Connor “Finui” Finucane is one of the top in-game leaders in the grassroots UK scene. He consistently reaches deep placements at EPIC.LAN and finals of multiple UKIC Division 1 events. This time around, however, Finui‘s goals are a bit more lax.
Finui recently competed in the finals of the UKIC Division 1 season 6 on 28AvgAge. This marks his return to the finals of a UKIC event since Season 4. Like the first time round with Belfast Storm, Finui was unfortunately unsuccessful.
This interview was recorded before the playoffs started. Since then, Synical have been knocked out by FUT, losing 2-0.
Speaking to UKCSGO, Finui sits down to talk about the recent LAN final in London, the state of the PCs there, as well as preparation and expectations for this current LAN.
Starting with the UKIC finals in London, Thoughts on your performance at that event?
Terrible, yeah, terrible. I didn’t help that the PCs were crap, you can’t complain too much, as they were on the same PCs. But yeah, terrible, we played terrible.
Do you think you’ve got a bit of a rivalry with NXT now?
I don’t think you can really call it a rivalry because we’re close outside of CS. So you can’t really call it a rivalry when you’re hanging around drinking together after the event. We’ve played them a lot, and they’ve beaten us close a majority of the time. We’ll get them eventually.
Finui at UKIC Season 6 Division 1 Finals – He genuinely played like this
You brought in Nukeddog to play UKIC. What’s it been like to play with him?
I knew of Nukeddog anyway, even when Joe mentioned him. Way back in the day, he was just there. My first LAN, I went to, he was there. EPIC.LAN 19, he was the winner of that event, which shows how old he is. So yeah, I knew of him, he’s a good guy. He’s probably what we needed; he’s really reserved in CS. He’s pretty calm, he brings a good energy because god knows Nem’s an idiot, Joe’s an Idiot, Seth can be an idiot, so we need someone with a bit of calmness.
How much prep did you do for this event? Did you do more since you signed for Synical, or is it just casual like with 28AvgAge?
It’s always been just a bit casual. Any prep is just individual more than anything. We play pugs beforehand and stuff like that, obviously, to blow the dust off. We’re not hard grinders anymore, I’ll put it that way.
Moving into the group stage, what did you think of your form?
I think my form was alright. Only time will tell in the group stage. I don’t know when stats will be out, but I think I played alright in groups.
You had a very close match against NXT. What do you think went wrong to get that over the line?
There were a few rounds where comms were not that great. There were loads of clutches, and a couple of 1v2s we lost. We lost a full eco at 10-9 on T-side, which gave them a bit of hope back and a bit of confidence, and they just took that to the win.
You said you’re keeping it quite casual, but did you come into the event with any expectations?
Not really, ideally, we just want playoffs, really. So we can just play on the Saturday, that’s literally it. Obviously, you want to win every game, but when we’re not playing as much as some of the other players, it’s kind of like: are we realistically going to win the event? No. So we just have to see how far we go, really, especially with all the international teams.
What did you think of the seeding? Some people think it’s a bit lopsided, as your group didn’t have any of the international teams.
I don’t know how it was done, I think it was VRS, and then it was a community vote. NXT and 8Sins are both VRS. If they were doing it with two VRS in each group, then that’s just luck of the draw really?
Synical playing at EPIC.LAN 45
What do you think of the international teams at this event?
I’ve not played them
Do you think one of them is going to win the event?
Probably, I’ve not actually seen all of the results yet, so I couldn’t tell you. I saw that Iberian soul and AaB. I know that was close, Iberian soul won in OT. So, it will probably be an international team.
