Experative - LAG (Moved to Intermediate)

How has your practice changed or been modified for the playoffs?

We have been playing a bit as a mix recently. We also compete in ESEA main. So, we didn't do anything special for playoffs.

Who are the teams you guys are scared of/keeping an eye on?

We don't see any team to keep an eye on. I think every team can beat each other and it's hard to say there is clear favorite.

Do you guys think that being a lower seed leaves you with an 'underdog' status or do you think you are still a team to beat?

We had to change lots of lineup during season which gave us lower seeding. We just found our best lineup and the best roles for our team. We feel very confident and I believe even tho we are in lower seeding, we will be favorite in most of the matches. I think other teams are a bit familiar with us. We had good past seasons in Esea main. Our current line up is me(igl) , nitzie(awp) , hmonster(rifler) , kadim(awper) , vita(support). We couldn't play with this lineup in scl yet. And we are confident to win playoffs.

Double overtime. Final round. Who clutches up to make the big play for the win?

Nitzie is our superstar player at the moment with the AWP so we trust him the most and also I'm in clutch position most of the time.

Huge thanks to Experative and we wish him and LAG the best of luck in the Intermediate season!

To spice up the playoffs even more, lets hear some words from iNation!

Thanks to Flamboyant for making these interviews.

Which team (apart from yourself) are you guys worried/scared of/keeping an eye on?

I don't think we are scared of anyone, we are just going to focus on our game and to give our best every game. I believe one of the best teams in the league, besides us, are definitely EndangeredGG and ZeroTenacity.

Seeing that you guys are the top ranked HLTV team in the tournament, do you guys feel added pressure in the server?

I don't think there is any pressure, I believe we all know what we have to do to win.  

With all the travelling you guys have done as a team. do you think that now you are back home you can readjust?

We had 2 long bootcamps, and then went on to Israel to play IESF World Championship, but still, now when we are home, I am sure that we have enough time to prepare for new challenges that are coming our way and that we will adjust playing from home once again.

How has your preparation changed for the playoffs?

Our preparation hasn't changed, we did good job in the regular season, and we just have to keep up with good games.  

Double overtime. Final round. Who clutches up?

In my opinion, that is VLDN. He already showed great clutch skills since we started playing, and when he is the only one alive, I don't doubt him one second.

Huge thanks to Dragon for sitting down with me and taking time out of his busy schedule. GLHF!

Hello SCL players!

Now that the playoffs are ready, we would like to share a player-interview to spice it up. Big thanks to Flamboyant for gathering these interviews.

How has your preparation been for the SCL? And has there been a change for the playoffs?

We had to work on our map pool because there are bo3 games now. We haven’t been focusing on massive changes within the team structure so we have been working on the finer details in the game. 

Which team (apart from yourself) are you guys worried/scared of/keeping an eye on? and why?

Every team in the playoffs is good. However, we don’t think about our opponents right now. We just focus on our game

When have seen your new recent addition ‘Xavi’ come into this team and develop into a strong anchor for you guys. How has his recent form impacted the Marten rising team?

The good thing is that Xavi is a really good player in general and he is creating lots of space within the server for the team. I think he is doing good

Double overtime. Final round. What name makes the big play seal the game?

Flashy. XD

Huge thanks to Leo for sitting down with me and best of luck to Marten Rising! GLHF 

Our amazing caster, Lachlan "Flamboyant" Hamilton have made some really interesting interview with the teams that managed to qualify for playoffs.

First up, Tome from TrueAmbition:

TrueAmbition was the only team to not drop a map throughout the 8 games. Do you feel that you guys can keep that up?

"Our draws for the regular season were fairly easy other than 2-3 teams who are also in ESEA Main so I believe that contributed to us going 8-0. I'm pretty confident we can make it to the final and win the whole tournament but it will be more rocky than during the regular season because it's BO3's now and we're going to meet the toughest opposition the league has to offer. We're ready to do some damage and show what we can do in such a format."

Have you guys had any changes within your preparation for the playoffs?

We didn't do any preparation for SCL yet but we probably will prepare for our playoffs games. I don't think there's anything special or different about the preparation we will have for SCL in comparison to other leagues we play. All I know is that I'll be very busy preparing the BO3's to make sure we have the best winning chances against any team.

Which team (apart from yourself) are you guys worried/scared of/keeping an eye on?

iNation is just a really solid team and they're doing really well in ESEA right now too. iplaywindow are in Advanced even though they're not doing well at all they're still a team you have to respect because they won't be easy to beat at all and require good preparation. Also picked neverLAND because they have some ex-VP Prodigy players and even though their SCL record isn't looking amazing and they aren't yet confirmed for playoffs, it shouldn't mislead us about how good they can actually be on certain more loose and puggy maps like Mirage.

Double overtime, final round. What name makes the big play to seal the game?

That has to be Frazehh, he always delivers in the most important and stressful rounds.

Thanks to Tomes for sitting down with me and we wish him and his team True Ambition the best of luck with in the playoffs!

Updates:

- Automatically disabled agent-models, has been tested now and seems to work fine.

- Your profile can now get verified so that you can add HLTV profile to your teampage. Apply for verification in Discord.

- VK & Twitch has been added to the team-pages.

- Match-stats page now includes more statistics

Important information regarding playoffs.

> Round of 16: All matches will have default-time 25th November (Thursday). You can reschedule all the way back to 22nd November (Monday). Basically, first round of playoffs has to be between 22nd-25th Nov.

> Quarter-finals: For the 8 teams that advance from the first round of playoffs, will have default time 29th November (Monday).You can reschedule all the way back to 26th November. Basically, quarter-finals must be played between 26th-29th Nov.

> Semi-finals: Fixed date, 4th December (Saturday). First semis is 18.00 CET, and the second is 21.00 CET. This can be slightly rescheduled, but make sure to contact administrators asap.

> Final: The last match, fixed date 5th December (Sunday) 20.00 CET. Can be rescheduled slightly, make sure to contact administrators asap.

Info: We will do our best to help you will all rescheduling-disputes, but remember that you as a team have to communicate with your opponent in order to solve disputes. Only rejecting offers and not being open to solve the dispute might lead to a force-reschedule by the Administrators.

Also, we hope you'll all prioritize the playoffs matches. Only because you have another match from another league that day does not mean you'll get special benefits in rescheduling-matters. 

IMPORTANT: This also means that you can't schedule matches from the regular season (groupstage) to later than 21st November. Make sure to get your schedule straight so that you don't have to get any unnecessary FFLs

Questions? Open a ticket: https://discord.gg/kvJt68Wutk