Lake: M80 is at "a new level of CS as a team" after 3-0 start at StarLadder Budapest

M80 is firing on all cylinders early at the StarLadder Budapest Major, going 3-0 in Stage 1 and advancing to Stage 2 after a 2-0 series win against NA rivals NRG.

While NRG is playing with coach Damian "daps" Steele standing in Nick "nitr0" Cannella, M80's Mason "Lake" Sanderson told Dust2.us after the match that the team did not take NRG likely, and spoke about the form the team finds themselves in.

Considering how well NRG played on the first day, how did you prepare for the match against them?

Honestly we didn't really prep too hard, because they were playing a decent amount different with daps than they were with nitr0. So we kind of just went into it [thinking] they're going to do more crazy shit, they're gonna have more stacks, they're going to play a weirder game. So we didn't read too far into it; we had all the spots on our sheets, the plays we like to do on each map, and then we just free-flowed.

It worked pretty well. We could say it was an easy game?

Yeah it was a pretty easy game, but mad respect for NRG. They obviously are playing with a coach and for them to be 2-0, or now 2-1, it's respectable and I hope they make Stage 2.

How does it feel playing a fellow NA team in a match of such importance?

It's weird, it's normally the other way, right? Normally it's an elimination game at 0-2? But it felt good. It was a pretty comfortable game from us.

Are you guys doing anything different for Swisher? He's playing really well?

Not really. I think he's just gotten more comfortable in his playstyle and with what he wants to do. All of us are making a decent amount of space for him. In his roles, that's really important for him to activate; sometimes he can be aggressive, sometimes he can be passive, so we just need to set him up for the late-rounds. Or even early.

In Austin you started in Stage 2 but couldn't make it to Stage 3. Now that you're warmed up from Stage 1, will that help you in the next stage?

I think so. Right now as a team we're flowing really well. We're showing a new level of CS as a team right now. I think it's only good things from here. At the last Major it felt weird to sit down and immediately play teams that played in Stage 1, so I honestly don't mind this path going forward.