Eetu “sAw” Saha is widely regarded as one of the best minds Counter-Strike has to offer. Routinely elevating teams to levels beyond the sum of their parts, sAw knows what works and knows how to implement it to perfection. G2 has been no exception.
Since losing their stars in Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and Ilya “m0nesy” Osipov, G2 haven’t got the name-brand value they once had, but that hasn’t stopped them from attempting to compete at the top. Saw has been instrumental in guiding this G2 roster to the grand finals here in London.
Chatting to UKCSGO after their win over Furia, sAw talks about reaching a grand final already, coming together with Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač, and dealing with the crowd for the first time on this iteration of G2
Second game on the stage now and another comfortable win, how does it feel now coming into the grand finals?
It’s a great feeling because we’re obviously still a young team, and we need to get through these steps and through these experiences. To get to a grand final at this stage of the team is already a good sign. We’re going to take everything from these matches so far and then for tomorrow as well, and we are going to give everything to challenge Vitality, of course.
It was a strong win today. What do you think went so right for you guys in the server versus Furia today?
Prepping-wise wise everything was good, basically the same as everything we have done before, but we are just adding all these little details to it. More to the routine level, where things are not so new anymore, from the more matches, the more officials we play.
Everything is starting to click more, and it’s coming easier in that way. Then, of course, all our players showed up individually, which always helps. Individually, everyone was sharp, and the game plan was correct; we didn’t need to make many adjustments. In all, I think everything clicked.
Talk to me a bit about that clicking. You came into this team with your own Ideas, huNter- has his own ideas, and some leftovers from Snax’s ideas too. Did you expect it to work so quickly, and how do you expect it to progress further?
No matter what the result is, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. There are so many things for a team at our age to do. We have our new in-game leader in huNter-, he’s still got many things to learn, even though he’s showing good things. The same goes for our rifling core. Then, for SunPayus, he didn’t have the smoothest start in this team, so he needs to find himself.
There are still things we need to work on. I wouldn’t necessarily have expected us to play this good. But in a way, we have also been working hard, so it’s really nice to see. I do think there’s going to be many challenges for us in the following weeks and months, but at the moment, it’s been going pretty good.
Yesterday, FaZe were the favourite of the crowd, and today there was a big Brazilian contingent supporting Furia. How do you think your players are faring under that environment, considering it’s their stage debuts with this iteration of G2?
I think they’ve taken it pretty good, the first stage games we have had. I haven’t seen much shakiness and hesitations, which is a talking point, but then it’s a different thing to actually transfer it into a match. I’m really positively surprised by how we have handled these matches in front of the crowd, so it’s nice to see.
