flashie: "We are Team Liquid, our results are not acceptable right now"

Another event, another early exit for Liquid as the struggling team have left Atlanta with only a single win over M80. The result sees Liquid continue to suffer from deep-seated problems that have resulted in the team spending a large portion of the season outside of the top 30 on the VRS.

Liquid's poor standing in world Counter-Strike 2 is something head coach Viktor "flashie" Tamás Bea was able to freely admit to Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore in a post-match interview where flashie offered answers for what issues are plaguing Liquid this season, what the team is trying to do to correct, and a fairly bleak assessment that the team has been going to events aiming to "note lose" rather than to win.

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

Some signs of life on that first map versus GamerLegion but ultimately it wasn't enough to force a third or win the game. What do you think the problem was today?

Today was mostly about the anti-force buys. We lost many rounds to pistols and we lost many rounds in advantageous situations. Also a slow start again, the previous two Bo3s we played this event had very slow starts on the first maps and the first sides of the first maps.

Unfortunately it carried over today as well.

Is there an explanation for that? Why does the team consistently struggle to get started in series?

It is a complex issue. It's multiple things, but mostly we just can't execute our plans properly and with precision.

Do you think that comes down to? If you have to go back to the drawing board what do you aim to fix because you can't afford these slow starts?

Mostly we'll focus on the mental side of things because that's the main cause of the slow starts.

siuhy has been with the team for more than a year and has really struggled to post the numbers like what we saw on MOUZ. He ends the event with a 0.87 rating and has struggled the entire year. What do you think is the biggest hurdle for him to improve his individual form?

We just changed positions when malbsMd came in and he siuhy is playing new spots as well. It's been two months since we changed positions and siuhy will adjust to it sooner rather than later I hope.

I would say it's a hard adjustment overall and because our team chemistry was really hard to build and our whole dynamic changed with the role changes it's hard for siuhy to perform.

ultimate and EliGE told us earlier in the event that they feel scrims and practice have been going really well, but it hasn't translated to the server. As the coach, why do you think all this work that's been put in isn't translating to officials?

I would say the main reason is that our mental preparation has been slacking a bit. That's the main cause. It also doesn't help that lately we have been losing many many games. Our confidence is not high.

We are also playing not to lose, not wanting to win, but not to lose. It's really hard to actually get a grip on a game, especially in the beginning, even though it's your map pick when our confidence is decreased in general.

With the team seemingly continuing to lose confidence, do you think the team is in a death spiral, and if so how do you get out of that slippery slope? Does the team need a new sports psychologist or something for the mental issues?

The issue is not with the sports psychologist, it's not he's the case of anything. It's more like us as a collective we are trying to find our footing among all of these bad results and trying to climb out of this hole and it's not easy.

There are many reasons for it. We are fixing some but new problems arise so that's why it's been a struggle and improvement is hard to make on a consistent basis.

You're heading to CAC, what is the focus to try and resolve some of these issues for the event?

We'll be very hands on with the current issues we faced in the last two games because they're very obvious. We hope we'll improve even in a few days time.

Do you think the team will go into CAC looking to win rather than just to not lose?

We need to go into CAC wanting to win because we're Team Liquid and our results are not acceptable and we need to step up and man up.

Liquid will now head to China and get ready for their first game on May 20th.