B2: "You will see us maybe qualifying for a Major one day"

Gods Reign has undoubtedly made history today after beating Bad News Kangaroos to reach the Grand Finals. Even though they fell short of lifting the trophy, they have made a mark in the Counter-Strike world with their impressive performance throughout the tournament.

After the conclusion of the tournament, we got in touch with R2B2 to discuss their journey throughout this tournament and what lies ahead for the Indian powerhouse.

It was kind of like an aggressive start from Aurora on their CT side. They started a little strong. Did that catch you guys off guard?

I think the early rounds on Ancient didn't really catch us by surprise. We had a plan going into the map as we played the same maps yesterday as well against them. So we wanted to still play our game but we changed up like little things here and there. I just felt like we fell short a bit was, we weren't on the same page, all of us. Slight mistakes here and there cost us very important rounds.

Let's talk about Mirage. You guys again had like a promising start on Mirage, but then they brought it back to like a tied opening half. This happened yesterday on Ancient as well, where you guys had a promising start. Do you think this could be something to worry about that you guys aren't being able to capitalize on a big start or is it just because of the quality of the opponent?

I think it's a combination of both. We get these good starts when we are playing well, but we understand the game adapts in the half itself. Aurora won't be doing the same thing, which they're losing on for the whole half. They change up things and I think we just fall short when they try changing up things, we are slow to react. And I think that'll just come with experience.

Talk to us a little bit about the veto, because it's the same veto that was there yesterday also. Yesterday you guys had two big losses to them. So, what was the thought process for keeping the same maps in the map pool? Like, was it something you guys planned ahead?

The thought process was that yesterday on Ancient, we had a strong start on the T side, we were like 5-1 up. And we fell short, we lost momentum, and they just punished us for our mistakes when they got a grab of us. So we just thought, if we could do that, we can do it again and keep a hold of it. But as we saw, we couldn't really, they played really well. We made a few mistakes and they always capitalize on it as they are very experienced. They played really well to capitalize on our mistakes. We played a bit sloppy. I feel, on Ancient, we could have done much better. And as for Mirage, yesterday was a 13-0 as you guys saw. So we just thought if we play Mirage, they really haven't seen our T side. So we have a brand new T side to catch them by surprise. And we could do the things we couldn't yesterday. And I think we gave it our best and we'll come back for Masters stronger.

Now let's look at the tournament overall. You have two wins against international teams and obviously Aurora are a little bit above skill-wise but what do you think, how was the overall experience playing against international teams on a LAN in India?

It was the best. Like, this is what we need for our region. We've been playing amongst each other for so long. Bringing international teams into the circuit will certainly grow our scene. As you can tell with the Australian scene as well. They're a far-off country as well, but they have a few international tournaments in a year. And they've been playing in those international tournaments for like a decade now, and they're slightly above India, I would feel. So I feel if we keep getting international teams into our circuit, our region will grow and you will see us maybe qualifying for a major one day.

And finally, last question, you guys have been playing a couple of teams outside India recently, be it in ESEA qualifiers or different tournaments. How do you think Gods Reign is preparing for if you guys are going to play at a tier say 1.5, 2 level, do you think you guys are slowly getting there?

Yeah, for sure. Now we just built a new team like a month ago. We're getting our things sorted and playing against these international teams, be it from Europe, be it from the ECL. I feel like we are constantly growing, and constantly putting in the work, and I promise you that we will become better by the end of this year and hopefully reach the tier one level soon in the coming years.