JT: "To win a tournament you have to be a bit delusional and think you're the best"

Passion UA advanced into Stage Three of the Starlader Budapest Major today with a 2-1 win over fellow NA team M80. It is the first time in some time that Passion UA and Johnny "JT" Theodosiou have made top sixteen at the Major and the first under their new home at the Ukrainian organization.

Following the team's win over M80, Dust2 Brasil's ECI Roque Marques spoke to JT on Dust2.us' behalf about the win, the team's mental state, and the process of bedding Vladyslav "Kvem" Korol into the international lineup.

Congratulations on qualifying to Stage Three. How does it feel to lock in top sixteen at the Major?

Feels really great. We worked really hard the past two months and put in a lot of work. We had a bootcamp that lasted a long time and we thought that we could put on a really good performance at BLAST Rivals but we only won one match.

Even here we went down 1-2 which was disappointing but we brought it back and kept the mental up and the last two games we brought really good energy so I'm proud of the boys for making it to the next stage.

What was the focus to avoid coming into Stage Two cold against Stage One teams?

It's hard to get past the fact that they are warmed up and know how the system works and are familiar with the stage. But for us the most important thing for us is focusing on the game and letting the management and the coach deal with the stuff outside of the game so all we have to do is focus on what we're doing on the server.

What we do in the server is what we do every day so they might be warmed up on these PCs but we have been working hard in Romania and in our bootcamps and at BLAST and all that so we're also coming in warm.

In the series you had a rough start versus M80 on Mirage. What did the team discuss after map one before heading into Inferno?

The team talk was about staying in the game and that the next two maps are good maps for us... although I'd say every map is good for us right now. But we knew that going into Inferno and Train we had a really good chance to win and that losing on Mirage didn't really matter.

They were on a 12-map winstreak on Mirage that got broken yesterday so it's a map they are extremely comfortable on and we almost took it from them. Yeah we said to each other that with two more maps we could make the next stage so we need to keep the energy high.

The guys really did because from round one the energy was high and we were in control on both maps from the start.

As you said, you had a good game on Inferno, can you talk me through the game and the confidence heading into Train?

We were very confident going into the third map. Everyone was feeling good mechanically and the comms were flowing. When you hit the level you know you can play at it feels like you can beat anyone.

Did it feel like the same M80 you're used to playing in practice or how did that experience compare?

Honestly we don't really play M80 much in practice because we're not practicing in NA at all the last few months. There isn't any practice going on between us and there's not really a rivalry between us.

We're not in the same events as them and this is the only time we've played them so for me it was just like any other opponent.

After falling in Austin during Stage One, does it feel like this is already a good result or are you still looking for more?

Everyone here at the Major is here to win. So for us it is a sigh of relief that we can now reset back to zero and play the next stage from Round One.

What are the expectations for Stage Three and facing off against elite competition?

I wouldn't say there are any expectations but we are here to win and we can beat anyone and to win a tournament you have to be a bit delusional and think you're the best. We can beat anybody in the tournament even though we're not doing it consistently right now.

But if we are at the best level that we can attain we can go far.

How has it been bringing Kvem into the roster as a guy who isn't used to playing in English?

He's a super talented player and easy to work with and now that we've played a few months together he's fully comfortable now and we're comfortable with him. Honestly it's been pretty easy to slot him into the server.

Passion UA will now head into the Stage Three of the StarLadder Budapest Major on Thursday.