The Chinese-Indonesian mixture came into IEM Sydney 2018 hot, defeating SK in overtime on Mirage, 19-16. The victory was powered by Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand and HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu, both players securing more than 30 kills in the match.

BnTeT admitted that he was shocked his team took down the Brazilians

In our interview, BnTeT talked about his individual form, preparations for SK and the upcoming game against Cloud9.

I'll start with the basic question: can you tell me how it felt getting this win?

First of all, I personally felt shocked because SK is one of the best teams in CS:GO and at the beginning of the game, I saw that my teammates are not really having a good performance, but I kept supporting and then they started playing well in the second half and the overtime. Finally, our teamwork became more solid and [we won]. I was just shocked.

Coming into the match, you knew you were going to play them, was there any preparation, gameplan, something you had in mind facing SK?

We didn't have anything special, we just prepared our individual skill and had a good atmosphere in the team. We trusted each other, kept supporting each other. We don't have anything special.

About six months back, you were definitely the best player in the region, you had great stats all the time. Recently you kind of dipped down, but now again you had a 30-bomb against SK. So has anything changed for you in the last few weeks so you had a better performance here? What do think about your personal form at the moment?

I just realized that in CS:GO, if you are confident and have a good atmosphere in the team, you can do your best no matter who the opponent is.

Has anything changed in the team, maybe in terms of in-game leading? I see you are sitting in the middle again?

Yeah, we made the decision after DreamHack Marseille. Before, xccurate was the in-game leader, and I'm the in-game leader now because I want him to focus more on his AWP. His AWP is really important for us.

After that you also had the Qi Invitational, you finished second there and you beat AGO and some other teams, it was a good result. Did that also boost your motivation, your confidence?

The Qi Invitational wasn't a really big event, similar to the StarLadder Invitational, only eight teams, but it really boosts our motivation if we can get a top two, top three, or just reach a playoff, it really boosts our motivation.

You won against SK, coming up next is a BO3 match against Cloud9. What are your thoughts about facing them?

Cloud9 is also one of the best teams in the world. After this hype ([beating SK]), we aren't just going to be happy and not prepare, we are going to do our best to prepare against them and hopefully, make it to the playoffs.