Sonic: "It's honestly surprising that Metizport chose Inferno, but, we're prepared for anything"
Wildcard are off to a good start at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 1 as they completely steamrolled Metizport in the first round, winning 13-1 on Inferno.
Though all players showed up on the scoreboard, the South African rifler Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek top fragged with 20 kills. Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief grabbed Sonic for a quick post-match interview to talk about the 13-1 result, his form, and their expectations.
The full interview can be found below on YouTube or in text form below. All questions and answers below have been slightly edited for length and clarity.
You guys pretty much shit on them them, there isn't really a whole lot to say. Did you expect them to take you to Inferno as that's one of Wildcard's best maps as of late?
Yeah, we expected three maps. First, we expected Anubis, and then Inferno, and then Nuke. We thought maybe they would take us on Anubis because I think everyone's quite aware that Inferno's one of our strongest maps. So, it's honestly surprising that they chose that, but, we're prepared for anything.
Every team here has a reason to be here. They all deserve their spots in the event. But, I don't think anyone would expect one of these Stage 1 opening matchups to be as dominant as it was. Were you guys shocked by how everything just completely fell into place?
No, I wouldn't say shocked. I think a lot of people have maybe a bit of a recency bias when they watch us. A lot of the time, when we go to these LANs and tournaments, we end up playing top-five teams. And, we look competitive, we're not like getting blown out of the water or anything, but, when you play Vitality and stuff, and put up scores like 13-7, 13-8 or something, it's a good performance.
Maybe teams think we're not that good, but I think we played pretty solid Counter-Strike and we're making strides to getting better every day, and we're here to show it.
Solid Counter-Strike is right, and you as well had a fantastic performance in your debut here at the Major. As someone who's one of the glue pieces of this Wildcard roster, how are you feeling about your performance in this opening match?
I think I've been playing pretty well. I've been playing pretty well throughout the season for Wildcard. I was very happy with my performance. I think one of the main things that I'm trying to be trying to work on wasn't necessarily my individual skill, but it was more just my match mentality, like going into these games, not being nervous, and just trying to get into the flow.
And I've done a lot of work in that area, and I think I'm in a pretty solid state now where I feel like no matter who I go up against, I'm performing, and I'm playing my game.
After reaching Stage 2 in the Shanghai Major last year, what is the expectation for this Major? Are the expectations the same, or is it to potentially push all the way to Stage 3 or playoffs?
Yeah, definitely. My personal opinion is that we should have been on Stage 2 directly, but some things are out of our control, I guess. The idea here is to definitely replicate our run that we had at the Shanghai Major, and the team is in a very good position to do that. We look strong, we're confident, and we're very prepared on our strategic side.
Do you think we have the pieces in place to do another beatdown down no matter who you face later today?
Yeah, I think so. Let's see.
