Aerial: "We don't know how to counter ZywOo; it was so relieving [to dodge Vitality]"

We spoke to Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila on the semi-finals day of IEM Chicago after ENCE became the first finalists following a win over MIBR.

The Finns have improved on their result at ESL One Cologne, where losses to Heroic and Vitality saw them exit the tournament in last place just two before the kick-off of IEM Chicago.

This time, they have defeated Heroic en route to the playoffs and have made it to the grand final despite a tough opening Mirage loss to MIBR in the semi-finals, and we got a hold of Aerial to ask about what has changed from their showing in Germany.

The Finn also commented on the Vitality matchup and what makes it difficult, as well as a potential rematch from the DreamHack Masters Dallas grand final against Liquid:

You had the same teams in your group as in Cologne in Heroic and Vitality, who sent you home early, did you approach this time any differently to Cologne?

I don't know, we practiced a lot before this event, as well as before Cologne, but in the first best-of-one in Cologne [against Heroic], we didn't play our best at all, we weren't on the server, I think. NaTo said in an HLTV interview that they were pretty much antistratting us and that's pretty much the case, they were stacking A a lot as CT and we were going A all the time. On top of that, we didn't hit our shots and the communication was bad. We weren't hyped at all, it felt like we were a little bit depressed to play, which we usually don't. Usually, we are very hyped, especially when we get to a new environment, and that boosts us and makes us play great there, but we didn't see it in Cologne, at least in the best-of-one game against Heroic. The Vitality game, it was better from us, but we have always been struggling against Vitality, we can't beat them, we don't know how to counter ZywOo and they play really good CS, it's a problem for us.

Were you glad you got to dodge Vitality here in Chicago?

Yeah, it was so relieving.

What about Heroic, then, what changed from Cologne, how did you play differently against them?

The atmosphere was a lot better, we were communicating really well and we were hitting our shots. We played a best-of-one on Mirage against them and there's been some struggles for us on Mirage lately, we saw it against MIBR, we were playing really bad CS, I think, in Cologne as well as here against MIBR on Mirage. There's something wrong about it right now, but it used to be one of our best maps. We usually have some map where something is wrong about it. It changes, usually it has been Inferno, then it was Overpass sometimes, and now it seems it's Mirage, I don't know what is really wrong about it.

MIBR play a bit differently with zews to what they used to, did they surprise you?

I think they antistratted us a little bit, they knew our setups and what we want to do on that map, they were ready for that and they caught us off-guard.

You seemed to be really comfortable on Train and Dust2 today, was that just down to the maps, then?

Yes, of course, we are really comfortable on Train at least, it's our best map and we usually play really good on it every time. I was actually a little bit surprised that we played that well on Dust2 because it has been a map that we have been struggling on lately, but we played really good CS on Dust2 this time, so I was happy.

In the final, either way you will meet one of the teams who stood in your way in the past, Liquid in Dallas and Vitality in Cologne, is there any preference considering what you said earlier about Vitality?

We want to face Liquid, I think, because Vitality has been a struggle for us. We won against Liquid at the Major and I think we are winning on the score, still, it is very close. Even in Dallas, we were playing a really close game against them, the third map was like 16-13 or something.

Does it just come down to a stylistic difference that is better for you in Liquid?

Yeah, I think so, the map pool is pretty much the same, they both veto Train out, so it doesn't matter that much. But I think against Vitality, ZywOo is the problem for us, he's always shutting us down and Liquid doesn't have that kind of player - they are really good players, but not an AWPer like ZywOo there, that makes it easier for us.