NiKo on Stewie2K: “He really was very obedient. And he never asked questions during a round.”

Whatever I told us to do, he was the first one to start putting it into action. And that was his biggest strength. I knew that even before we picked him up. I knew he was a very versatile player. He can do a lot of things as a player. That was the main reason we picked him. But he was really very obedient. And he never asked questions during a round. He was completely focused on the round.

When we made it to the playoffs, when we walked into the arena and the crowd welcomed us, we started winning as if we all knew we could win the tournament. Our game really did have a lot of holes, but somehow, when we stepped into that arena and started playing, we were literally like, “Okay, we can make it to the finals, and we’ll see what happens from there.” Because in the semifinals we faced 9z Team, and honestly, let’s just say we could have beaten them even with a stand-in. Before that, we’d beaten FaZe Clan, and when we beat 9z Team and faced Team Vitality in the final, we were already like: “That’s it, we’re ready.” We played well. Several times after that championship, I said it was one of my favorite tournaments. We won it with a stand-in; I was the IGL—it really was unreal. And the crowd supported us throughout the entire playoffs—it was truly incredible.

There was definitely less pressure on us, which meant more pressure on our opponent. We were playing against Vitality in the final; they were at full strength, they were playing really well at that moment, and they were expected to win. We’d already done our job here. We came here to try to give them a bit of a hard time in the final, and in the end, we won. But I don’t want to believe that was the deciding factor. I do think, though, that when you bring in some fresh faces to the team, it can sometimes really help you out. If you’re struggling a bit leading up to it, that small change can really help you during that specific period. And then you go back to the old way, and I think that can give you a lot of experience.