Fluxo Demons goddess: "I believe my team has the potential to dominate the world"

Fluxo Demons just shot up into the top of the list of candidates to win the ESL Impact Season 4 LAN Finals after beating Nigma Galaxy in a Bo1, making them the first team to reach the playoffs this season. The win, a 13-6 affair, was also the first time someone beat the Russian squad on a LAN series ever.

Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho sat down with Lara "goddess" Baceiredo to talk about the historic win, the IGL's expectations for this squad, the change from B4 to Fluxo, and much more.

You are the first team to win a LAN Series against Nigma Galaxy, and you did it in a rather impressive way, with an incredible first half. What was the key to unlocking this game?

We always think one game at a time, and because they are considered the best team in the world, we also wanted to show our best to beat them. We imagined [Vertigo] would be the map and they don’t have a lot of information about us on this map in CS2, so we managed to play around with some things. We played together, always trading, we have created some protocols to use, mainly on the CT-side, which was a very good half. I think it was a case of us putting into practice what we have been doing during the bootcamp.

You mentioned the Vertigo pick and I noticed that during the regular season you lost there against FURIA and showed some weaknesses. How did you manage to better your Vertigo?

We changed a lot of things on the map, mainly adding a lot of protocols, and that’s basically it. We do our defaults out of the spawn and then we follow our protocols, depending on the information we get. Utilizing that and studying what the other teams have been doing in CS2, we managed to get a better Vertigo.

In a recent interview, you said you were practicing 10 hours per day in Europe. Against which teams did you practice here in Europe? Any men’s teams, tier one, tier two?

We tried but, unfortunately, the tier one teams all declined, but we scrimmed against mostly men’s teams, only once we practiced against a women’s EU team and they were really kind to us.

How did the bootcamp in Europe improve your form in comparison to the regional division?

It helped a lot not only because we practiced against European teams, because the game is the same, but also because we got here earlier. Us getting here earlier means we are used to the time zone, we don’t have jet lag, and we are fully rested, whereas previously, we would get here a day before the event. All of that is for sure helping us, because we always started the past events very tired, without having had a bootcamp, feeling very cold, and having to get used to the time zone very quickly.

Is that what the team was looking for when you switched from B4 to Fluxo?

Definitely. We were looking for an organization that could give us everything we needed. We didn’t even need to ask them for anything, as soon as we qualified they told us that we would have a bootcamp in São Paulo and another one in Europe. It’s not an organization that we need to ask for things, they prepare everything and give it to us. It’s been perfect, they are really really supporting us, it’s the best organization I have represented.

But at first, when you switched, there was a moment, even inside the server, during which things didn’t seem to click. Was that an adaptation period or was it just a poor moment of form?

I believe it was a lesser good moment for us. Our individual decision-making was not as good as usual, so we had a good macro, but in specific situations, we weren’t playing our best. During our recent bootcamps, we managed to correct a lot of those mistakes, today we still had some difficulty during our first map against FlyQuest RED, but we managed to fix that even during the game itself.

How is it to play with Poppins?

She is wonderful. We say that she is our “little Barbie”, I was very happy after this final clutch. She was left in a 1v1 against Ana, everyone knows about Ana’s skills, we knew that she had an AWP, and I knew that she would either be Generator or B Connector because I had heard Ana on B Connector. I told her and she hesitated because she didn’t know how she should peek and where, so I told her to pre-fire B Connector, she did that and won the clutch. She listens to what the rest of the team tells her, she really likes to learn with us and I’m happy she trusted me and won us the game.

It’s not just Poppins putting up good numbers and performances, the rest of the team is doing that as well. Do you think you are the best team in the Brazilian women’s scene ever?

I don’t know. To me, we are, my team is the best in the world. Results-wise, we went 11 months unbeaten in Brazil, but I know other teams did that for longer, so we still need to grind more events and win more trophies. I believe my team has the potential to dominate the world.

So, give SA one more spot?

Yes, give SA one more spot, we deserve it.

Do you think that if you get a good result here, even win the whole thing, maybe ESL will revert the decision and give more spots to the other regions?

Look, I have no idea, we don’t know why they even came up with the decision to take spots away, but it pissed not just us but North Americans and Asians, as well. We are going to do our best and I hope that if we get a good result they rethink their decision.