dephh: “If we spend any time in North America, it’s practically impossible to improve.”
M80 coach Rory “dephh” Jackson, in an interview at the Esports World Cup 2026, commented on the loss to Aurora Gaming and their elimination from the tournament, discussed the team’s individual mistakes, and explained why it’s important for the roster to spend as much time as possible in Europe.
On the loss to Aurora Gaming
I think individual mistakes are haunting us again. We won the pistol round. It was our first pistol-round win of the tournament, and then in the next round, we got completely crushed. It feels like, I don’t know.... It seems like our macro and our game plan are pretty good most of the time, but we just need to step up and avoid individual mistakes at crucial moments.
On M80’s struggles in matches against European teams
We’ve been working on this for quite a while now. And every time we come to boot camp, everything feels really good. We’re playing very close games against these teams. I think sometimes the pressure can get to us. It’s something intangible that’s hard to work on, but we’re trying our best. Now we just need to move on to the next tournament and be as good as we can be.
On the busy schedule and VRS points
We’re discussing the possibility of cutting back on major tournaments and instead participating more often in smaller European competitions, where we can play against Tier 2 teams and secure wins. I think that would be very important for our self-confidence, because if we spend any time in North America, it’s practically impossible to improve. So we need to stay in Europe as much as possible and build from there.
Earlier, M80 lost to Aurora Gaming in a group stage match at the 2026 Esports World Cup for Counter-Strike 2 with a score of 0–2 on maps. As a result, the team finished the tournament in 25th–32nd place and received $10,000 in prize money.
Photo: PGL.
