A second-place finish in a nail-biting series saw FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder leave Masters Toronto empty-handed. In the post-match press conference, the team discussed their shortcomings ahead of their return to EMEA.

What do you consider was the biggest challenge during this match?

Alfajer: “Map pool.”

Chronicle: “Obviously coming from the lower bracket was the hardest option for us. Everyone knows that we're losing a very big advantage in terms of the map veto. Basically they can lock two of the worst maps from us and after that it's obviously hard to play. And when you kinda start your best of five series from a 1-2 score, it's always tough to come back mentally. Because you're under pressure; you know you're very close to being out, but to be fair they're also under pressure because they're one series away from winning, so they're kinda in the same boat as us. And obviously they handled the pressure pretty well, we didn't… And also in some way, we also had a bad day. We were tired after the long lower bracket run, we already had too much…day after day and also it was a best of five. And obviously energy levels were not as high as our first matches in this tournament.”

kajaak, as time goes on and we get closer to Champions, do you think your ceiling and the performance you have with this team can go to new heights?

kajaak: “I think we can. Individually I can be much better. Now I know how it feels to be second place and it feels shit… so I don't want to be in this place again.”

Were the momentum shifts the thing that you struggled with the most this match and what went wrong when you tried to swing things back in your favor?

Boaster: “I think Paper Rex had a lot of energy, and they were using it to carry the game. I don't know, I just think obviously we're a team, but today I just feel like I let the team down. I just couldn't get in the game at all. When you got - on the last map - Chron and Alfa dropping that many kills, you should be winning. And with all the team dropping that many kills on Icebox, it should have been a cleaner game. Even on the other maps… it is what it is, but I just think… Paper Rex, I'm happy for them. At the same time I'm just also so disappointed in myself. I could've done more for the team. Seeing how upset they were after the game… I should've just [pulled] through and tried to find as much energy as possible and just…yeah.”

How prepared would you say the map [Pearl] was?

Milan: “They only played one side. I think the side we had stuff on was fine, but I just think we didn't have the solutions. I think going up against a team like that that keeps doing the same thing over and over and over again and us not having reps on the map is just super difficult to come up with a proper solution on the fly. I think the boys managed very well overall, but ultimately if the train wants to go B, they're just gonna go B fucking 12 rounds in a row and there's nothing we can do about it.”

With Bind coming in with the next new map, what are your reactions to these new additions?

Milan: “I'm looking forward to creativity again. I have two people on the team who really like cooking up some really nice stuff on different maps. It's exciting, some changes are always welcome. The turnover is obviously quite short; we have our next tournament in a week and a half and after that Split 2 starts relatively quickly with this new map pool, so we have a lot of work to do, but I think we'll be fine.”

Alfajer, what aspects from this tournament will you and the team carry forward as fuel to come back even stronger?

Alfajer: “If I played good, it was because of my teammates, they made the space for me to play. In the future, if I have space to play, I will play again. I think my team made me play well.”

Chronicle: “Take some credit. The whole series you played so fucking well, like very strong performance. I respect you. For you, you're my MVP, bro.”

Alfajer: “And also, I heard that [the] MVP title can go to the losing team. Where's my MVP? I dropped plus 30 every game! What is that?”