SAW story at IEM Cologne: “Of course, at this point, we are playing for the trophy”

Counter-Strike

August 16, 2024

Bruno Sobieraj

The biggest surprise of this year’s IEM Cologne group stage is now doubt SAW, with the Portuguese team beating G2 and TheMongolz to book themselves a playoff spot in the LANXESS. We got to speak with Joao “story” Vieira ahead of their quarter-final matchup with FaZe.

Credit: Helena Kristiansson | ESL

Bruno: Congrats on making it to the playoffs. Many people thought you wouldn’t make it out of the Play-in and now you’re in the arena.

How does that feel?

story: First of all, thanks. I mean it’s really good because it’s like you say, no expect us to be in the playoffs, but here we are. We’re here to prove that we can beat these teams and we can fight against them.

Of course, at this point, we are playing for the trophy, and yeah, let’s see what happens.

Bruno: Recently you added BERRY as a coach.

How much impact has he had on your game?

story: I think it’s actually not only in game. I think the biggest part was outside the game because sometimes we were thinking, like when we were losing, that we are really bad and when we are winning that we are so good. But things are not like that and he balanced everything and as of now if we lose one game we’re not changing everything.

We’re just more calm and analyzing every detail, so we can find out the solution and how to play better.

Bruno: You did really well at the Major and then had a bit of a slump and now you’re doing great here.

Do you think this could help you after this tournament as well and keep up this form after Cologne?

story: I don’t really know, because what happened after the Major was individually we were really bad, especially myself. I hope we can keep with this form, playing like this, but we never know when we need to keep focused on our game. We just need to go day by day and keep improving.

Bruno: Other Tier Two teams struggle in big tournaments, but you played very well at the Major and now here, even against the better opponents like G2.

How are you able to play so well in these big tournaments?

story: I think we had a lot of tournaments just losing in the first stage and going out. For example, we had two RMRs 0-3 and the third one was going the same way, but somehow we came back and it was a big key.

Now we are just playing our game. We don’t feel any pressure and I think that’s the biggest thing because when we were playing those tournaments we were always feeling pressure. We wanted to do better and better and better. But we just need to play and the result is going to come if we are doing good. If we are doing bad, we are going out probably.

Ahead of the match with FaZe, is the plan just to play your game, try to play your best, and see what happens?

story: Yeah, I think it will be like that. It helps us to be on this stage, so we need to keep doing it and of course they are a really big organization, big team, they have really good players. Of course, we are going to work into their game, but we just need to play our game, keep believing that we can beat these teams and everything should be fine.

Lastly, do you have a favorite IEM Cologne moment from over the years?

story: I’ll always say I think the best game I’ve ever seen was NAVI vs FaZe in 2022. I think it was that one. I have never seen ten players shooting so well, so I just remember that game. Everyone was shooting so well and it was an insane game, so I think that’s the best one.

Bruno: Thank you and good luck.