In recent times, magic has gradually made a name for themselves on the international stage, advancing into the knockout rounds of tournaments such as the PGL Astana and EWC. During this process, they have quietly accumulated a number of valuable victories.
Unfortunately, this young team was unable to carry forward their previous momentum at Fission S3. Despite defeating FaZe and PARIVISION earlier in the tournament, they ultimately failed to overcome Alliance and missed out on the playoffs.
"I'm pretty upset," AW told HLTV after the team was eliminated in China. "First, I played very poorly in this tournament. I think we should have won, but if we were really supposed to win, we would have won in the end, right?"
Despite feeling disappointed with the team's performance in this tournament, the 20-year-old athlete remains optimistic about the future. "You certainly always want more, but I think the current situation shows that we aren't yet ready to truly win the tournament and consistently maintain such a high level of performance. However, I believe we will eventually get there; it just needs time."
Q: Talk about your feelings on the results of this competition. Overall, are you satisfied?
AW: Ugh, it's pretty frustrating. First off, I performed really poorly in this tournament.
I feel like we should have won it, but if we were truly meant to win, then we would have in the end, right? We ultimately lost to Alliance, which is indeed quite regrettable.
But we still have to keep moving forward. There are more competitions ahead, and we need to keep training on the maps, you know.
Q: In your interview on stage, you mentioned that you were very much looking forward to this match against PARIVISION. Why is that?
AW: I think when we initially parted ways with PARIVISION, our relationship was generally good. However, since I used to play there before, I really do want to defeat them.
It's not that this matter is particularly important to me, it's simply because I once played for that team, so this match will be a bit more interesting.
Just like playing with friends or acquaintances, you always want to win a bit more.
Q: So is it more of a case of "I played here before, now I'm on the other side, and I want to see how it feels," or do you want to prove what you can achieve after moving to a new team?
AW: Probably just wanted to play this match and see which team was stronger between the old and new rosters.
I think that's pretty much it.
Q：When you were benched by PARIVISION at the end of last year, what were your thoughts about your future at that time? Could you have imagined you would be participating in a major LAN event with a new team so soon?
Honestly, I didn't really expect it.
However, I've always believed I could do it, and worked together with the team toward that goal. And before we knew it, we'd reached this point.
Q: I was there at the post-match handshake line after the PARIVISION game. There seemed to be a bit of "personal grudge" when you shook hands with dastan—it looked like you finally proved something.
AW: Sigh, perhaps, it might indeed seem a bit like that…
To be honest, I didn't say anything bad about Dastan. I just knew he would definitely feel terrible after losing the match, just as I feel terrible now that we've lost.
Perhaps I should have said nothing at all, since we won after all. You can interpret that remark as a joke, or take it some other way, but I really didn't mean anything malicious by it.
Perhaps I shouldn't have said it at the time, but I believe as time passes, Dastan will understand and come to see the matter in the right light. Maybe not today, but eventually he'll realize it was just a joke.
Anyway, we lost right after, so it actually made no difference. If you don't end up winning the championship, there's really only one team that's truly happy in the entire event in the end.
Q: Overall, how satisfied are you with the team's recent achievements? What level do you think Magic has reached now?
AW: You definitely always want more.
But I think the current situation shows that we are not yet prepared to truly win tournaments and consistently maintain such a high level.
But I believe we'll get there eventually; it just takes time.
Q: Specifically, what do you think the team is still lacking? What areas need the most improvement right now?
AW: To be honest, it's probably the map ban/pick.
We basically only choose Ancient because we're very confident in this map. So it's probably still a map pool issue, that's all.
Q: What are your plans for the rest of the year? How do you view the upcoming season?
AW: I don't know. We hope to advance to the Major.
However, I think winning those two games helped us a great deal, as there was a points gap between us before, and now our ranking is much higher.
I think we can make it to the Major. That should be the main goal right now, that's about it.