s1n on M80's Major performance: "You could argue this is our true level"

Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore caught up with Elias "s1n" Stein after M80's exit from Stage 2 of the BLAST.tv Major Austin. M80 went out with a 1-3 record, leaving Liquid as the only NA hopeful to remain in the tournament.

s1n commented on the team's performance at this event, their form throughout the season, and what work will be done in the offseason.

The entire interview is available below in text or video form. The questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.

Tough loss against Nemiga where M80 didn't have a lot to show on Dust2. What do you think went wrong on that?

Honestly, this has been the story of our map pool recently. Ancient has been a bright spot, but other than that, we tried to work on multiple maps to get them up to shape, and I think this Dust2 honestly... We started without winning [the pistol round], we've had an awful time with [pistol rounds], and we went 0-10 on them this tournament, which is kind of horrendous.

But apart from that we had some good rounds it's just the conversion. The moment we have an advantage we try to play too safe or we think about the wrong things and we had very situations where we had first kills, 5v3s, and we let go of too many crucial rounds.

With this loss today, you exit the Major with a win over OG, but not much else to show for it. Do you think you showed the team's true level here in Austin?

Our season has been pretty low. I think you could argue this is our true level, honestly, the way we've been playing, especially at this tournament. We tried some stuff, we tried scraping a lot of stuff, adding new stuff. I wouldn't say this was our true level because the practice before this tournament has been amazing. We practiced very good teams and showed good maps, also bad maps but we learned a lot from this. It's sad that we've gone under like this.

With that, it's another NA team out of the running here at the Major. It leaves Liquid as the sole team hunting for the arena. After your mixed season, what comes next for this team?

Of course, the VRS points are always a topic. We are missing out on quite a few points, I think we were very high in the ranking. So, all we can do is get back to work. For me, as an individual, I think re-looking at how I called this tournament. Just in general, we lost our groove. I'm looking forward to working hard in the offseason. There's a lot to step up to. We weren't on the same page in the server. I am trying to find fixes for the system.

You spent a lot of time in Europe prepping for this event. Like you said, you came to this Major and felt like the team was disjointed. Why do you think that is?

We are looking for solutions all over the season. We started the season with a stand-in, so we got to work a little later with our real five. We don't agree with our performance. We are always looking for things to improve, we couldn't find our groove, and that's why we exited 1-3.

M80 finished 20th-22nd at the BLAST.tv Austin Major, another disappointing result for North America at its first home Major in seven years.