zews: "People criticise NA too much"

Luminosity have made another grand final at ECS Season 1 Finals following a semi--final victory over the surprise of the tournament, TSM, who especially made their mark on Cobblestone as their home map.

After the Brazilians joined G2 in the last stage, we caught up with Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado for a chat about the semi, the upcoming finale and the current state of North American Counter-Strike:

Considering you've played against TSM in North America quite often and they seem to be getting good results against you, how did you approach the match-up?

TSM, we know they are a team on the rise for the last two months, they're one of the best NA teams in playing as a team, they mix up their style a lot. We knew it wouldn't be easy in any way, they got through some hard opponents, but we took it just like any other match. We knew that NA teams are scared of us for the most part, they have that barrier of confidence. Overpass is our home map, we took it quite easily, and Cobblestone was their pick and they played very well, but we pulled it off in the end.

How much homework did you put in for Cobblestone specifically, since it's the map they have done very well on both here and in ELEAGUE, how cautious were you about their Cobble?

We knew that since we took out Cache, of course they'd pick Cobblestone, which they were dominating at this tournament. To be honest, we weren't able to study them that much, but we knew from our online matches and practices that they have two defaults and they have to work on top of that. And we were able to take advantage of some their mistakes.

North American teams have recently shown a lot of promise, with Cloud9 some agree they're getting there, Liquid came up with this huge change and now TSM are on the rise. What do you make of the region's state right now?

I think people criticise NA too much, they had a period where they deserved the criticism, but they're learning, teams are making the necessary changes to evolve. And they're starting to play a lot more with the base fundamentals of CS where they don't rely so much on tactics anymore, and that's the way they should be approaching the situation. This tournament proved that, no one thought any NA team would go through and they'd be the first to go out, but they came out on top of NiP and Astralis, who are amazing teams topping the rankings and playing very well. If they keep it up like this, hopefully they'll be getting out of groups a lot more often.

Let's talk about Liquid a little bit specifically, s1mple will only stay for Cologne and then Pimp will come in, what are your thoughts on this iteration and the one with Pimp?

With a similar lineup Liquid went to the last major and they rocked it. s1mple didn't have the best performances at this tournament, but we all know how much of a superstar power he can bring to the team. With this lineup they should do pretty well for the Major, but when they get the full lineup, I think that with the help of peacemaker and everyone going by what he says, they should evolve really well. They picked Pimp for being one of those players who grow in the tense moments and that's what they need. And jdm is an amazing AWPer, he played really well, so I think Liquid will be the best NA team at least for a while along with TSM right now.

In the grand final you're facing your opponents from the last time you were in London for Pro League and there it was extremely close, do you have anything up your sleeves against the French-Belgian team?

I wouldn't say we have something specific up our sleeves, but we studied that match a lot, because we played all the maps, so we got to study a lot in that specific match, and we know where we made the mistakes. Hopefully we can take this without having all that crazy stress and going to overtime on the last map, because we can't take that anymore, it's too much!

Make sure to check out the list of all interviews we've done so far at ECS Season 1 Finals:

Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro: "[Veto] was perfect for us"

Kory "⁠SEMPHIS⁠" Friesen: "Comfortable playing NA teams"

Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom: "We feel really good on Nuke"

Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett on ECS and current state of talent

Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin: "jdm64 actually reached out to me"

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: "I don't believe in saving strats"