TACO: "We studied Astralis a lot"

Epitacio "TACO" de Melo walked us through some of the most important parts of their Astralis nail-biter in our next interview.

At the beginning of the day, SK were at a 2-1 record and faced Astralis for a place in the playoffs. The Brazilians were down 4-8 before each team went on a streak of their own as the game went to overtime. After a nail-biting finish to the overtime, SK came out on top to qualify for playoffs with a 3-1 record.

TACO picked out fer's 1v2 as one of the key rounds

We grabbed Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo for a quick interview to find out what SK's point of view of the match was:

We should begin with the 4-8 at which point you started getting a lot more rounds, talk me through the adaption that you've made over the first half.

We started the game playing really well, the pistol was really good for us. But some details of the game, some mistakes that we did, a flashbang, the small details, made them punish us.

Then we started playing together, doing executes. We knew something about them, we knew device likes to play cat and we did something to punish him there. Actually, we studied Astralis a lot, so we were calm and confident that we could do better on our T side.

At 14-8 they took seven rounds in a row, what do you think they did better? Were there any glaring mistakes you made?

They started playing fast and we didn't expect it. In many rounds they just exploded and we didn't expect it, they exploded mid and fer was on the box, I was B, and they won this round, which was very important for their economy. Yeah, I think the fact that they started playing really fast was bad for us.

Which do you think were the key rounds for you that allowed you to win in the end?

fer's 1v2 on the B site, we were as T, he won the round which was really important for us. We earned confidence to keep winning the rounds.

Going back to Na`Vi, what happened in that Dust2 blowout and what did you learn from it?

The fact is, we didn't expect the way they played. They were gambling a lot, I watched the demo and I think they studied us as well, but it's normal. We just didn't expect it, as T we were getting punished everywhere and we weren't rolling good.

Make sure to check out the other interviews we've conducted so far at the Major:

Day four

Andreas "⁠znajder⁠" Lindberg: "I'd like to beat [...] Pimp"

Joakim "⁠disco doplan⁠" Gidetun: "We can beat everyone"

Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke: "We didn't expect much vs. G2"

Day three

William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba: "Our preparation was limited"

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen: "allu's 1v2 was key"

Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács: "We came with only one goal"

Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen: "We had a great bootcamp"

Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer: "Didn't expect Dust2"

Day two

Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski: "I hope Gambit will be nervous"

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz: "It was important for us to start well"

Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman: "[YOLO teams] will go far"

Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin: "It doesn't feel like we won"

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: "Gonna fight as hard as we can"

Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong: "Confident about our map pool"

Day one

Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey: "Everyone's happy with their roles"

Markus "⁠pronax⁠" Wallsten: "I'm happy it went to Train"

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire: "It was hard after jdm's 1v5"

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev: "Hope to show beautiful CS"

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski: "It's always close vs. OpTic"

Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco: "We played 12-14 hours a day"

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon: "FaZe can do pretty well here"

Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov: "We prepared for everyone"

Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 22 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 338 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzMarkus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Age: 25 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 849 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 25 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 475 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60 Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg Age: 23 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 737 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 826 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Joakim 'disco doplan' Gidetun Age: 21 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 287 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 24 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1011 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.66 Markus 'pronax' Wallsten Age: 25 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 939 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.66 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Age: 26 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 814 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 26 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 889 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.68 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov Age: 22 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 140 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 Spencer 'Hiko' Martin Age: 26 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 574 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.61 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen Age: 22 Team: North Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 989 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.72 Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco Age: 30 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 503 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 771 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.65 Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Age: 19 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 493 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.69 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski Age: 23 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 967 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 23 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 909 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.71 Dennis 'dennis' Edman Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 520 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 SK #3 Ricardo 'fox' PachecoGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1099 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 William 'RUSH' Wierzba Age: 22 Team: OpTic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 439 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 19 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 501 KPR: 0.84 DPR: 0.70 Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 864 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64