After M80 defeated Legacy, Swisher gave a media interview, saying that when the team is in form they have a top-10 ceiling in the world, but communication and consistency remain the biggest bottlenecks; he also expressed concern about Valve's new sticker system, believing tier-two and tier-three organizations are generally harmed, and hopes officials will listen to feedback and make adjustments.
Q: Okay, congratulations. You earned 50 VRS points from this match alone. How does it feel?
Swisher: Feels great. This should lock in our Major spot. We were basically already secure before this match, but this win really sealed the deal.
Q: Yes, Legacy may have a stand-in, but they still have latto and dumau, so their firepower is still there. So with what mindset are you going into this match — looking to win it while not underestimating them?
Swisher: Obviously, we at least had to remember to target their stand-in a bit, because he's obviously not a professional player right now. So I think it was obvious at least on Cache. I don't know if you noticed, we hit B many times. Then we tried Mirage, and it didn't go at our pace. But on Dust2, we were like, "Screw it, play our own game." And it opened up from there.
Q: You mentioned Cache. Lately it has been a huge strength for you guys at least. What exactly is so special about it? It's just an NA map, right?
Swisher: Yes, even dephh said so, right, when it entered the map pool, he said it's an NA map. Historically it's always been an NA map. He liked it back when he used to compete. And I think even in the matches we lost, three out of four were overtime losses that we should have won, we've reviewed them. So I think we're very confident on this map against almost any team.
Q: So far in this tournament, the match against BETBOOM seemed to show how well you can compete with these top European teams, as did beating NAVI in Porto. Where do you think this team's ceiling is right now?
Swisher: Unfortunately, it depends on the day. When the energy is there, the vibe is there, and the attitude is there, I think we can be a top-ten team. But the problem we run into is that sometimes we go a bit quiet, we don't communicate enough after dying, and then things fall apart against lower-tier teams. The ability is there. It's just about working to make it consistent. Even on Mirage we fell into the same habits on the T side. So that was the focus of our review going into the third map: step up the communication, step up the communication after death, and really focus on that.
Q: That's interesting you say that, because I read an earlier interview, I think it was s1n, where he said you sometimes overcommunicate, almost too much, like a typical American team. So how does it feel to address both of these issues at the same time?
Swisher: It's a bit tricky. Munstur has helped a lot with this. He holds everyone accountable in training, keeping comms simple and more precise instead of rambling, actually giving correct positions, post-death callouts, plans, post-plant info, and so on.
Q: And also... you recently played in local LANs, I think... against Liquid, 3DMAX? You lost a few of those matches. After playing those events and then coming here, how does it feel in terms of keeping your confidence and understanding your level?
Swisher: Honestly, we're excited to be here because it feels like we finally have a stable setup environment. We were at Roman, at Logitech, and went to the fl0m Mythic LAN. It felt like we were on different setups almost every day. I think coming into this event, the five of us averaged only 30 hours each over the past two weeks because there was so much travel. We had six or seven travel days. So we can finally settle in with good gear, good PCs, relax, and really lock in.
Q: Like you said before, Major, I remember it was around 88% before the event. Now you're even ahead of Liquid on the live VRS. How does it feel to get this done early?
Swisher: Good. That took some pressure off us. That was also our mindset going into Roman Imperium. I remember we received an invite to Thunderpick but turned it down because we felt it was full of strong teams, and being online, it was kind of like 50-50 games. Getting some LAN wins early can help relieve the pressure so we don't have to cram everything together.
Beating [Roman] is a huge bonus. Picking up a few wins at Logitech is nice too. We hoped to do more, that would have looked better. But I think getting these wins here locked in our spot for us, and lets us rest a bit before the Major bootcamp.
Q: And stickers have changed since the last Major, and we know times are tough, especially for smaller organizations. Isn't it a bit strange that the season still revolves so much around the Major? Are you now playing almost more for prestige?
Swisher: I think everyone wants them to reconsider their stance on stickers. I don't think Valve is one to often walk back decisions, which scares everyone a bit. But I think the gap (in sticker revenue) between the last Major and this one is really huge, it's really bad. I think everyone has been affected, especially tier-two and tier-three organizations. I think everyone just hopes they will really look into it, take the feedback they've received, and adjust accordingly.