Ahead of the Major, we got a chance to speak to the former French player, a legend of the game, shox. In this interview, shox breaks down his Pick’ems what makes Vitality so difficult to face, how ZywOo has evolved since their time together, and why confidence may be the biggest weapon in a Major environment.
He also shares his thoughts on Falcons under karrigan, Liquid’s ongoing identity issues, the Stage One opening matchups, the current state of Brazilian and Australian Counter-Strike, and Valve’s recent changes to Major stickers and souvenirs.
To start off, Vitality enter this Major as a team everyone is chasing. From your perspective, what is the hardest thing about preparing against them? ZywOo’s individual level, apEX’s calling and spacing, or the fact that they now have multiple players who can win a playoff map?
I think, in my opinion, the biggest task for people who are facing Vitality right now, and it’s been a lot of time now, is mainly about confidence. Because when you face Vitality and you face all five players on the server, even from an outside perspective, when you look at the match, you can feel all the confidence the players have thanks to all the wins they have had.
When they don’t have any hesitation, should they take a duel, should they not take the duel, should they use utility, they don’t have that hesitation that you usually have on the pro level, especially in intense matches. Since they have been winning for so much time now, and they have so much confidence, this is, in my opinion, their biggest strength. This is where other teams, besides NAVI, who are getting better and better on that point, are not there yet.
When teams are facing Vitality, they are not able to play their A game. I think this is the biggest task for any team that is going to face Vitality, is being able to play their own game and to play their A game against them. A lot of times, I see players or teams starting to play worse than they usually do because of that kind of mental pressure you have on the server when you face Vitality.
You’ve obviously played with ZywOo during an important part of his career. When you watch him now, in what areas do you think he’s grown the most?
Communication. Definitely communication. We can see on the camera that he’s talking a lot. He’s taking more and more responsibilities. I don’t know how much, of course, because I’m not in the team.
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But from an outside perspective, you can see on the camera that he’s talking more and more, which means he is becoming more and more of a team player.
Even if he always had some teamplay in his blood, you can feel he is playing more and more for the team and also bringing up new ideas. When I was playing with him, it was around five years ago now. Time flies. What we told him a lot, and what the coach was telling him a lot, when he was not having an especially good game, or even when he was having a good individual game, was that we needed him to talk more, to take more responsibilities, to bring us some stuff, some moves, what he wanted to do at the start of the round or mid-round.
It is not only because it is ZywOo. It is because he has a role as an AWP. When you are an AWPer and a star player like this, you need to take more responsibilities and bring your own game. You need to talk about what you are going to do and what you want to do. Now, when you see him playing, he is talking a lot. His individual level overall is kind of the same in a way. He has always been that good. But I think right now he is taking more responsibilities for the team. This is, I would say, the biggest improvement from what I can see.
Moving on to other teams, Falcons are obviously one of the most interesting teams right now since karrigan has joined. They have NiKo, m0NESY, TeSeS, and kyousuke. Do you think a leader like karrigan can solve their playoffs problem? Also, how do you think karrigan is at handling pressure? Because obviously there is a lot of pressure on Falcons right now to win trophies.
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I think karrigan can help Falcons on two sides. The first one would be maybe to help the young guys like m0NESY and kyousuke play even better individually. For decades now, one of the biggest strengths karrigan has always brought to his teams is how he uses his players and how a player can be really comfortable in his playstyle.
I saw interviews from kyousuke and m0NESY, and they are going in that sense, that they are enjoying the playstyle of karrigan and they are very comfortable with it. When you are comfortable with the game style, this is where you can actually play your A game. So first, I think he can really help m0NESY and kyousuke get to another level, higher.
The second one would be intense matches. It can be elimination matches or playoff matches, where karrigan has always had good runs with his teams, because where he excels the most is when the pressure is the highest. We could see in the past that Falcons were struggling, especially in these matches when the pressure is really high. This is where they start to do some random stuff, whereas this is actually the strength of karrigan. So I would say these are the two main parts where karrigan can help Falcons get better and better.
Now coming to the Major, especially Stage One, if we start with GamerLegion, they come in as one of the stronger sides in Stage One, but BO1s can be a bit messy, right? They are facing NRG in the opener. Would you focus more on denying the comfort maps, or who do you think has the upper hand in the opening game with GamerLegion facing NRG?
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I don’t think one team really has the upper hand. You could think about that in the past few years, but since the level right now is so stacked and we saw so many upsets, especially in the Majors, it is not about which team and which players. It is more about who is going to be able to play well under a lot of pressure.
When you play these Majors, there is a lot of pressure. It is either going to help you play even better, or it can paralyze you and you can just play worse. This is why we saw a lot of upsets in the Majors.
