magic ended FISSURE Playground 3 one step away from the playoffs, losing to Alliance, although earlier in the tournament they managed to beat FaZe and PARIVISION. Andrey “AW” Anisimov remained dissatisfied with the result and his own play, but believes that the current roster is gradually moving toward the level at which it will be able to consistently fight for titles.
AW remained disappointed with the result
The main emotion for AW after the elimination was disappointment. The player admitted that he personally played below his own expectations at this tournament, while magic had enough opportunities to beat Alliance and continue the fight.
I am upset. First of all, I myself played badly at this tournament. I think we should have won, but if we really had to win, then we would have won, right? It is a pity, but we need to move on, there are still tournaments ahead.
For the young roster, this loss became another reminder of the difference between separate strong matches and a stable result across an entire tournament. magic can already beat well-known opponents, but for now they are not always able to consolidate that success at the next stage.
magic are not ready to regularly take titles yet
Despite the progress of recent months, AW assesses the team’s current level quite soberly. According to him, magic still lack the stability needed to regularly reach finals and truly contend for victories.
You always want more, but probably right now this means that we are not ready to actually win tournaments and consistently play at such a high level yet. I think we will get there, we just need time.
This describes magic’s current position well. The team has already accumulated enough strong results to be taken seriously, but the next step has to be stability specifically — not one loud match, but a full strong tournament from the start to the final stages.
The victory over PARIVISION had special meaning
The match against PARIVISION was more interesting than an ordinary series for AW, because he had previously played for that team. At the same time, the player denies that he viewed the meeting as personal revenge — for him, it was rather an opportunity to test the current roster against former teammates.
It was more about curiosity: to see how strong my former team is compared to my current one. When you play against friends and people you know, you always want to win a little more.
Even the emotional handshake with dastan after the match, AW did not present as a conflict. According to him, it was more like banter, and after magic’s later elimination, the situation lost any special meaning — in the end, only the team that wins the tournament is satisfied with it.
The main problem is the map pool and veto
Speaking specifically about weak spots, AW first of all highlighted work with maps. magic rely too heavily on Ancient, because this is the map where they feel most confident, and this makes their veto less flexible.
We probably need to work on the veto. We constantly pick Ancient because we are very confident on this map. I think the main thing is to keep working on the map pool.
For a team that wants to consistently win big tournaments, one strong pick is not enough. The deeper magic go in the bracket, the easier it is for opponents to prepare for their strengths, so expanding the comfortable map pool may become one of the key stages of their next development.
The Major remains the main goal
Despite missing the playoffs, AW assesses the tournament positively from the perspective of the long-term fight for the Major. Victories over FaZe and PARIVISION gave magic important ranking points and helped them reduce the gap to their competitors.
We want to qualify for the Major. I think these two wins helped us a lot, because before that there was a gap in points, and now we are already quite high. I think we will make it to the Major.
This task now looks like the main reference point for magic until the end of the year. The team is not yet ready to call itself a stable title contender, but if it continues to collect points and adds depth to its map pool, qualifying for the Major may become the next big step.
The potential is already there, now stability is needed
The results of recent months show that magic are already capable of competing with strong teams and regularly creating upsets. The problem is that separate victories have not yet turned into long tournament runs.
AW admits this without excessive optimism: the current roster is not ready to consistently take trophies yet, but he considers the direction of development to be correct. Now the main task for magic is to turn potential and separate strong series into a stable level that will allow them to fight for playoffs and titles at every big tournament.
