ADVERTISING:

Malystryx: Talking games, which one has been the standout for you and your team? You've had quite a few big wins so far..

NoFear: "It's got to be Game 3 against Mineski. We got great heroes and we crushed them on lanes and in all stages of the game. It was definitely the best game of us. I love playing Leshrac (laughs), and game number 3 against Mineski I played Leshrac, it was fun."

Malystryx: After the draft against Pain Gaming, AdmiralBulldog said "FlytoMoon? More like FlytoHome", but you went on to win that game. How do YOU feel the draft went in that elimination game?

NoFear:"Pain Gaming had first pick, first pick is imbalanced right now but they decided to pick Beastmaster and after that they picked Luna, to pick two cores in the first stage it wasn't good for them. They don't have a chance to win once they picked Beastmaster and Luna, I knew we had won once they picked those two heroes, it became a super easy draft."

FLYTOMOON on stage: AlwaysWannaFly, Nongrata/Super, Iceberg, Silent and NoFear (Image from FLYTOMOON on stage: AlwaysWannaFly, Nongrata/Super, Iceberg, Silent and NoFear (Image from EPICENTER's awesome media gallery

"It was a mistake" - NoFear on VP not banning Leshrac and Chen

Malystryx: Your last match today was against VP, the English panel were confused why VP let you have both Chen and Leshrac. What was your reaction?

NoFear: "We have second pick in this game which was a hard pick for us, but once we had Leshrac, Chen and Windranger, we had a lot of flexibility to pick what we wanted. Chen can play safe lane or hard lane, Windranger can be mid or hard support, once we had these flex heroes the draft was super easy.



I think VP didn't respect our Chen and maybe Leshrac, and they give us these heroes. They could have banned them but they didn't, it was a mistake."

Malystryx: You also ran a position 5 Windranger that game..

NoFear: "Yea, whenever we play training matches or maybe sometimes in pubs, AlwaysWannaFly likes to play Windranger. In this match it was a good pick because they had zero heroes to counter Leshrac, and Windranger is good at harassing Naix, especially with Nightstalker.



It's only because they gave us second pick, so we could add more flex heroes, we saw the lanes and switched our plan."

Malystryx: What are your thoughts on the Madness Qualifiers since it's how you qualified for EPICENTER XL

NoFear:" We played the EPICENTER CIS closed qualifiers and ended up in the Grand Finals against Team Empire, but the admins ended up delaying the Grand Finals by one week because of Effect changing their roster.



If we had played in that week I think we would have crushed as we had just beaten Empire 2-1 in the WB Finals, but in the week that followed we didn't have any scrims and Team Empire came back super strong. It was great we won the Open Qualifiers but I think if the admins hadn't delayed the Grand Finals of the closed qualifiers by one week, we would have beaten Team Empire 3-0 in the closed qualifiers."

"All the top teams go to Majors and play other top teams, they don't want to play against a team like us"

Malystryx: For many Fly To Moon have come out of nowhere, now top 3 at EPICENTER XL. Where has this new confidence come from?

NoFear:"Well, We went to the Starladder Minor and we got to play against some good teams, we lost twice to VGJ.Thunder in the groupstage but we learned a lot and we improved.



Before that Minor we won the EPICENTER XL Qualifiers and the Starladder Minor Qualifiers, we played good but not good enough. The reality is tier 1 teams only practise versus tier 1 teams, so they don't want to play against us and we can't improve.



We played maybe once against Secret, that's it, because all the top teams go to Majors and play other top teams, they don't want to play against a team like us. When we went to the Starladder Minor we finally got to play against top teams, see how they play and finally had some great scrims. We just needed the practise.



We don't like to keep playing other tier 2 teams like us, like Team Empire or Vega, it's not interesting for us but we don't have a choice because normal teams don't want to practise against teams that don't attend Majors."

Do you think that will change after EPICENTER XL? Do you think more top teams will want to practise with you before TI?

NoFear: "Maybe, we'll see (laughs), if they want to we want to!"

FlyToMoon have exceeded all expectations by not only making it to top 3, but also eliminating the home favourites Virtus.pro . The fans in the Ice Palace will be behind FTM tomorrow, but the 2-0 defeat for Virtus Pro came as quite a shock to the packed arena, many of which were wearing their VP merch with pride.FTM pulled a few upsets in the groupstage, such as beating Mineski, but in the playoffs they've made their way past Pain Gaming, OG and finally Virtus Pro. Tomorrow they will play Team Liquid , who suffered a heavy loss to PSG.LGD in the WB Finals. I caught up with the team's captain NoFear after the phenomenal VP victory.FlyToMoon will play Team Liquid tomorrow for a spot in the Grand Finals against PSG.LGD.