In my opinion, when you watch a Major, you are not even watching the teams or the players. You are just watching a match. This is the funny part: everyone on the server can pop off. Who is going to have the Major superpower? This is not something you can predict because it depends on how much you prepared, how much you are ready mentally to face pressure like this, and how comfortable you are going to be playing in these tense moments.
If we move on to the next match, we have B8 taking on TYLOO. Obviously, B8 are one of the younger sides who have recently shown a lot of promise. TYLOO used to be very good, but recently they have kind of fallen off the radar. Who do you think is going to win this matchup?
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I would say B8 should have the upper hand because I feel like B8 are getting pretty consistent and stable, more than at the end of 2025, where they were struggling. As you just said, TYLOO are having a hard part right now. So I think B8 have the upper hand in that matchup. But also, Chinese teams like to do some surprises at Majors. We always like it because it is always funny from a spectator view. As you just said, it is also a best-of-one, and especially in MR12, everything can happen.
Then we have Heroic taking on Sharks. Obviously, Heroic used to be one of the best teams in the world a few years ago with cadiaN. But do you think Sharks can upset Heroic? Is there a chance there?
Honestly, I don’t think so. I think if they do so, it will be a big fail from Heroic, because I would say the gap between these two teams is too high to get an upset.
If we come to the biggest match of the opening games, we have BIG taking on Liquid. When two teams with so many recognizable names meet this early in a Major, how much does experience matter compared to current form?
Experience is really important. But also, we saw that young players nowadays are able to handle the pressure better and better. Even if it is a Major, we saw some young players really popping off. So it depends on the personalities, I would say. For some players, it is too hard, and some players are really comfortable in that environment.
About the BIG and Liquid matchup itself, I still believe BIG are going to take it because they have had a really good grind for some months now. They know what they are capable of, and I think they are pretty consistent. Liquid, even if you can see on paper that they have really big names and big individualities, are struggling a lot. They are not able to find the solution. Even with Mareks joining the roster, it didn’t really change something.
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They are only averaging thirty-seven percent win rate in the last three months, which is pretty bad, honestly. BIG have seventy-three, for example. Even if they didn’t face the same tier of teams, they are not playing the same opponents, it can still show the form of the teams. A Major is a lot about form, about if the team is feeling good at the moment or not. On paper, BIG are in a much better form than Liquid.
Expanding more on that, you have obviously played with both EliGE and NAF in the past. From the outside, what do you think is Liquid’s biggest problem right now? Is it more about confidence, roles, leadership, identity, or what is it exactly according to you?
I would say identity. I played with Liquid in 2022, I think it was, and the thing is, we were also struggling with finding an identity. Even when I stepped down from the organization as a roster, I mean, it has been around four years, and it is the same.
They are trying to swap players, they are trying to swap leaders, they are also trying to invest in big names. Whatever it is, something is going wrong. It is not in the good direction. They changed the player, they changed the coach. They did a lot of changes, but it feels like it is always the same story, where that team can’t find their own identity where the players are comfortable.
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You can see some teams that are maybe tier-two or tier-three teams, with names you have never heard about on paper. But when you look at them play, you know that they know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and they are comfortable in the game style. When you look at Liquid, you can see they are not sure about what they are doing, they are not very confident, and individually it is a lot of ups and downs.
For me, the biggest thing is definitely the identity, because you don’t feel like a real team when they are playing on the server. You feel like there are some connections that are missing, and I think this is the biggest problem. In CS, to build a really top-tier team is way harder than people might think. It is not about names, it is not about skills or individuals. Of course it is, but at the end of the day, a player can be really good in one team and really bad in another team, because it depends on how he is feeling comfortable on the team, how he is feeling comfortable in the game style, and how he is feeling himself in that environment.
It feels like on Liquid, none of the players are really comfortable with what they are doing. This is the biggest task for a coach, I would say, or a leader as well: to find and create a system where everyone in the team accepts it, but more than accepting it, actually likes it, understands it, and is comfortable playing like this.
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Moving on to the next match, it is BetBoom taking on Gaimin Gladiators. Obviously, BetBoom will be going in as favorites, but how far do you see them going in this stage?
I think they will make it through. I actually had them making it through in the Pick’Ems. But I think their win against Vitality has to be taken with some doubts because Vitality didn’t have a single practice since, I think, two or three days, something like this. It was a weak Vitality in Atlanta. We all know this.
Yes, it was the first time for someone to actually beat them in a long time, but I think we shouldn’t take that result as BetBoom playing really well. Behind that, they just lost against paiN. It was more because Vitality were very weak during that tournament. It wasn’t the Vitality we all know. BetBoom are still, in my opinion, the team that should go through Stage Two, but I don’t see them going further than that.
