Lake: "Honestly, I feel the Stage 1 of the Major should go pretty smoothly"

M80 have clinched a spot at ESL Pro League Season 23 Stage 1 after winning the DreamHack Knockout Atlanta BYOC over BIG on Sunday, November 2nd.

Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief caught up with Mason "Lake" Sanderson after the game to discuss his jaw-dropping individual performance, how it feels getting revenge over BIG, how the team is feeling about the StarLadder Budapest Major, and more.

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.

How are you feeling with this win over BIG after having lost to them last year?

I mean, it's a bit bittersweet, to be honest. They were here with their academy AWPer. They obviously don't have the main AWPer, and they just switched the IGL. So, I definitely feel for them in that regard, but it definitely feels nice to get the win, especially for our Germans. They always like to play them, so it felt good.

And you had a great showing. I think you ended the grand finals at, like, 1.50 rating. How are you feeling about your showing against BIG today?

Pretty good, especially after yesterday, when I had the first less than 10 kills in a BO3 in my career [the game vs. Radford University]. I was pretty sick yesterday, but it definitely felt nice to bounce back, to be able to do that today.

Honestly, just especially with my teammates, they all played great in my opinion. We were all really flowing today, and I think it definitely helps. Now I'm starting to feel a little bit better, and so did HexT. So, our energy we were able to be a little bit better than it had been in the previous days. But I'm definitely proud of the boys.

Your most difficult series in the whole event was that 2-1 victory over Marsborne. Talk me through that series. Were you expecting so much resistance from Cxzi and co.?

Yeah, especially with how, like, not great me and HexT were feeling. Our energy was just really low. HexT probably said maybe 50 words that entire game just because he didn't feel good, and I couldn't breathe out of my fucking nose. So, I was trying to breathe through my mouth and comm at the same time.

But, honestly, they're a pretty good team. I think they're slowly starting to crawl their way up. However, we were pretty underpowered this tournament. So, especially with that game in particular, but I'm happy we could pull through. But, honestly, all props to them.

Do you think they're looking better after Cxzi took over the IGL role from WolfY?

Yeah, I think so. But I think over time, it's probably just that Cinderella period right now, just with how they're feeling. I think Cxzi's playstyle is one where it either works or it doesn't, it's a 50-50. He'll walk from a smoke three times, maybe he'll kill three times, or maybe he'll kill zero times.

He's just kind of one of those players who plays entirely off feeling, and it's always fun to play against him, but sometimes it can get a bit annoying due to all the shit he does.

This result sees a team bounce back after a pretty rough showing at ESL Pro League, with your only win coming over the Australian squad Rooster. Does it feel good to come here and kind of shake off that poor showing?

Yeah, we really didn't know what was going on with ourselves in Pro League. There were definitely games we should have won, but for some reason, most of our game was kind of flat. So, practicing in Europe and here, we kind of just ironed out some things, really just made sure we kept our comms good, because honestly, that was what was lacking for the most part.

Like, we have all the meta rounds that most of the all other teams have, but for some reason, shit just wasn't getting across to both sides. It seemed like there was a barrier between both sides of the map, and we were really trying to work through that in practice.

Turning our focus back to the grand finals. Starting with Dust2, you guys were down, I believe, 12-6 or 12-5 at one point, and needed to win eight rounds in a row to force OT. Can you walk me through that comeback on Dust2?

Honestly, I was a bit tilted at the end of the T-side or at the beginning of the T -side. I think we were 12-7 down. We were just kind of missing some util, some things weren't happening that needed to happen. They're a really standard team; they don't really play aggressively at all.

They faked aggression a few times, and it slowed us down pretty badly. They had really good Long pushes, which we weren't really used to. Normally, Swisher stays pretty much Long the entire time. So, we were kind of surprised that they were pushing so much.

But, other than that, we just kind of had to claw back the rounds. We ran a few B rounds, and started to feel good, and then we ran some of our set pieces, and it kind of got us back into the game. Then, we tied it up with a 1v2 from s1n, with a nice one tap on the guy Short, and yeah, the rest was history.

Moving on to Mirage, you guys won the first half by 10-2. How are you feeling about your Mirage right now? Of course, every professional team is willing to play the map. Are you feeling confident in your Mirage?

Yeah, I think especially after our Mirage win vs. MOUZ at BLAST Open London. I think it really felt good for us knowing that we can beat a European, especially a top-three European team, on it. We've just been consistently playing it, and it feels good for us. It's just one of those maps where everything is clicking right now, so we'll see how it goes in the future.

You signed up for this event last minute, and won the spot in ESL Pro League Season 23 Stage 1. Are you happy that you've come here, despite all the adversity?

So, we knew we were coming for the past like month. We were just seeing who's kind of signing up and whatnot. So, I guess we kind of sniped it in some regard. I'm not entirely sure why we did that. I don't know, that's kind of a question for SyykoNT, to be fair.

But, we knew we were coming for a while. We prepped it. I was playing from my girlfriend's house, so I was playing on a 240 Hz monitor, and we had two 240s here, so I just said, 'fuck, give me the 240.' So, I played on the 240 Hz monitor this tournament.

How are you feeling heading to the StarLadder Budapest Major in three weeks, considering you really struggled in the last Major?

I think the teams in Stage 1 aren't as difficult as it was in Stage 2 [at the BLAST.tv Austin Major]. Stage 2 was still pretty difficult for us. Some of the playstyles there didn't really match up for us as well, which is always kind of shitty.

But, honestly, I think Stage 1 of the Major should at least go pretty smoothly, at least I hope. I'm feeling pretty confident about us going into the Major.

And finally, we saw M80 go back to its classic logo. How are you feeling about the return of the classic logo? Which one were you a bigger fan of?

I have no comment about the new old logo, the one that was minimalistic, but I love this logo. I'm going to be honest, the old logo is kind of shit. But hey, I definitely like this logo more, it definitely feels like...I don't know how to describe it, but it just feels better. Feels more homey, I don't know.

We saw you guys in your old jerseys for the last time. Are you going to get some new outfits for the Major?

Yeah, you should be seeing the new sweet stuff for the Major. It should be coming out soon. I'm not sure, I'd have to talk to SyykoNT about it, but I think within the next two weeks we should be getting them. So they should be ready before the Major.