nitr0: "I know it sounds cliché, but I truly believe we're finally on the right path"

NRG started IEM Atlanta 2026 with a tough loss to FUT that wasn't helped by the squad squandering a 10-3 lead against the top European squad on Ancient. With that, NRG have now been thrown into the lower bracket and will need to fight for survival or once again face an early exit from the team's latest international LAN.

Ahead of this fight for survival, NRG's stalwart IGL Nick "nitr0" Cannella spoke to Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about the loss to FUT, the recent addition of Michael "Grim" Wince, the team's progress, and NRG's recent struggles, among other topics.

Find the video interview below with a full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Starting with Overpass, what do you think went wrong on that map, especially the sluggish start on your CT-side?

We kind of didn't get an AWP out fast enough and they definitely did some tactics that are more focused on when we don't have an AWP it seemed. More dry contact play and they were just getting the kills.

Other than that I don't think anything was necessarily wrong macro-wise overall, but they kind of had that in their mind and they just went with it and they just killed us.

I was surprised to see Overpass come out as NRG have only played it once in three months. What went into the decision to float Overpass versus potentially banning it?

Our map pool was been all over. Obviously our D2 is struggling so we play Overpass and before when we picked up Grim we wanted to play all map and see where we're at because we don't necessarily have a map that we wanted to ban in particular but we wanted to feel we have to ban a map naturally and that's how these vetoes happen.

Last time they picked Nuke on us so we expecting Nuke or potentially Overpass but more towards Nuke in the veto and they went with Overpass so that's just how it is.

Ancient was another heartbreak as NRG failed to secure it after going 10-3 up at one point before losing it in overtime. Why did that map slip away from the team?

I can't speak overall because I haven't re-watched it yet, but from my point of view we took our foot off the pedal a bit and fell back into too many passive setups and they got all of the space they wanted.

When we fought them they won the duels and when we gave them space they had good map control and they were getting map control with light utility. On Ancient the CT's have to block an area and the T's will then have a lot more utility at the end of the round so that's how it fell apart from my point of view.

They had good executes at the end of the round.

Recent results suggest difficulty within NRG integrating Grim into the team. Did you expect to have difficulty in bring him in and becoming a competitive team on the tier-one circuit?

I wasn't expecting to pick up Grim and instantly be able to compete against top-give teams or anything crazy like that, but yeah overall Grim is a really good player and he's a lot more experienced than Jeorge. Grim is also more vocal and he seems like he knows how he wants to play. So overall, yes we were expecting better results recently but unfortunately we obviously [haven't had those results].

Now it's just a matter of strengthening our map pool and then also figuring out how we want to play as a team and that's something we've been focusing on this last week. Today we played pretty well in my opinion compared to our recent games.

Unfortunately we didn't get the win or close Ancient, so it's all part of the process and we're taking it match by match right now.

Grim is a great player, but do you think the team lost anything by parting ways with Jeorge in terms of roles or approach to the game?

They are kind of similar players. I think Jeorge is a bit more quiet and focuses on himself and his positions. I'm not going to say anything bad about Jeorge and he was a good player for us obviously but Grim is also a good player.

It's hard to compare them in that sense.

We saw NRG fail to win FRAG 20 recently despite being a dominant force in these NA competitions. Do you think that speaks more to a rising level in NA or about NRG's recent struggles?

It's been nice to see a resurgence of teams that mix and come together and have decent results. But for us we should be beating those teams every day if I'm being honest and we've been struggling, there's no secret or specific answer to our struggles.

As of the last week or two we have finally been feeling progression and going towards where we want to be. I know it sounds cliché, but I truly believe we're finally on the right path for these next tournaments.

Today we played FUT and they're a really good team, probably top five in the world, and we took them to the end of the game so let's just see how we do in the next games and then revisit how we feel.

What do you think needs to be prioritized on this "path" during Atlanta and CAC to make sure you are ready for the Major?

We've been putting a lot of emphasis on our communication and having a bit of a looser style on our T-side. We're trying to make sure everyone has a part of the round and the round is not just over with all of the set strats and stuff.

That's the main work in progress that we're trying to accomplish but overall we're going to have a bootcamp after CAC. Obviously that event is a big event money wise but it doesn't have all of the top teams so it's open-ended in that sense.

It's going to be less competitive if you want to put it that way, although it will still be a hard tournament, but less competitive than Atlanta for example.

Right now it's continuing how we're doing right now for the next two tournaments and then we'll have a bootcamp before the Major and then the Major is hopefully where we'll be able to peak and show everything we've got.

NRG are taking on FaZe and Twistzz tomorrow for survival. Any thoughts on that showdown tomorrow?

I haven't put too much thought into it because I didn't know who we would be playing but they're in a weird spot with karrigan leaving and not making the Major is a big thing for them. So I think FaZe are a bit fired up while having Twistzz IGL and having Neityu come and I think it's going to be a good game for both teams. A good match-up.

As nitr0 mentioned, NRG will face off against FaZe today at11:30AM to fight for survival in IEM Atlanta 2026.