Team Liquid captain Neta “33” Shapira has acknowledged the prowess of their ESL One Birmingham’s lower bracket quarterfinals opponents, Team Falcons. Liquid fell to Falcons just hours after beating Heroic 2-1 in their first game of the day to move to the quarterfinal.
Neta admitted that the Falcons were the better team and was also pretty disappointed in ESL in an interview. He explained that they prepared for the game, drawing a plan and stimulating the opponent’s gameplay.
Neta explained his style of leading the team as the captain and how he adopts his mechanical and micro abilities, saying that he just does what feels natural to him without trying to force himself to do things that don’t come easy. Furthermore, he says despite being a captain, he doesn’t overstep and take responsibility away from other people.
Although Neta revealed that he had confidence in Team Liquid’s abilities before the game, getting eliminated by Team Falcons was a huge disappointment for the players, especially as they performed poorly, which was in contrast to their game against Heroic. Surprisingly, Neta also reserved blame for the ESL.
“Nobody feels like we really played our best. It felt like the odds were stacked against us, but we do not make excuses. I guess we just feel a bit disappointed that we couldn’t play at maximum ability. It was a very long day for us. Because the hotel is so far from the venue, we had to stay here all day. For the practice room, we didn’t have the best area to sit in and wait until our game.” he explained.
Players complained about the arrangement put together by ESL and demanded better logistics in future competitions. Neta explained that they lacked privacy and comfort in the hotel, saying that they and the Falcons were in the room next door, and both teams could hear each other talk.
