Swisher: Valve generally does not change its decisions easily, but everyone still hopes the Major sticker system can be adjusted.

After M80 beat Legacy, Swisher spoke to the media. He said the team have top-10 potential in the world when they're on form, but communication and consistency are still their biggest bottlenecks. At the same time, he also voiced concerns about Valve's new sticker system, arguing that tier-two and tier-three organizations have generally been hurt by it, and said he hopes Valve will listen to the feedback and make adjustments.

Q: Alright, congrats. You picked up 50 VRS points from this match alone. How does that feel?

Swisher: It feels great. This should lock in our Major spot. We were basically already safe before this match, but this win really confirmed it.

Q: Yeah, Legacy might have had a stand-in, but they still had latto and dumau, so the firepower was still there. What kind of mindset did you go into this match with—wanting to do everything you could to close it out, while also not underestimating them?

Swisher: Obviously, we had to keep in mind that we should target their stand-in a little, because he's clearly not a pro player right now. I think that was pretty obvious on Cache, at least. I don't know if you noticed, but we hit B a lot. Then we tried playing Mirage, but it didn't go at our pace. Once we got to Dust2, though, we were like, “Fuck it, let's play our own game.” That’s when things started opening up.

Q: You mentioned Cache. Lately, it's been a real strong map for you guys, at least. What exactly makes it special? It's just an NA map, right?

Swisher: Yeah, even dephh says that, right? When it came into the map pool, he said it was an NA map. Historically, it’s always been an NA map. He liked it back when he was competing. And I think even in the matches we lost, three of the four were overtime losses that should have been ours—we reviewed them. So I think we’re very confident on this map against almost any team.

Q: So far in this event, the match against BETBOOM felt like it showed how well you can compete with these top European teams, and beating NAVI in Porto did too. Where do you think this team's ceiling is right now?

Swisher: Unfortunately, it depends on how we're feeling that day. When the energy is there, the vibe is there, and the attitude is there, I think we can be a top-10 team. The problem we run into is that sometimes we get a little quiet, there aren't enough dead comms, and then things fall apart against lower-level teams. We have the ability. We just need to work on making it consistent. Even on Mirage, we fell into the same habits on the T side. So that was the main focus of our review before going into the third map: bring up the communication, bring up the dead comms, and really lock in on that.

Q: That's interesting to hear, because I read an earlier interview—I think it was with s1n—where he said you guys sometimes communicate too much, almost over-communicating, like a typical American team. So what's it been like trying to solve both of those issues at the same time?

Swisher: It’s been a bit tricky. Munstur has helped a lot in that regard. In practice, he’s made everyone take responsibility and keep comms simple and more precise instead of talking nonsense—actually giving the right positions, dead callouts, plans, and post-plant information, among other things.

Q: Also... you recently played some local LAN events, I think against Liquid and 3DMAX? You lost a few of those matches. After going to those events and then coming here, how has that felt in terms of keeping your confidence up and understanding where your level is at?

Swisher: Honestly, we were really excited to come here because it felt like we finally had a stable equipment setup. Before this, we were at Roman, then Logitech, then fl0m Mythic LAN. It felt like we were playing on different setups almost every day. I think, coming into this event, the five of us had averaged only around 30 hours each over the past two weeks because we’d been traveling so much. We had six or seven travel days. So we could finally settle in, get on good gear and good PCs, relax, and really lock in.

Q: Like you said earlier, for the Major, I remember it was around 88% before the match. Now you're even ahead of Liquid in the live VRS. How does it feel to get this sorted out early?

Swisher: It feels good. It takes a bit of pressure off us. That was also our mindset going into Roman Imperium. I remember we got invited to Thunderpick but turned it down because we felt it was stacked with strong teams and, as an online event, it would be a bit of a 50-50. Picking up some LAN wins early can help ease the pressure, so we do not have to cram everything together.

Beating [Roman] was huge for us. Picking up a few wins at Logitech was nice too. We wanted to do more, and that would have looked better. But I think getting those wins here locked in our spot and gave us a bit of time to rest before we go into our Major bootcamp.

Q: And with the sticker changes since the last Major, we know things have been especially tough for smaller organizations. The season is still so centered around the Major—doesn't that feel a bit strange? Are you almost playing more for prestige now?

Swisher: I think everyone wants them to reconsider their stance on stickers. I don't think Valve are the kind of company that often walks back their decisions, and that has everyone a little worried. But I think the gap in sticker revenue between the last Major and this one is really huge. It's very bad. I think everyone has been affected, especially tier-two and tier-three organizations. I think people just want them to properly look into it, take on board the feedback they've received, and make adjustments accordingly.