AW: We’re not ready to truly win an event yet, but sooner or later we will

Over the past few months, magic has gradually made a name for himself on the international stage, reaching the playoffs at events such as PGL Astana and EWC while quietly picking up a number of impressive wins along the way.

Unfortunately, this young team couldn't carry their earlier momentum into FISSURE Playground #3. Even though they had beaten FaZe and PARIVISION earlier in the event, they ultimately fell short against Alliance and missed out on the playoffs.

“Yeah, it hurts,” AW admitted to HLTV after his team were eliminated in China. “First of all, I played really badly at this event. I think we should have won it, but if we really deserved to win, then we would have won in the end, right?”

Despite being disappointed with his team's showing at this event, the 20-year-old remains confident about the future. “Of course, you always want more, but I think where we are now shows that we're not ready yet to truly win events and consistently stay at such a high level. But I believe we'll get there in the end; it just takes time.”

Q: Tell us how you feel about your result at this event. Overall, are you satisfied?

AW: Sigh, I feel pretty bad. First of all, I played really poorly at this event.

I think we should have won that one, but if we really deserved to win, we would have closed it out in the end, right? We ended up losing to Alliance, which was definitely a shame.

But we still have to keep moving forward. There are more tournaments ahead, and we need to keep practicing our maps. That's it.

Q: You said in the on-stage interview that you were really looking forward to this match against PARIVISION. Why?

AW: I think when we parted ways with PARIVISION, the relationship was still pretty good overall. But because I used to play there, I really wanted to beat them.

I wouldn't say it means that much to me, but since I used to play there, it made the match a bit more interesting.

It’s like playing against friends or people you know — you always want to win a little more.

Q: So was it more like, "I used to play here, and now I'm on the other side, so I wanted to see what it would feel like," or did you want to prove what you could do after joining a new team?

AW: I was mostly just focused on playing this match, and seeing whether my former team or my current one was actually stronger.

I think that's mainly it.

Q: When PARIVISION moved you to the bench at the end of last year, how did you picture your future at the time? Did you expect to be attending a big LAN event with a new team so soon?

AW: To be honest, I probably didn't expect it.

But I always believed I could do it, and I kept working toward it with the team. Before we knew it, we had made it this far.

Q: I was right there during the post-match handshake after the PARIVISION series. When you shook hands with dastan, it felt like there was a bit of personal history there, like you had finally proved something.

AW: Sigh, maybe. I guess it really does kind of look like that...

But honestly, I didn't say anything bad to dastan. I just knew he'd definitely feel awful after losing the match, just like we lost now and I feel the same way.

Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't said anything at the time, since we did win in the end. You can take that comment as banter, or read it some other way, but I really didn't mean anything malicious by it.

Maybe I really shouldn’t have said it at the time, but I think as time goes on, dastan will understand and see it the right way. Maybe not today, but eventually he’ll know it was just a joke.

We lost right after that anyway, so in the end it didn't really make much difference.If you don't end up winning the whole thing, then at the end of the day there's really only one team that's truly happy with how the tournament went.

Q: Overall, how satisfied are you with the results your team has achieved recently? What level do you think magic is at right now?

AW: You always want more.

But I think our current situation shows that we still aren't ready to truly win tournaments and maintain this level consistently.

But I believe we'll get there in the end; we just need time.

Q: Specifically, what do you think the team is still lacking? What areas need the most improvement right now?

AW: To be honest, it was probably the map veto.

Right now, we basically only pick Ancient because we're very confident on that map. So it's probably still an issue with our map pool, that's about it.

Q: What are your plans for the rest of the year? How do you see the upcoming season?

AW: I don't know either. We hope we can qualify for the Major.

But I think winning those two matches helped us a lot, because we were a bit behind on points before, and now we're in a much better spot in the rankings.

I think we can make the Major.That’s probably our main goal right now, more or less.