "NEO" Kubski to discuss the team's mentality going into the tournament, Virtus.pro's ability to show up on-demand, Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas's return to IGL-ing and how the team keeps composure despite rough times in the recent past.



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Congratulations on the semi-final placement. Can you take us a bit through the series vs. FaZe and give us an idea what the mentality of the team was like?

I think the first map obviously didn't go the way we wanted to but we came into it with the wrong mentality. After the first round I could hear some complaints about what happened and then had them again, and again, and we kind of tilted.



After that map, we had a serious talk about what happened and tried our best to not have that same mentality on the next maps. On the second map, we started being the team we were yesterday, we showed we were able to cooperate and work as a unit and not everyone for themselves.



Cobble was our pick, FaZe aren't that strong on it so they didn't have many strategies and tried to play a pick game, so we knew how to control that. There were some nice calls from TaZ - simple things, but they worked out well.



On the third map, Inferno, it feels like we could've closed it sooner, but still in the end we had some clutch rounds and some messy rounds. We didn't expect to win the last round, we planted the bomb seconds before the end. That was a huge win for us, it means so much for us. We've been struggling for so long and here we beat Major winners Gambit and FaZe which are actually No.1 at the moment.



Speaking of struggles, as a general question, what was the mentality of the team coming into this tournament?

We switched to TaZ leading and we've been improving, but it's the same as what happened when we switched to Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski IGL-ing. It's really hard for us to tell, because at some point you see us improving online, but when we go to a LAN we tilt or don't perform.



For me, it's more about mentality problems in each one of us, not the strategic side or something else. We were maybe even feeling insecure. We won over Gambit, however, and then went to FaZe. The map veto left Cobble open, which they don't play, so we picked it because they removed Nuke. After winning Gambit, that changed a lot.





When Snax took the role, it was his decision, he said he wanted to do it, but in the end... well, that's how we got here.



You touched a bit on TaZ taking on the IGL role. How has that been working so far?

Every leader has his own approach. TaZ has been IGL-ing in the past, I think we won ESL Dubai when he was our leader, so he's proven himself in the past -- even in 1.6 times -- that he is good at leading the team.



When Snax took the role, it was his decision, he said he wanted to do it, but in the end... well, that's how we got here. TaZ knows how to handle stuff, knows how to make calls and with Kuben's help we passed the group stage.



Indeed. Now that Snax is relieved from his leader role, do you expect him to regain that absolutely monstrous form that he's demonstrated in the past?

From my own experience, I know it's not that easy, because when you start leading a team, you start looking at things from a different perspective. You're not so focused on your own game. I've been leading for two years before we switched to Snax so I know it's difficult and it takes time. But I guess it's going to happen sooner or later.

NEO at EPICENTER

This is a question entirely separate from EPICENTER, but I wanted to ask you about AGO and Pride, they are fighting in the EU Minor Championship. Can you give us some insight on these teams, since you're closer to the Polish scene?

Both teams seem to be improving so much in recent times. Pride got one or two players were pre-experienced. MINISE played with Snax and Paweł "byali" Bieliński in their previous teams. Actually, Pride seemed to be improving a lot, then they stopped a bit, they seemed to be struggling, but they can still show good CS.



More surprising for me are the AGO guys, they are playing so well. They got Furlan, who got kicked from Kinguin and then he beat them -- the familiar revenge story. I like the history of that player. We know some of these guys but others we hear about for the first time and yet they are playing so well, they have good strategies, it's really nice to see that.





I hope they qualify for the Major, doing that these days it's so difficult.



I hope they qualify for the Major, doing that these days it's so difficult -- there are so many stages, so many great teams that didn't go out of groups in the previous major that they have to beat. It's a long way to get there.



Something I noticed about VP is this phenomenon of the Plow. The plow, in my understanding, is when you guys can have underwhelming performances prior to an event, go into it, and then you just destroy everyone, regardless of rankings. How do you compose yourself to produce the plow?

That's really hard to answer. It's a question I've been asked in the past and I once said it's a "well organized chaos". Everything seems to be working so well: the team, the chemistry clicks on and we just plow over everyone. It's a complicated thing. As you said, we've been struggling so much and we still beat great times.



It has happened in our history before. In 2009, during 1.6, me and TaZ were struggling and then we won WCG which was the biggest tournament of the year. I have no idea where the plow comes from.



Lastly, the community -- and even on occasion professionals within the industry -- can mount pressure on teams that are not performing quite to the standard. You guys have stuck through it all. What I would like to know is how you are the only team in CS to retain this positive mental attitude and just keep going with the same roster.

It's not always the positive attitude, we just try to do our best.



It's not always the positive attitude, we just try to do our best. You don't really listen to the negative comments. These days there are so many of them. Because of skin betting, instead of getting fans you get haters because they lost a few skins online and it means so much to them they just write bad stuff about you. So many people have ideas how to fix the team, who to change and how we should be playing that it's crazy.



But that's what happens in sports, I guess, we see people watching football and commentate like they would do better. You don't really care about that, it's about yourself. If you're not satisfied with your game, you just practice and practice and try to improve. That's what it's all about in the end -- never give up and keep working.

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