oSee: "If we falter in just one aspect, these top level teams will punish you every time"
NRG has gotten off to a strong start in BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 1, defeating TYLOO decisively 13-5 on Anubis.
That win has secured a spot in the 1-0 pool of Round 2 against HEROIC, but before that match started, NRG's AWPer Josh "oSee" Ohm spoke to Dust2.us about their dismal showing in Dallas and what he's doing to get back to his tier one form.
The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. All questions and answers below have been slightly edited for length and clarity.
Great start for the team here in Austin. How does it feel after beating TYLOO?
It feels relatively good. At Dallas we had some tough matchups so it felt like we almost didn’t have a chance in those matches. Obviously they were strong teams but we didn’t show up the way we wanted to either, so showing up this way at the Major is a really good feeling for us, to show that we still have it. As long as everyone’s comming and everyone’s on point and focused on the game, then we have the possibility to upset anyone.
How are you feeling about the team’s confidence? Did it take a hit in Dallas? How do you feel now?
I wouldn’t say it took a hit. It was actually a good learning experience in Dallas; it showed how if we falter in just one aspect in the game, these teams at the top level will punish you everytime. It really opened up our eyes to the fixes we needed to make. We were playing to not lose instead of to win in Dallas, so we came into this tournament with the mindset of “whatever we do, we do it as a team with full confidence.”
A good showing on the server for you. Where do you feel your level is at and what have you been working on to re-establish yourself as one of the best AWPers in North America?
It’s mostly mental for me. It’s been mental for most of my career. I’ve been trying to, as bad as this sounds, take it not as serious like it’s the end of the world if miss a shot or mess up a round. That’s an ability I’ve grown better, to be able to reset mentally. I’m still not the best at it, but I think I’m on a good trajectory right now.
When I was with Liquid, I was playing against a lot of tier one opposition constantly. So when you don’t have that opportunity as much, it’s definitely tougher to improve, but I still feel like there’s a lot of things that I have improved on.
