René "cajunb" Borg talked us through North's overtime-worthy Overpass versus GODSENT, Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's risky knife, and the upcoming playoffs. After an extremely tight Overpass, North made it to playoffs over GODSENT with a 3-2 record in the Swiss format despite starting with two losses. Our next interview from the Major features René "cajunb" Borg, who talked about the Overpass match and gave us his and the team's initial reaction to Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's knife in a 1v1 in the first round of overtime. He also explained what North need to do in order to do well in the playoffs: Let's start with the pre-match, what were your expectations for GODSENT? I, of course, expected a tough match, we lost a game to them at the Major qualifier, so we knew that they're a good team and they're like the veterans of the Majors. They don't have the pressure that some of us have, because they have all that experience. They know how to handle these Majors, so I expected a tough game. You had a solid start to the T side and then GODSENT got most of the remaining rounds, were there any glaring mistakes that you made towards the end of the first half or something they did well? We had a little bit too much respect for them, and we made some wrong calls individually, but I have to give kudos to JW as well, he played really well, he managed to catch us off-guard. So that was a guy we had problems with. In the end it was a back-and-forth battle, were there any key rounds or plays that pushed you to 15 rounds? I think the eco we won was really important for us, I think RUBINO got like three kills, that was definitely the turning point for us, which got us to 15 rounds as we got the confidence back. We have to talk about the knife; I noticed you had quite the reaction to it, what was your reaction at the exact second when you saw k0nfig was going for it? I was screaming "No, you're NOT gonna do that", if we lost that round we wouldn't have gone to playoffs to be honest. But he did it and he won, so I can't really say anything about it, he managed to do it, but I was definitely frustrated, all of us were at some point. But it helped our economy in the third round, because we lost the second and he could drop us guns. Did he say anything about it afterwards, did he defend it? Not at all, he was just like "I'm gonna do it", it was just so important for him to show balls. Going over to playoffs, you have a high chance of meeting Na`Vi or Virtus.pro, or possibly SK, how do you view your chances in the quarter-finals? We know it's gonna be tough, that's no secret. If we wanna win against those teams like we did at EPICENTER, we have to step up individually. And, of course, MSL has to call really well, but I think we can do it if we just hit our shots and play our game. From my point of view, it's gonna be tough, I definitely see Na`Vi as the favorites of the tournament so far. Lastly, I want to ask about you and k0nfig switching around with the AWP, does that happen when you don't feel good with it or when k0nfig does? No, it's because when we do a certain strat, I'm the guy who decides when we're gonna go. And, sometimes, k0nfig likes to play with the AWP, so when we make a certain strat, he can have the AWP and that's the only situation where he can have it. Make sure to check out the other interviews we've conducted so far at the Major:
cajunb sees Na`Vi as the favoriteDay four Epitacio "TACO" de Melo: "We studied Astralis a lot"
Andreas "znajder" Lindberg: "I'd like to beat [...] Pimp"
Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun: "We can beat everyone"
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke: "We didn't expect much vs. G2"
Day three William "RUSH" Wierzba: "Our preparation was limited"
Finn "karrigan" Andersen: "allu's 1v2 was key"
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács: "We came with only one goal"
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen: "We had a great bootcamp"
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer: "Didn't expect Dust2"
Day two Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski: "I hope Gambit will be nervous"
Nicolai "device" Reedtz: "It was important for us to start well"
Dennis "dennis" Edman: "[YOLO teams] will go far"
Spencer "Hiko" Martin: "It doesn't feel like we won"
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo: "Gonna fight as hard as we can"
Chris "chrisJ" de Jong: "Confident about our map pool"
Day one Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey: "Everyone's happy with their roles"
Markus "pronax" Wallsten: "I'm happy it went to Train"
Dan "apEX" Madesclaire: "It was hard after jdm's 1v5"
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev: "Hope to show beautiful CS"
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski: "It's always close vs. OpTic"
Ricardo "fox" Pacheco: "We played 12-14 hours a day"
Richard "shox" Papillon: "FaZe can do pretty well here"
Abay "HObbit" Khassenov: "We prepared for everyone"
Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo
Age: 22 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 338 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács
Age: 25 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 849 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62
Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg
Age: 23 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 738 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67
Richard 'shox' Papillon
Age: 24 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1011 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.66
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Age: 22 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 140 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67
North #6
Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroel
René 'cajunb' Borg
Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke
Spencer 'Hiko' Martin
Age: 26 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 575 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.61
GODSENT #14
Markus 'pronax' Wallsten
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist
Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg
Jesper 'JW' Wecksell
Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Age: 23 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 910 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.71
Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey
Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 865 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64
René 'cajunb' Borg
Age: 27 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 889 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Age: 25 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 475 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 827 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63
Joakim 'disco doplan' Gidetun
Age: 21 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 287 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65
Markus 'pronax' Wallsten
Age: 25 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 940 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.66
Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong
Age: 26 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 814 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Age: 26 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 890 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.68
Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen
Age: 22 Team: North Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 990 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.72
Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco
Age: 30 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 503 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer
Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 771 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.65
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke
Age: 19 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 494 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.69
Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski
Age: 23 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 967 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65
Dennis 'dennis' Edman
Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 520 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski
Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1099 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69
William 'RUSH' Wierzba
Age: 22 Team: OpTic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 439 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Age: 19 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 501 KPR: 0.84 DPR: 0.70