Legacy lost to Falcons and Vitality back-to-back in the BLAST Open Porto group stage, failing to carry over the hot momentum from their third-place finish at the EWC. After the matches, dumau spoke with HLTV about the takeaways from the games, adjusting the mindset, and what it means to face top opponents.
Q: What was your first reaction after finishing this series?
dumau: We threw away the first map ourselves. At one point we had the game well under control, we knew how they were rotating and repositioning, but we failed to close out a few 4v2s. Of course Vitality deserved the win, they played really well, and ZywOo hit some truly insane shots. But we had chances to win.
I think this is just part of the team's growth, it can't be rushed. We need to communicate more in these key moments, like "How can I help you in this situation?" or "How can we make the information a bit clearer?"
Sometimes after failing to convert these clutches, we tilt too easily and lose sight of the situation — we could actually see that the opponents were rattled too, we just didn't seize the opportunity. So we have to find a solution in those moments to close out the game.
To be honest, if we had taken Nuke, we would have closed it out 2-0. We were in control on Mirage, our team play was really good, and we really had a huge chance. We also won a lot of rounds at the start of Nuke, the game was in our hands, you could feel the opponents were starting to tilt, the momentum was completely on our side. But against a team like Vitality, once they find their rhythm, they're very hard to contain.
Q: Do you think these are all just experience issues? Vitality has seen far too many situations against top teams where they had to grit their teeth and tough it out.
dumau: Yes, because the momentum is on our side, now it's just about closing out the match. We also have experience — latto, try and I are 22, 23 years old, but we've already played a lot of matches. Against strong teams and strong players, we know roughly what to expect. But sometimes it comes down to clutches, like those 4v2s, if we can't close them out it's like handing all the economy and momentum to the opponent. Sometimes it's still easy to kill ZywOo with the Five-SeveN, but it's much harder when he's on the AWP.
Q: You got off to a great start this season at EWC, beating many strong teams. This time you lost to Falcons and Vitality, two world-class teams. Does that make this elimination easier to accept?
dumau: Indeed. We face tough matches at every event, and I think that's important. To win the title you have to beat strong teams — if the challenge isn't big enough, the trophy doesn't carry as much weight. I think the key is overcoming challenges, handling the pressure, and getting through tough moments, which makes the whole team and every player stronger.
Yesterday's game against Falcons was actually very close, the score may not have fully reflected the game, but Falcons did play better than us. Today our tempo and initiative were very good, we knew what we were doing, but it's harder to accept than yesterday - today we played better than yesterday, but failed to close it out when we needed to.
So I think it's just a matter of time, we need to control ourselves better, and one day we will make it. We like these tough battles, it's important for building our character, and if we can beat these strong teams in the playoffs, then it will all be worth it.