nitr0: "Our map pool wasn't deep enough and we didn't improve enough to make Stage Two"

NRG are the latest NA team to face the music in Stage One of the BLAST.tv Austin Major, with NRG falling to Lynn Vision in a 2-0 loss to cap off a disappointing run for the team that saw them really struggle to win Bo3s and prove their mettle against other tier-two teams.

Following this loss, Nick "nitr0" Cannella spoke to Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about the loss and what comes next for NRG after failing to make Stage Two.

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.

Really difficult way to exit the tournament against Lynn Vision, what do you think went wrong today?

I mean emotions were definitely high in the Dust2 game, it was back-and-forth constantly but I think we made a lot of tactical errors and had a lot of hesitation maybe on the T-side.

We got ourselves in a lot of good positions like the step two of our tactics were good and then we would fall apart to someone breaking a smoke or maybe someone hesitating and not going fast enough and they get a pick here or there.

I have to re-watch it to really see what went wrong but everything was fine emotionally in an obviously high intensity game. But they came through in the end.

NRG exit the Major with no wins or maps in Bo3s which comes after no Bo3 wins in Dallas. Does that point to deficiencies in your map pool or what do you think the main culprit is for this issue?

It's hard to say, I could pinpoint a lot of things that seem like excuses but I think it's just not the best practice coming into this tournament. We had one good week of practice before this but obviously it wasn't enough.

We definitely had a deeper map pool than we did at Dallas but obviously it wasn't deep enough and we didn't improve enough to make Stage Two.

Unfortunately I don't think this has been the return to competition you were hoping for. Do you still feel coming back from VALORANT was the right choice?

It was never a this or that kind of decision, it just felt right I guess. There's no regrets ever for those kinds of things. It's really nice that I was able to come back and be on a good team still so that's always good for me.

There's never any regrets no.

What comes next for NRG? Was there any discussions about potential roster changes should the team fail at the Major to have a strong showing?

No, there hasn't been any discussions because we had Dallas and then the Major in close proximity. There's no talks about changes before and we have to come back and see what's going on after and talk our feelings out and talk about the team and see how we can improve and what the best method would be going forward.

There's not any juice.

Are you proud of Jeorge's performance in his debut at his first Major?

Especially today Jeorge played really well. Maybe he was slower on some maps than others but I am really proud of him.