Lake: "I think we're playing better, even if it doesn't really show in the scores"

The American rifler says the team has improved its macro and strategies but is struggling due to individual micro mistakes.

M80 have had a mixed start to their Fall season, which began with a successful North American qualification campaign to BLAST Open Porto but has since taken a turn for the worse with consecutive last-place finishes in BLAST Bounty Season 2 and Esports World Cup.

"Overall, I think we're playing better, even if it doesn't really show in the scores," Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson told after M80 's exit in Paris. "I think our comms are better. I think the macro is better. s1n has been calling great lately. It's really just the micro mistakes that are kind of hurting us, but we've been improving on those, too."

The rifler praised the team's new assistant coach, Luca "⁠Munstur⁠" Ioanițiu , for his work since arriving on the team, and says that M80 will have to return to North America to practice ahead of their next outing at BLAST Open Porto at the end of August.

"We've just got to practice as well as we can in NA with the quality that we can," Lake said. "Quality's on us, I guess, and then, yeah, we've just got to prepare, keep everything going smoothly. Just keep improving. That's it."

Listen to the interview here

Lake, you are out of the tournament with a 2-0 loss against Aurora. First of all, give me your thoughts on the match. I was listening to the post-match interview with dephh, and he said that the team made a lot of individual mistakes throughout the series.

As a whole, we played okay. The team was just kind of slipping up in the defaults a lot, a lot of individual mistakes. It's much more micro than macro; it's not any of the strategies' fault. We're kind of blanking in key moments; a lot of post-plants aren't going our way either, which is unfortunate. We have to lock in on those.

But yeah, we've been having to focus on a lot of things, trying to improve, especially with Munstur coming in. He's been helping us a lot in that regard, but yeah, we've just got to keep going forward.

It's been a little bit of a mixed start to the season for you after you qualified for BLAST Porto. You lost in the first round of Bounty, now you're out of this tournament without winning a match. What is your assessment of the way that the team has been playing at the start of the season?

Overall, I think we're playing better, even if it doesn't really show in the scores. Our comms are better, the macro is better. s1n has been calling great lately. It's really just the micro mistakes that are kind of hurting us, but we've been improving on those, too.

The G2 game also could have gone our way, but once again, micro mistakes in that, small individual mistakes. It wasn't really a big issue. But yeah, we've got to really tighten those issues up and then should be able to pull out some wins.

You were mentioning Munstur just before, who was already with the team at the Major. JBa and Swisher praised him while talking to us at the Major. What has it been like to work with him alongside dephh?

It's been very nice. It definitely alleviates a lot of pressure on Rory [dephh]. It's a lot more things that Rory can focus on, and then he can also put onto Luca [Munstur]'s shoulders. Luca focuses on macro and micro mistakes; he's putting a folder together for me to show me what I've messed up recently, so that's nice. And then he's really helped with our comms.

He's been just working through us with all that because we have a really big issue with over-comming, calling over one another. So especially in this tournament, it's been a lot better, so only him to thank for that.

Next up is BLAST Porto, another big event. Are you going to stay in Europe to prepare for that one, and what are your expectations for that?

I think unfortunately, we have to go back home, and then come back. You know, the NA life. But yeah, we've just got to practice as well as we can in NA with the quality that we can. Quality's on us, I guess, and then, yeah, we've just got to prepare, keep everything going smoothly. Just keep improving. That's it.

After that you have iBUYPOWER Masters. Is the plan to play some more of these tier two LANs, especially in Europe? Because right now you're ranked No. 9 in the Americas, and only nine teams from the Americas will make the Major.

Yeah, for sure. We're going to start playing some LANs. Obviously, we're not really worried because we're ninth right now. We have like half of our LAN wins done at the moment, and especially with more wins, more confidence, those will only grow. So yeah, we'll for sure be playing LANs here and there. Just getting up our points before October.

And gaining some confidence, right?

Yeah, of course.