Legacy were eliminated from BLAST Open Porto after losing to Vitality in the group stage lower bracket. After the match, arT spoke to Dust2 Brasil in an interview, reflecting on the game and expressing confidence ahead of the upcoming FISSURE Playground 3.
On the first map Nuke, Legacy got off to an excellent 10-2 start on the attacking side, but then suffered a comeback and narrowly lost 14-16 in overtime.
arT: We played really well on the CT side and built up a big lead at one point. But Vitality is a strong team, very solid on CT as well, and we had to capitalize on every opportunity. We had the advantage in several clutches and several rounds, we were so close to closing some of them out, just missing the kill on their last player. In the end, we lost on a lot of small details. On defense in overtime, we couldn't hold their push on A, our trade coordination also broke down, and their offense played better than ours. It came down to the details in just one or two rounds.
On the second map, Mirage, Legacy bounced back with a 13-9 win. On the decider, Dust2, Legacy lost 8-13.
arT: We got off to a bad start on Dust2. The T-side pistol round was very important — if we had won it, we could have turned things around. We had already taken control of B, but we hesitated at the doors, the opponents were in position for the retake, and we didn't get the kills. After losing the pistol round, our economy couldn't keep up, we also lost the first rifle round, and the opponents pulled away with the lead. After that we could only afford Galils, with no AWP and no Scout, and our economy never recovered.
Despite being eliminated, arT believes the team still has positives.
arT: It's too early to draw sweeping conclusions. We have a lot of room for improvement. In many rounds we read the situation correctly, but we didn't have a counter-plan prepared in advance. When a match like this goes the distance, details decide success or failure. We need to recognize what we did right, but also fix our mistakes. We won Mirage, but to be honest we didn't deserve that win — we lost too many anti-ECO rounds, and our T-side start was very poor, we just managed to come back in the end.
These details show we still have a lot of work to do. If we had handled these anti-eco rounds better and built an economic advantage — something we basically failed to do on either map except for the CT side on Mirage — we would have gone further. We've encountered some of these situations before, but our reactions weren't unified enough, and that's an area we can focus on improving.
As the second event since try joined Legacy, arT believes that insufficient time to build chemistry also affected the team's performance. Although try's individual stats were impressive, he still needs more training to integrate into the system.
arT: try is incredibly skilled individually, he's a monster who has saved the team in many matches. Time is indeed very important, not only for his chemistry in terms of teamwork, but also for our overall synergy. Right now this is a negative factor, but it can turn positive through practice. On Dust2 there was a round where we wanted to push balcony out of the smoke, but the flash was thrown the wrong way. These small details will gradually improve over time.
Next stop: FISSURE Playground 3
Legacy's next tournament will be FISSURE Playground 3, kicking off in China on September 8. arT revealed the team will train in Europe for a few more days before flying directly to China.
arT: We can't go back to Brazil, otherwise the trip would be too far. We'll stay in Portugal for four days to train, and leave on the fifth day. This time is just enough for us to review the pros and cons of these two tournaments — there's still a lot from EWC we haven't finished discussing because we came straight here. There's also a lot to learn from this tournament, especially the two losses to Falcons and Vitality. We need to watch the demos carefully and discuss them together as a team to prepare for the tournament in China.
Legacy had previously won two major championships in China, and arT is full of confidence about this trip to China.
arT: Honestly, I'm very confident. We play CS at a very high level, and if we handle those small details well, it makes a huge difference. If we can improve on these, we can win by bigger margins and won't struggle as much in rounds we shouldn't lose. That will give us even more confidence.
Losing the match is of course frustrating, we had the chance to beat Vitality 2-0, but that's how it is. This frustration has to be put behind us, because the season has just begun. We played well in the first half of the year, dipped a bit in the middle, and now we're back — we can't let the momentum slip again. Keep our heads up, focus on the next stop, and rediscover the confidence we had in our previous matches.