In the next matchup, we have M80 taking on Lynn Vision. I think this matchup is going to be really close. Both teams are really good and have a huge opportunity to start 1-0. Who do you think is going to have the upper hand?
Very good question. As you just said, it is two teams that are pretty good at the moment. I will still go with M80, but I might be totally wrong. I didn’t actually see M80 play for some time now. I didn’t watch them. But I remember the last run at the Major, and they were playing really good CS with a lot of confidence, with something that is not easy to do in a Major. So I would just pick M80 because I have a really good flashback about them in the last Major.
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We have mibr taking on THUNDER dOWNUNDER, and obviously mibr’s insani had an insane win just now. But speak to me about the current state of BR CS, because obviously they have insane players, but they are not able to bring them all into a single working team. They have scattered talents across various teams, and they are not able to make it work.
I think the fact that the new player joined the team was a really good move from the Brazilian organization, because it feels like he brings something to the team that was missing. Since he joined, they are actually able to win against big teams. They won against Legacy in Bucharest, which is something huge. In the last event, they won against 3DMAX, PARIVISION, B8, and they only lost to Legacy and MOUZ.
So it feels like he is bringing something to the team that was missing. Somehow, they are becoming a much better team. I will personally pick mibr because I think they are in a really good shape, a really good form right now. I wouldn’t be that surprised if they actually do some good damage in Stage Two.
The final matchup: we have SINNERS taking on FlyQuest. This is an interesting question because obviously Australian CS has had its highs. We have seen players like jks, Liazz, and a lot of players pop up in the past, AZR obviously. But in Majors, they have not done as well. Who do you have winning this matchup?
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I will go for FlyQuest. There are some teams that, even if they are not having an especially wonderful season and are even having some problems in the Asian scene, in the events they are doing, and they are losing against some weaker teams on paper, somehow players like jks, INS, Vexite, nettik, I’m not sure about story, but the Australian teams and Australian players somehow always did some damage at the Majors.
Sinners are more about players who are still very young, who don’t have a lot of experience. So I would pick my OCE friends because I believe that when the OCE are joining the Majors, they are always able to improve their level.
Just two more questions about the recent updates that Valve has rolled out. First of all, they have changed how Major stickers operate this time, moving away from capsules to individual stickers and dynamic pricing. From a former player’s point of view, do you like this because it gives fans more control? Or do you think it takes away some of the old magic that the stickers had?
I don’t like this. The reason is really simple. Before, you would buy a capsule that costs around two euros, something like that, and it is you and your chance. You can actually have a chance to get maybe the player you are looking for, right? If you are a big fan of whatever player.
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The thing is, because of that update now, let’s say I am a fan of m0NESY, ZywOo, or donk. If I just want to have one sticker, only one, it will cost me hundreds and hundreds of euros. I think this is way too much for a fan to be able to buy. It is just too much. Before, stickers were kind of possible for everyone. It feels like now, if you are a fan of a player who has a big image, his price will be really high. For people who are fans of him, they won’t have the money to put his name on their weapon, which I think is really sad, if you ask me.
Also, the new Souvenirmatic lets fans create their own souvenir weapon by choosing a completed match and a player. Do you think this new change makes it more personal, or do you think it reduces the historical value of getting a specific match drop?
I think it definitely decreases the value of the specific matchup, because before, you never knew what to expect from a souvenir. That was actually the interesting part. Souvenirs were really something random and something special. Right now, if everyone can have a souvenir, then it will just lose its story in a way. Before, you could have a weapon from a souvenir and say, “Oh, you had that souvenir from that match, which is actually insane.” I remember. Now everyone will be able to craft it, so it is not really that much of a souvenir anymore, I would say.
Coming into this Major, Stage One and Stage Two still have BO1s, but Stage Three is composed entirely of BO3s. As a player, how much do you think this change means for the teams, and how much does it reward surprises and help in preparations?
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I think it is going to be hard for the underdog teams, but overall, it really benefits everyone. Of course, it benefits the favorites because it is going to be less random. But even for the weakest teams, even if it will be harder for them to make a map upset, it will actually make it possible for them to play more matches in a Major environment.
This is where you win the most experience: big matches, really tense matches and stuff. So being able for them to play a lot of maps in this environment is going to help them grow as players and also as a team. Overall, I think it is a really good call. It will also reduce the fact of having maybe a lower team in the playoffs, because it means that all the playoff teams are going to be teams that won a lot of best-of-threes.
We are definitely going to benefit from that moment. I believe it will improve the quality of the playoff matches, because we saw some Majors where sometimes the group stage was more exciting than the playoffs. With this new system, I don’t think that will be the case.
