NRG pulled off an upset win over MOUZ in their StarLadder Fall Series opener, getting off to a flying start while also earning valuable 129 VRS points to boost their bid for Major qualification. After the match, Grim spoke to HLTV, saying the win was hugely significant, but stressed the team must not get complacent.
Q: Grim, NRG beat MOUZ on the opening day of StarSeries Fall. Talk about this win, I spoke with nitr0 yesterday and he said winning any match here is a good thing, but I feel this win must be extra sweet.
Grim: Yes, it feels amazing, because this match gave us roughly 130 VRS points, which is huge for our Major prospects. MOUZ is obviously a very strong team, I think they are top two in the VRS rankings right now. But we played really well in practice, and we just told ourselves: "If we play at our practice level, we should be fine."
Q: You said this victory is a big boost for confidence. If the primary goal was to get the next win, you've now achieved it. What are your expectations for the upcoming matches?
Grim: Honestly, just take it one game at a time. This win is amazing, probably the best win we can get here because they're ranked top two in VRS. So if we can beat MOUZ, we can beat any team here, just keep it up.
Q: Let's talk about Inferno, NA scrims have been a bit tough?
Grim: Our scrims in NA were indeed a bit tough. We were never really tested on Inferno. Inferno was the only map we went undefeated on during that entire month of scrims in NA. So we definitely have to go back and review to see what different adjustments we can make when facing top European teams who excel on this map. But overall, it was a great win, much needed to boost everyone's confidence.
Q: That Dust2 game could have been won much more easily, you could have built a bigger lead, but you lost a lot of 1v1 clutches in the first half. MOUZ was trying to come back at the time, can you talk about what was going on?
Grim: There was a moment when I was definitely a bit nervous, because honestly I felt we should have been up 12-0, and you know what happened last time we were up 12-0. But on the flip side, losing those clutches was actually a good thing. Honestly, we should have won all three of those clutches.
The only round we properly lost was the last one where we went for rifles. So that should have been an 11-1 half, but I kept telling my teammates, and we were all on the same page: "Guys, we are the much stronger team right now. They just got lucky winning a few clutches, so let's just keep playing our game and see what happens."
The CT side was a bit scary, I remember they won a round with one Galil against four Glocks, that was terrible, but you have to reset mentally. That's CS, anything can happen.
Q: I see you're wearing a Complexity hat. You're reunited with hallzerk here—how does it feel? You played together at Complexity for a long time.
Grim: Yes, to be honest, what happened with Complexity sucks, but I really like hallzerk. He's a great teammate, a great guy, and is always full of energy and positivity in-game. When I recommended hallzerk to NRG, I said: "I think this guy can take us to new heights." Obviously, at first we had limited practice time and lost in the EWC open qualifier, but now we've gotten some practice in and we beat MOUZ, which is really awesome.
Obviously, we cannot assume that we are already the best in the world. We need to keep training hard and keep beating our opponents. But to be honest, he is a very outstanding player and an important addition to our team.