G2 Stride Satthew: “The net opened up for us and we took advantage”

Rocket League

June 22, 2024

Sophie McCarthy

The RLCS London Major 2024 is well underway. One of the most consistent teams throughout the whole event so far is, perhaps unsurprisingly, G2 Stride. Just after their decisive win over Spacestation Gaming in the quarterfinals, we got to speak briefly to G2 Stride’s coach Matthew “Satthew” Ackerman about the game, the expectation and how much the live audience impacts their performance.

Sophie: So first of all, congratulations for making it to the semi finals.

Credit: @RLEsports / Michal Konkol

How are you and the team feeling?

Satthew: I mean, fantastic. You know, I think it was expected among many people. We’ve played SSG many times this season and we haven’t lost yet. So we’re feeling good, but we’re feeling where we should be.

Sophie: Fantastic. So you’ve faced SSG a bunch of times but this was the first time at this event.

Did that change the way you were preparing to come into this series?

Satthew: No, they were playing the same way that they always do. So we came in with the normal expectations and we didn’t change too much in our own play.

Sophie: Ok, cool! And today is the first day with the audience in the arena.

How does the audience affect your performance?

Satthew: We definitely turn it up a notch. Honestly, the boys gain a lot more composure and a lot more energy in their communications and everything, so the crowd only helps us.

We’re very appreciative of being in front of them and being able to do so. That’s amazing.

Sophie: That’s so good to hear. So I guess the last game there, game 5, you guys had a really aggressive playstyle with a lot more goals than we’ve been seeing.

Was that a conscious choice? What changed there?

Satthew: No, I think the boys just started heating up a bit and just wanted to have a little bit of fun with it. And I think SSG were also pushing a bit too much to the point where maybe they were getting a little desperate. So the net kind of opened up for us and we just took advantage. I mean, you’ve got to at that point, right?

Sophie: You’re not wrong. Okay, just one last final question for you. So in the next round, you’ll be facing either Vitality or FURIA.

Who would you like to play?

Sophie: I think I might know the answer.

Satthew: I want Vitality.

Sophie: Oh, OK!

Satthew: You thought FURIA?

Sophie: I did, yeah. I mean, you’ve got a great record against them, right?

Satthew: No, we do, we do. We have a really good record against FURIA, but I think Vitality is the better of the two teams and we beat them in Copenhagen. Some people thought that may have been a fluke, so we want to beat them again.