"It relieves me" - surajS on TEMPERRR and GhostxD's confidence and anchoring

We got a chance to talk to Reckoning Esports' IGL, surajS and here's what he had to say about the match against Velocity Gaming and the environment in their camp.

What do you think you guys lacked on Inferno?

"Adaptability is the first thing, we weren't able to adapt to what they were doing and we didn't play to our strengths. We need to try and execute whatever we have practiced, instead of trying to come up with a plan on the fly. Whatever we were coming up with, we were getting insta-deleted, one-shot. We need to take our fights more confidently and be brave, winning or losing is not in our hands but we have to put up our best and play to our strengths, I think we lacked that on Inferno. We took a bunch of timeouts and Esav (EsavgabiN, coach) told us to be brave, do whatever we have done in the past and it was fine if we lost despite doing that."

How did you guys approach Ancient? What was different?

"I just had a talk with everyone, I said- its Ancient, if we win or lose, either ways I'm totally fine with it, just be brave and play to your strengths, go peek everything, it's just a FACEIT PUG and Esav said the same too."

On Ancient, when Velocity had a match point with a 3-round buffer, what did you tell your team?

"The 2nd map was stressful, to say the least. We had a 12-9 lead, we went 12-12 from there, we lost a round where me and Champp pushed down banana on B-site and couldn't win our duels. We tried to eco, stabilize our economy and then try to take mid control because we know their Ancient is shaky and their mid-play was bad or even non-existent. We never saw them take mid control on CT. We were getting mid easily with a couple of smokes. Our mentality was to not repeat our mistakes from the 1st map and play to our strengths. Esav chimed in again and said- Guys don't worry, we're winning, don't worry, just go kill, shoot heads, if you don't shoot, we fix later."

"I had a call from Temper and he just said- suraj do whatever you want in mid, just leave me solo-A, I'll shut it down on my own, I don't care if they rush in 3 or 4, I'll shut it down. When a player is that confident on himself and even in a losing situation as an IGL, it relieves me and gives me confidence to not double doubt myself. Ghost and Temper told- leave A and B to us, we have it locked down, they're not getting a plant."
surajS, on TEMPERRR and GhostxD anchoring sites on Ancient

GhostxD snatched a crucial round on B-site, was that enough to get you guys pumped and over the line?

"Honestly, I didn't even see the round even though GhostxD was right next to me, I just saw the last kill he got and I saw the replay right now, I mean, it's just Ghost doing Ghost things, it comes with experience. As soon as Ghost gets 1 kill, catastr0phE is shouting- LETS GO! 1 MORE GHOST!. He's getting motivated and pumped and as an IGL I'm rotating and looking at the radar, thinking- we're winning, I'm happy."

Can you talk us through Nuke, you guys gave them no chance?

"We knew we'd close it out if we push it to Nuke because we have a very structured game plan on the map. There were a few 1v1s and 1v2s which we should've won. Once we switched over and won the T-side pistol and anti-eco, we knew we had it wrapped because they don't have a good anti-rush and it was pretty evident early in the half. Once we crossed secret, I told my team to keep doing the same until we reached 16."

"I'd like add one more thing- Temper has put up an amazing performance across all 3 maps, catastr0phE kept feeding us info on Ancient, I don't think I need to praise Ghost anymore and Champp as usual was mind-boggling on Nuke. The camp right now is in a very positive mindset. Our 1st preparation for the Medal (Medal Esports) game was just everyone enjoying 1v1s on the server, challenging each others p250 abilities"