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NRG secured a place in the semi-final of SuperNova CS:GO Malta, after which we sat down with the team's IGL Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele for an interview.

NRG suffered one loss in the group stage, losing to their North American rivals Liquid, and beat the two Polish teams at the event, Kinguin and Virtus.pro, to advance to the playoffs of the $150,000 event.

NRG are taking SuperNova as a "preparation LAN"

Following the swift 2-0 over Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski and co., we spoke to daps about their approach to the event, anti-eco issues and the matchup against Liquid. daps also mentioned that they are approaching this event as a warmup for ESL Pro League Finals and admitted that he already started watching demos for that event.

Taking into account the recent results and events you've been at, what was the energy of the team like coming to Malta?

I'd say our energy is medium level, this LAN was more so a practice LAN. We weren't even supposed to come here because we said that if we qualify for EPL and ECS that we would skip this event, but we ended up keeping the invite anyways. So I think that we are at a middle level right now for this event, we are sort of using it as preparation for Denmark.

You opened up against Kinguin and it was a pretty brawly match, it went to overtime, when it looks on paper like a match you should be winning easily. Did what you mentioned before, this being a preparation event, come into it?

We usually always struggle with the first match, no matter who it is. I think we lose the first match no matter who it is, I think we lost the first match of almost every LAN, outside of a few, obviously. I think we definitely underestimated Kinguin, we didn't do the normal preparation we do for most teams and we just played badly as well. But yeah, I've even started watching demos for Pro League Finals already so I think our minds are sort of towards Pro League Finals.

I've even started watching demos for Pro League Finals already so I think our minds are sort of towards Pro League Finals Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele

After Kinguin you played Liquid and you played them literally last week on LAN. What is the mindset going into the rematch like that?

I mean, it helps, because we already did research for ECS so we didn't really need to watch anything for them here. We knew they wouldn't pick Mirage again, I think they knew they messed up picking Mirage versus us in ECS, even though they destroyed us here on it. They definitely just played better individually and that is the type of a team Liquid is. We know how Liquid plays, but you never know which Twistzz or NAF or whoever is going to show up. And when Twistzz and NAF are playing insane it is pretty hard to stop them, no matter what they do.

They are the team that has been second-third throughout the whole year, pretty consistent, and you've been in the top ten, but in the lower part. What do you think is the big difference between the two of your teams, what are you missing, that they have, to be consistent as they are?

I think that they are more consistent individually. Obviously, I can't compare tactic-wise and preparation wise, because I don't know the amount of time or preparation they put in, but I think that their players are at a higher consistency level individually. I don't think that we are necessarily that much worse than them, since we are able to beat them in BO3s, we did it twice this year and they have beaten us in four I think, on LAN. Obviously, online results don't matter that much, but it has been fairly close in terms of the matchup. I think both of our teams have inconsistency problems and you never know who is going to show up on that day.

Obviously you also have a pretty young team, do you think that with time, maybe more coaching, you will get that consistent level? What do you think is needed to get that individual consistency for your team?

I think that we definitely lack discipline in practice at times, and also in games. If you watch our games a lot, we start off with a 7-1 lead a lot. It is the curse number, we always start 7-1 and I think we start playing pretty careless. I think discipline in and out of the game, in matches and practice, is what we need. We have the good days, where we are very focused, we know what we are going to do, we have all of our plans, we have anti-strats if we are anti-stratting a certain team, and there are days where we may have put the same preparation in, but during the match or the scrims, we start to get a little careless, or if we are winning by a lot in scrims the other team starts trolling and then we start trolling, or maybe we are just getting destroyed and then people start giving up and stuff so it turns into a waste of time... I know it is said a lot, but practice how you play, that is definitely something we need to work on.

there are days where we may have put the preparation in, but during the match or the scrims, we start to get a little careless Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele

Except that, there is obviously losing anti-ecos, that and NRG have been a strong pair lately, in one interview CeRq was very frustrated about that because you lose a couple of anti-ecos and then lose a close match. Is there something going on during those rounds that you struggle with?

We have two or three anti-ecos for every side on every map, so it is not like we lack the ideas, I think that we just execute things poorly. I think people maybe hear a pistol and they overpeek a little too much trying to get that kill and then maybe they lose an AK or something. I think we struggle more on anti-ecos when we go really slow, I find that when we group up and do something really fast it just works because we trade it out. I honestly don't know, it is just the lack of... something, because we win the most ridiculous rounds at times and we lose the easy ones.