At the BLAST Open Porto pre-tournament media day, newly crowned Major champion TeSeS sat down with Dust2.dk for an exclusive interview, discussing the joy of triumphing in Cologne and his outlook for the season.
“That feeling is still vivid to this day, it was the best moment I have ever experienced. After winning the title you only crave it more, you want to chase that feeling again.”
With this Major title, TeSeS has become the eighth Danish player to earn this honor, joining device, gla1ve, Xyp9x, dupreeh, Magisk, Kjaerbye, and teammate karrigan. "It's special to join this club, but they've won more than me, and there's still a long way to go."
When asked whether he experienced the media frenzy surrounding Astralis back then, TeSeS admitted he had not: "That Astralis was the pride of Denmark, and CS gets completely different attention in Denmark now."
After winning the Major, Falcons got off to a rough start in the new season — suffering an upset loss to 100 Thieves in the opening round of BLAST Bounty and bowing out in the quarterfinals at the EWC.
TeSeS: The team is currently not in its best form, but is not panicking. "We are indeed worried about our level, we know we haven't reached where we should be. Winning the Major won't change how hard we work, we want to get back to that level, and even higher. This is what we're working toward. This is far from the start to the season we wanted, but this is our starting point, and we have to work from here."
Since the end of the offseason, Falcons have been fixing the issues exposed during the Major. TeSeS emphasized that it is unrealistic to expect the team to sweep all trophies right away.
TeSeS: "Of course we hope it's now our turn to lift trophies, but the reality is that at the Major we had only been playing with karrigan for 60 days. To expect everything to already be perfect by then is unrealistic, and we've been working to solve problems since the player break. During the Major we saw some small gaps we wanted to fix. Some teams fix them quickly, others take longer, and we just have to accept that this has taken longer than expected."
“We need to be patient and keep the faith. Everyone knows this team can win games, people should fear us — because we have these outstanding players, and we have proven that our teamwork can reach a world-class level. What we need to do now is stay consistent throughout the tournament.”
Eager for more official matches, karrigan has been with Falcons for over four months and the team has been searching for solutions. TeSeS says that what they lack most right now is official matches.
TeSeS: “I think we're all working hard to find solutions. We've been training for a long time and put a lot of work into many areas. What's missing now is playing official matches and finding our rhythm — we're confident about that.”
“We need official matches, we need to win them. This season we've only played four LANs, five matches in total. Of course that's on us, but we're really looking forward to getting started. The last result wasn't ideal, but we know we can do it.”
First match against LVG, aiming to show a better side
For BLAST Open Porto, Falcons have not set a specific result goal, but the whole team hopes to show better form. In their opening match, they will face Chinese team Lynn Vision, followed by a potential matchup against FUT or Legacy.
TeSeS: "We haven't specifically talked about our placement goals, but I believe we all agree we want to show a better side of ourselves. That feeling of 'we can win no matter who the opponent is.' Especially the first match against LVG, and then possibly Legacy or FUT."
“We want to prove that we can comfortably beat these teams, as we've had problems against these opponents this season. Because we can match the intensity against top teams, but we struggle against lower-ranked teams or teams that are weaker than us on paper.”
“That said, Legacy has been playing really well lately, they are no longer the underdogs people take them for”
The teams are very evenly matched, which makes the games even more exciting — no outcome would be a surprise now
TeSeS: I think the top teams haven't really found their footing after the offseason, Vitality have also shown weaknesses, and the gap between teams is narrowing.
“The gap between teams is much smaller now. Strong teams can also lose to weaker teams. So it's really hard to say where exactly the line is between the current Top 3, Top 10, and Top 15. This makes the competition more competitive and more exciting.”
Is this more interesting than "the same few strong teams always sweeping the top four, with Vitality winning the championship"?
TeSeS answered with a smile, "If you're one of the strong teams, of course you don't find it more interesting — you'd rather have a gap in skill and win a bit more easily. But overall, it makes it more enjoyable for the viewers. The matches are more intense, and there are more highlights. From that perspective, it's definitely more entertaining to watch."
Falcons will play their opening match at BLAST Open Porto on Thursday night at 23:30.