Spinx on first half of 2024 for Vitality: "Doesn't matter if you reach five grand finals in a row, if what you achieve is number 2" Exclusive
Lotan "Spinx" Giladi gave a short interview after Vitality's win over Natus Vincere at IEM Cologne 2024. He commented on their results in the first season of the year, gave his opinion on best-of-5 finals, and revealed what he did when he understood they won the match.
— How exhausted are you right now?
— I'm really exhausted. It's a lot of time without food. Of course, you have some snacks between the maps but it's not real food. So we're going to get back to the hotel, have really good food, maybe drink a bit and have a really good night's sleep.
— When did you understand you won the final?
— When I'm playing, I do it without shoes, only in socks. And I knew that if we'd win, we would have to go to say GG to NAVI, and go to the trophy, and I didn't want to do it wearing socks. So when I saw it was a 3v1 against Aleksib on Inferno, I didn't say anything, I just put my shoes on. I knew that was the moment.
— I saw you playing football after the third map. Is it a way to reset for you?
— It's just me, ZywOo and mezii, and our performance coach came as well. We just played with the ball. We had a few minutes to wait. You don't want to instantly talk about the game, you want to chill a bit, relax, and have energy for the next map.
— Do you like playing best-of-5 matches? And also were you aware that Vitality hasn't beaten NAVI in a grand final since 2020?
— I think it's okay to have them in some tournaments, like Cologne, Katowice, and Majors. In CS:GO I had mixed feelings on them, sometimes it was good, sometimes not. But with MR12 it's better. So I think it's fine for these tournaments. About Vitality losing to NAVI that long, I wasn't on the team. Since I joined, have we lost a grand final [to them]? I'm not sure, I don't remember [ESN: They never met in a grand final since Spinx joining].
— You didn't win a tournament this year. What changed during the summer break?
— The first season was hard for us. We were pretty close and at the same time, so far. We were pretty annoyed about this. We talked about it. It wasn't necessarily bad, we had good runs: we reached semifinals and finals. But at the same time, you are here for the trophy. Doesn't matter if you reach five grand finals in a row, if what you achieve is number 2.
We talked about it: If we manage to win a big trophy, Cologne or Major or something else, at the end of the year we can still say that we did good. So we f**ked up a bit in the first season of the year. It's not how we wanted it to be, but it's fine, we can bounce back.
— I saw strong emotions of your coach during the overtimes, when you tried to close the game, but NAVI managed to come back. Was he mad at you during the time out?
— No, I don't think he was mad. I don't know what exactly happened, in which round, but as I know my coach, I don't think he was mad.
