ENCE started their run in Rio de Janeiro with a tough 16-6 loss to FURIA on stage in front of a packed Riocentro. The international squad then bounced back with a convincing victory of their own in the backstage, dropping Bad News Eagles to the 0-2 pool with a 16-7 showing on Ancient. Alvaro “⁠SunPayus⁠” Garcia and company will play their last best-of-one on day two of the Major’s Legends Stage, taking on fnatic at 16:15 .

SunPayus took some time after his team’s matches to talk about ENCE‘s first day at the Major, going over the two matches as well as the progress the team has been making since signing him and Valdemar “⁠valde⁠” Bjørn Vangså up to the event in Brazil. “When you make some progress you can see that things start to get rolling,” the Spanish AWPer said of ENCE‘s progress since the summer, “although I can tell you that there’s still a long way to go.”

Let’s go back to the first match against FURIA. You were up against a full house of fans cheering against you, was there some stage fright?

Honestly, I was really happy to see that crowd, even if they weren’t cheering for us. It was such a pleasure to see all of that passion. We just lost because we weren’t up to the challenge, we had a plan and didn’t follow it. On top of that, when there were 4vs4 or 3vs3 situations, we didn’t play them well. We looked at them after and we saw that we just didn’t do it right. On T-side we lost all of these sorts of situations again, the clutches. You can’t lose two pistols and make these mistakes in a best-of-one.

What were the conclusions you came to when you sat down and talked about what happened?

I felt like we were moving around too much, and I said it to the team. We were doing things that we don’t do in practice, players were going places that they usually don’t. What I said was that we just have to play the way we do in practice. We make our plan after we do our analysis, but we have to play our positions like in practice, and then after that we can adapt. Basically, we did that and it worked really well [against Bad News Eagles].

Why do you think you were making these mistakes?

It was our first game here and on top on a stage like this one with people shouting. There were maybe some nerves, I don’t know. When we played the duels we weren’t terrible, but not great. It was all about the situations, like the 3vs3s and so on. I could say that it was because it was the first match and that I hope we’ll play more like we did against BNE.

You had a very strong CT side against Bad News Eagles on Ancient, tell me a bit about this second map and starting out 11-0.

Our plan was to play default and try to put some pressure down middle because we know that they like to hit mid a lot on T-side. We played really well and individually everyone was very on point and focused on themselves. At the end of the day, if everyone is focused on themselves they will contribute what they need to the team. The communication was also much better, I was helping move the team around and it went very well.

It took you a bit to get going in the second half and it looked like BNE may have gotten a footing, but you closed it out before they could really get going. How was that?

We won the pistols but then, in the anti-eco, we executed on A and when I went to plant I stood on the backsite molotov. I should have planted a bit further, although I really shouldn’t have been the one planting, but we lost the eco. Then we forced, lost a clutch, and had some weird close rounds. When we were able to buy back up properly we started to put in rounds and closed it out.

You talk about helping move the team around. You were notoriously vocal on Movistar Riders, so what’s your relationship now with Snappi, sAw, the guys who lead this team?

They know that I’m a very vocal player, that I like to move around a lot. I’ve adapted to them and they have adapted to me, especially on the CT side. The team really tries to listen to me because when I’m active and roaming the team works really, really well. In that aspect, things are going really well.

You’ve been on the team for a few months now and everyone is adapting to each other. How’s that progress going?

It’s very beautiful. When you start it’s really hard, building everything back up from the bottom. How to play different situations, executes, etc. When you make some progress you can see that things start to get rolling, although I can tell you that there’s still a long way to go. But it’s going very well, I’m very happy, and I’m happy that we’re getting to where we are because we started out very poorly and we’ve fixed a lot of things. You can see the work we’ve put in.

You didn’t have the best start and it wasn’t the best ENCE, but we’ve also seen you have good matches. Now you’re in a bit of middle ground, where do you see the team?

I think we’re doing pretty good, the first game against FURIA was a bit weird, but if you look at it round by round there were a lot of close situations and clutches. The scoreline was really one-sided, but the truth is that it came down to a lot of those close situations. The team is playing at a good level, especially individually, and we’ve put in a lot of work, so I think we’re coming here at a good moment and we can make it to the next stage.

You played a really good RMR, but you also lost the ESL Challenger Rotterdam final. What do you think you need to always be at your best?

To play. Experience. Experience as a team. We’re all experienced players, but as a team, all five of us together, we don’t have that much experience. Basically, we need to play more matches, lose more, work on the mistakes that we find we make, and in the end all of the pieces will start to fit until we’re much more consistent. I think we’re already playing well, and I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the Rotterdam final because as I already said on Twitter, we were really low on energy during that match.

How do you see yourself, personally? You exploded on the scene with Riders, but now you’re playing internationally, in English, etc. How are you adapting to this new atmosphere?

I think that I’m adapting well, especially on T-side. I have a lot less responsibility now so I can move around more, focus more on the AWP and on my individual play. I’m adapting to that now because before I helped a lot more with moving the team. I still do it a bit, but I have a lot more freedom and space to find shots and have impact with the AWP. I’m very comfortable now and I know I’m only going to get better.

To finish off, what do you make of being out here in Brazil at the Major in this atmosphere?

This is amazing. I don’t think there’s a bigger fanbase than this anywhere in the world. We played the first match against FURIA in front of three or four thousand people and it felt like they’re 40,000. It’s incredible, I had teammates saying that they literally couldn’t hear a single step in the game. That they couldn’t play because they didn’t hear anything, and of course they were playing A on Vertigo and getting rushed, so… [laughs]

Extra motivation to make it to the playoffs, then?

Yeah, motivation couldn’t be higher. I really hope we make it to the arena, we’re all going to give everything we have. We’re all conscious of the effort we’ve made and the work we’ve put in over the past months, so we’re going to do everything in our power to make it to the next stage.